Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Killing Mary Sue, Samuel Goldwyn Films

Killing Mary Sue Director, Star on Premise, Casting, Filming & More

Killing Mary Sue writer-director James Sunshine and star Sierra McCormick spoke to Bleeding Cool about the film's premise, casting & more.

Writer and director James Sunshine is a creative who embraces the moment, and luckily, not only was he able to develop his chaotic self-aware action film Killing Mary Sue, but he was also able to film it in such a short time before the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes started. It's in that rush where the director and producers of some of the biggest reality shows on TV like Hell's Kitchen, Big Brother, and MasterChef USA, lucked out on some incredible talent like Sierra McCormick (American Horror Stories, The Vast of Night) to play his lead and title character Mary Sue Harper, Demont Mulroney, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jason Mewes, Jake Busey, Kym Whitley, and French Stewart to round out his ensemble cast.

Sunshine and McCormick spoke to Bleeding Cool about Sunshine's inspiration for the Samuel Goldwyn Films feature that began as a play on the Mary Sue narrative trope of the female overpowered protagonist, the decision to gamble on filming before the 2023 strikes, McCormick playing against type, and more. The Samuel Goldwyn Films action thriller follows a corrupt senator (Mulroney) who arranges for the murder of his biggest liability, his erratic burnout step-daughter (McCormick), only for her to unwittingly discover her natural talent as an untouchable killer.

Writer-Director James Sunshine and Star Sierra McCormick on Bringing 'Killing Mary Sue' to Life

Bleeding Cool: James, what's the inspiration behind 'Killing Mary Sue?'

Sunshine: The inspiration comes from the fact that I'm a perpetually online person who scrolls through Reddit and similar sites. I noticed this viral debate over recent years of people talking about the Mary Sue's in cinema. "Oh, this character is a Mary Sue, and that character is a Mary Sue." Sometimes, it's a correct criticism, and other times, it isn't. My film's not here to litigate that as much as I noticed that there's never been a film where a filmmaker has written a Mary Sue character on purpose. It's always an after-the-fact criticism, like they stumbled into the character trope by accident. I thought, "How much fun can be had if we write this character on purpose instead of by accident, killer?" She's stumbling her way through all these assassination attempts. I thought there was a cool opportunity for something cool and different that people hadn't seen before.

Sierra, what drew you to the project?

McCormick: A few things. The script was so batshit bonkers. I thought that would be so much fun to do, and I don't often get to play roles like that, especially ones in an action setting or empowered in that way. It was a unique opportunity, and that's what draws me to things in general. If I hadn't gotten the opportunity to do something like that before, this was definitely out of my wheelhouse, and it became a fun challenge. I knew it would be a fun shoot, as chaotic as it would be super fun.

James, when it came to casting, was there anyone you had in mind from the get-go and who ended up auditioning?

Sunshine: A fun fact about this film is we got it right before the actor strikes in 2023. It was like the beginning of May of that year, we were in a soft development on the script, project, and everything. My producers and I looked at each other like, "Okay, either we shoot this next month or don't shoot this until next year," so we threw everything together so fast. That included the casting, where we didn't even have time to audition people, which was interesting. Initially, we went out to like some A-list pie-in-the-sky names, like "You got to shoot your shot for the best of the best."

McCormick: And then they settled for me [laughs].

Sunshine: I was going to say, "I don't think it's settling at all." I think for the best, A-listers passed, which I don't blame them. We're a little small indie budget thing. My casting director came back to us with a few names and told me, "Here are some people who are well-known, would crush this role, and are willing to get into the trenches and do this little indie film." Sierra's name was on that list. I looked up her work and then saw she had worked with a friend of mine recently, an actor named Pat Healy, who's one of the best actors I know.

I called it Pat, and I was like, "Tell me about this Sierra girl, how is she?" He was like, "She has a great sense of humor, easy to work with, and couldn't recommend her enough." If she's got Pat's endorsement, then that's all I need. Sierra and I had a brief Zoom call, but we went into it. I cast her on faith and believed that she would be good. I was a little nervous heading on that first day because I knew she would be good, but it's like we didn't have any rehearsal time or anything.
Once she started performing, I legitimately felt like I wrote the character for her. I was kind of in shock, and I can't picture another actress in the role. I'm glad that some of those A-listers weren't interested [McCormick laughs]. We wound up with Sierra, and it all worked out for the best.

Sierra, was there any additional physical prep, given the little time you guys had?

McCormick: Given that I signed on two days before we started shooting, I didn't have much time to prep anything before we shot. Every morning, I would wake up and I would do my own cracked-out makeup for the movie that I did myself every day. I'd get up in the morning, start in on that crazy makeup, and have a playlist of super chaotic, loud music that I would listen to get into the high-energy vibe of the character. The shoot days were pretty chaotic; we were on a tight schedule, and we went all day. I was rolling with the chaos, which is what helped prep me for the character, which turned out to work out well because it lent itself to the high-energy vibe the shoot days had [laughs].

Killing Mary Sue, which also stars Martin Kove, is available on digital.

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