With three starring roles and a baby on the way, Deadline caught up with Samara Weaving ahead of her SXSW double-feature this week.

During a recent Zoom with the Australian actress and first-time expecting mother on a rare rainy day in Los Angeles, she discussed further cementing her ‘Scream Queen’ status with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and Over Your Dead Body, both making their world premieres at the Austin, Texas film fest.

“I was a scaredy-cat growing up, I did not like horror movies. And then, because of The Babysitter, which was my first sort of big break in America, I watched a bunch of horror movies to know the genre, and I fell in love with it later on,” said Weaving, adding: “Now I’m a diehard fan, but it definitely didn’t come naturally. I had to be taken out of 101 Dalmatians, which isn’t even a scary movie, but that’s the level of fear I had as a kid.”

Weaving reprises her role as recently widowed bride Grace in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, premiering Friday at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, after the original horror-comedy became an unexpected hit when it premiered in 2019. The sequel ups the ante with some new satanic stakes, as well as an all-star ensemble that includes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Elijah Wood, Kathryn Newton, Shawn Hatosy, David Cronenberg and more.

“When we made the first one, there was no talk of a sequel, because we all had such a great time making the first one,” she explained. “But we didn’t really think anyone else would get it. It was such a surprise what a following it had. Like, my manager was running around The Grove, handing out tickets. He bought like 50 tickets to the opening weekend and was running around going, ‘Does anyone want to see this movie?’ We really didn’t know how people would react, and it was so great that people loved it, and then it seemed to keep growing over the years. So yeah, slowly this idea of, ‘Maybe we do a second one.’ But then, ‘Oh, if we do a second one, that’s quite scary, because we want to top the first one.’”

Adding a dash of marital dramedy and plenty more gore to the genre, Weaving also stars in Over Your Dead Body with Jason Segel, debuting Saturday at the Paramount. The actress studied improv at LA’s Upright Citizens Brigade to match wits with her onscreen husband, in addition to gaining some comedy wisdom from Segel in exchange for teaching him some horror performance tips.

“Really, it’s my quiet dream to just, low-key join an improv troupe and just go up and do it, but it’s so hard,” Weaving admitted. “I have to earn it, but it is my quiet dream. So, I did feel quite prepared, but also, when you’re in the presence of Jason Segel, and he’s on, and he’s doing his thing, it’s magic.”

Weaving has established herself as a ‘Scream Queen’ since her breakout starring role in Netflix’s The Babysitter (2017), on the set of which she met her partner, writer Jimmy Warden. After working together on the 2020 sequel The Babysitter: Killer Queen and Warden’s directorial debut Borderline last year, the couple is expecting their first baby.

“Because I’m gonna have a baby, I’m not doing much outsourcing just yet, in case I can’t. I don’t really know what the plan’s gonna look like. I’m reading scripts and flirting with [some projects],” said Weaving. “Let Jimmy take that lead for a sec. I’m just so excited that these three films that I really love are coming out, and I really hope people go and see them.”

Although the actress is looking forward to some downtime with her growing family, she’d jump at a chance to join her uncle Hugo Weaving in the long-overdue sequel to his 1994 drag cult classic, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. “That would be dope, that would be so fun. I wonder if there’s a 30-something-year old role, post-baby. Just put me in as a background,” she joked. 

Read on about Samara Weaving’s upcoming SXSW double-feature, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and Over Your Dead Body, as well as her crime romance, Carolina Caroline, premiering June 5.

DEADLINE: I saw Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and Over Your Dead Body this week. It’s such an awesome double feature for SXSW. 

SAMARA WEAVING: That’s a lot of me. I apologize. 

DEADLINE: That’s a lot of blood and gore too, which I love. And I love your work. Tell me about, over the past few years, building this ‘Scream Queen’ status. Were you always in love with the horror genre or was that just thrust upon you? 

WEAVING: No, I was a scaredy-cat growing up, I did not like horror movies. And then, because of The Babysitter, which was my first sort of big break in America, I watched a bunch of horror movies to know the genre, and I fell in love with it later on. I was first in line to go and see Weapons, and I went to the special screening of Bone Temple. I love a good genre movie, and I’m so happy that Sinners is Oscar nomed, like that’s so cool for the genre space. Now I’m a diehard fan, but it definitely didn’t come naturally. I had to be taken out of 101 Dalmatians, which isn’t even a scary movie, but that’s the level of fear I had as a kid. 

