Mckenna Grace has horror bona fides that are only going to get stronger with time (we’re just a few months from seeing her in the ensemble of Kevin Williamson’s Scream 7, for example), but when it comes to her past work in the genre, she has played terrified far more than she’s played “the terror.” From The Haunting Of Hill House, to Annabelle Comes Home, to Ghostbusters, audiences are far more used to seeing her be afraid instead of being the source of fear – but that’s something that’s very different about Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, and it was an opportunity that she absolutely adored.
With the video game adaptation hitting the home video market following its arrival in theaters last month, I had the chance to speak with Mckenna Grace recently about her role in the film, and one subject we discussed was how the role stands apart from her other genre projects. In the new movie, she plays Lisa, a paranormal investigator that ends up getting possessed by Charlotte Emily a.k.a. The Marionette, and she loved the chance to actually be a source of big screen scares. She explained,
It was so crazy for me because I've never done anything in that capacity. I've played a few bad guys, few and far between in my career, but I've never gotten to do anything possession or anything like that where you're actually the terror or like the scary part of the movie.
It would be a special experience regardless, but what made Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 particularly memorable for Mckenna Grace is the fact that she is a hardcore fan of the franchise who went above and beyond to try and get a role in the movie. It’s one thing for an actor to play a whole new kind of role, and it’s a totally different thing when that role is also part of a larger dream.
Grace told me she was so excited about the movie that she actually crying happy tears in public when she first got information about the character, saying.
I remember whenever I finally got the script, or I didn't get to read the script for a long time, but I got the sides for my part. Oh my God, I was such a cheese ball. I was in a nail salon reading it, just like, 'I get to be the puppet!' I was just in tears. I was like, 'I can't believe this.' It was crazy for me because again, as a fan, not only getting to work with those puppets and animatronics, but also kind of getting to be one in a way was very, very crazy.
Clearly she was thrilled with the part she landed… but her input went beyond just her transformation and performance, as she made a special point of including special easter eggs in the movie for Five Nights At Freddy’s fans.
Mckenna Grace Admits She Sheepishly Asked Director Emma Tammi To Let Her Fly Her Geek Flag High By Adding Special Lines To The Film
In being part of the cast of Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, Mckenna Grace had the chance to become a key part of a franchise she adores – also getting to physically transform with special costuming and makeup – but her job on the film wasn’t limited to just being an actress, and she also took on the responsibility of “Reference Adder.”
Obviously the actress is very familiar with The Marionette character from the video games, and she told me that she made a special effort to include some of the villain’s dialogue from the source material into the film:
It wasn't in the script, but I got to sneak in some voice lines from the game just because I'm a fan. So it was really, really crazy, especially with the flying around and all the stunts of it all.
(It’s worth noting that the Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 script was written by franchise creator Scott Cawthorn, so it’s pretty rad that she one-uped him).
I inquired about what it was that she added, and she explained that it was a bit of voice-over on set and not just ADR. Grace told me about both the set up for the scene and the special line she added:
I came in and there's this scene where Vanessa is walking around with their gun in the music box room looking for the puppet and over the speakers I come in and I'm like, 'Oh, are you here to put me back to sleep?' Yada yada, X, Y, Z. And I'm saying creepy things and sounding like a kid. And there's this line where it's, 'I don't hate you, but you need to stay out of my way.' And that's a voice line from the games.
Rather than her just saying the line in the middle of a scene, Mckenna Grace told me that she basically approached director Emma Tammi with the energy of a sheepish fan asking a question to their idol at a convention:
I remember whenever I came onto set, I was like, 'Hey, so can I, like, I just, I feel like it might fit here if I said this.' And she was like, 'Oh yeah! Sure, that's cool. Why would you say that?' I'm like, 'Well, it's a voice line from the games. And I think that the fans would think it's cool and I just I wanna say it.' She was like, 'Yeah, totally!' And I was like, 'Ok, great. Awesome' I was just really sheepishly trying to pitch this voice line to our director, and luckily she liked it a lot.
If you missed the movie in theaters and/or want to give it another watch in order to listen for Mckenna Grace’s fanhood-inspired reference, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is now available for digital rental and purchase from all major online outlets, and for all of you physical media collectors out there, it will be on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray February 17.
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