-Welcome back to "Late Night."
We're here with Allison Williams.
So even before this film came out, "M3GAN" became
this sort of iconic image, very meme-able.
But for you, how often were you acting with a person?
How often was it CGI?
Were there puppets involved?
-Well, I love the way you ask it, like,
that couldn't -- Yes, there were.
So, I didn't want to talk about it too much before the movie
came out because the magic is kind of like I just want people
to think of her as M3gan. But that aside, just because
it's fun to discuss,
we achieved her in a couple of different ways.
One was just like a static, posable doll that didn't do
anything but was terrifying. I think the scariest of all.
-Of all of them, the static one? -I think so because also she was
most likely to be sort of be left in a corner somewhere.
And so then you're likely to be running to the bathroom,
like gotta run, and then you run past, like, she's just there.
[ Laughter ] So she was the scariest.
Then there was an animatronic which required,
I think, six people to operate. -Yeah.
-There was a puppeteer, a grip usually moving her around,
two people on these what looked like video game controllers.
I think they weren't. [ Laughter ]
Who were like making her face move and making her blink
and stuff like that, and then a guy at a switchboard
who was controlling her audio
and the actual mechanisms that made her work.
And that was the most complicated.
She was very temperamental, the animatronic.
And then there was Amie.
So, Amie was 12 when we made the movie, and she performed M3gan
in the more -- like when she danced, for example,
that was Amie.
And she gets -- Mm, she runs in a very specific way
through the forest at one point, and that was also Amie.
And that was also terrifying, though, because in -- So, Amie
is like, if you could put sunshine in a person,
like, that is Amie.
She is so joyful and sweet.
But the mask is terrifying.
So when you look at her, I had to tell myself,
like, she's smiling under the mask.
she's smiling under the mask, she's smiling under the mask
because it was just like a dead stare.
Plus, they had tiny pinholes in her eyes
so that she could see out. [ Audience gasps ]
Not in her eyes. We didn't torture this child.
[ Laughter ]
That came out wrong. -Yeah.
-They cut tiny little holes in the mask, in the eyeballs
of the mask so she could see out, but they fogged up.
So she could only see for about five minutes,
and then she was just like unable to see anything.
She couldn't hear very easily,
so she communicated with hand signals.
So you're interacting with this being
that's going like this all day, or this, or this.
And then the mask comes off, and she's like --
[ Breathing heavily ] [ Laughter ]
-Was part of her audition to run with a mask through the woods?
-I mean no, but it should have been.
I just want to see a whole reality show.
If they make like, "Is this cake?", they should also
just make that into a show. -Is this puppet?
-Yeah, exactly. -Is this Amie? Is this puppet?
-Exactly. But it was really hard to tell the difference
between all three of them. Even when you see them
next to each other, which I have, I think,
a photo of all three of them. -Oh, yeah.
Oh, this is so -- Oh, wow, these are all three.
-Yes. So that's all three.
-Oh, I would have no idea. -I want you to try to guess.
-Okay. Um, uh, uh...
[ Laughter ]
That's the -- That's the doll.
That's Amie. That's the animatronic.
-No. -Okay.
-Should I just leave it at that? -Yeah.
-Great. [ Laughter ]
That's so annoying. -You're very good.
You're a very good executive producer.
-Thank you! -"I'm not going to give away the answer."
-No. But you were wrong, which is amazing.
So it was like -- Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-No, wait a second.
She said, "It's amazing that someone like me could be wrong."
-It never happens. It's never happened.
[ Laughter ]
Alexi paid me good money to make you wrong.
-Oh, my God, yeah. Alexi manages to find a few.
-Yeah, exactly. [ Laughter ]
We love her.
So, yeah, it was like a really creepy -- The experience of
filming it was creepiest when we weren't actually rolling
because then -- But having that this close to you,
as you just saw in the clip, like, it's intense.
It's a lot. It felt human too. That's the creepiest part.
-Well, I mean, I think that's one of the reasons
people are responding to it again.
All of a sudden, you see a character in a horror movie
that is unlike any one you've seen before,
and it's just really fun. It's inventive and cool.
You're great in it.
Congratulations both on starring in it and executive producing
it, and it is always so wonderful to have you here.
-Thank you for having me. -I hope everybody sees it.
I know it had a big first weekend.
But go check out "M3GAN" in theaters.
We'll be right back with S.S. Rajamouli.