DEADLINE: That’s funny. are you talking the cartoon or the Glenn Close? 

WEAVING: I think Glenn Closed, surely, she was terrifying. My sister, who’s younger than me, was loving it, and my parents were loving it too. And they had to like flip a coin, “Who’s gonna take Sam out of the theater cause she’s screaming?”

DEADLINE: That’s funny. Tell me about returning for Ready or Not 2, because I was looking back at our coverage of it, and it was literally just September 2024 that you were even flirting with the idea of returning, and now it’s like already out, which is awesome. 

WEAVING: Yeah, it was strange, because there was no—when we made the first one, there was no talk of a sequel, because we all had such a great time making the first one. But we didn’t really think anyone else would get it. It was such a surprise what a following it had. Like, my manager was running around The Grove, handing out tickets. He bought like 50 tickets to the opening weekend and was running around going, “Does anyone want to see this movie?” We really didn’t know how people would react, and it was so great that people loved it, and then it seemed to keep growing over the years. So yeah, slowly this idea of, “Maybe we do a second one.” But then, “Oh, if we do a second one, that’s quite scary, because we want to top the first one.” Because there are so many sequels that are not great, so we want to make sure that we love it, the audiences love it. It’s a lot of pressure now, and so we sort of took our time. Guy [Busick] and Ryan Christopher [Murphy], the writers, are incredible, and they did such a good job of cracking the story and figuring out what’s the best and most exciting way into the world again. And Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett] came on board and then slowly, everyone just sort of came together, so it became this incredible reunion. I think it just worked out perfectly, and I hope that that translates on the screen. 

DEADLINE: I really loved how it expanded on the lore of the blood cult and all of that, and also just the introduction of The Lawyer. I feel like he’s such an interesting character. 

WEAVING: He is such a good character. Yeah, if you told me that I would be opposite Elijah Wood, screaming profanities at him while he’s in like a goat hat, I would be like, “OK…” 

DEADLINE: It’s also just such a cool ensemble. Tell me about getting to fight Sarah Michelle Gellar and play Kathryn Newton’s sister and all that. 

WEAVING: Come on! It was so fun, because we got so lucky with the first one, these incredible actors could come play. Andi McDowell wanted to do it, and then I hit her on the face in the first day, and that wasn’t good. We thought she would quit, but she was an absolute pro about it. And we knew that that’s kind of part of the fun of the movie, right? That there’s these sort of icons playing these unhinged characters, and so I think they did an incredible job of casting it, getting Sarah Michelle and Elijah Wood. Like, you wanna see those people. doing this. You want to see Elijah playing so against kind his type almost, playing this like weirdo lawyer, and then of course, you have to see Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking ass, and then Shawn Hatosy, and Kathryn playing my sister. Matt and Tyler, I think they knew they wanted her to be the sister from early on and were almost playing like Cupid with us, inviting us to the same parties and being like, “You guys hang.” And we fell in love. Yeah, they nailed it. 

DEADLINE: Yeah. Also, one thing that I love that was brought back from the original is all of the people exploding as the blood water balloon, whatever you wanna call it.

WEAVING: [LAUGHS] Blood water balloon’s good.

DEADLINE: Because we only got it in the final scene of the first movie. and then I feel like in the second movie, you all really had fun with it, and you never know when it’s gonna happen. But tell me what that’s like for you, trying to act with blood cannons going off in your face. 

WEAVING: The first film, we didn’t have as big a budget, and the effects guys did such a good job. But it was honestly just like a plinth with a bag of goo and a little explosive in it, and they just went, “three, two, one,” and blew it up. This time around, we all came into the production office to see the viewing of the blood cannon they had built, and there were different settings and levels, and there was a team of like ten scientists working on it. It was like extreme combustion blood cannon dynamics. And it’s tricky, because the first time they used it, you don’t really know what it’s gonna feel like when a huge blood cannon is just gonna go off in your face. But you also know that the amount of time it’s gonna take for everyone to reset, you just got one take to do it. Otherwise, we’ll be here for a week, and we don’t have the time. So, there’s weirdly a lot of pressure of, “OK, you’ve got one go at this,” and it’s so unknown. And then, also the first time it happened, Matt and Tyler were not that far away at the monitors, and they started giggling. And I had to keep a straight face and try and stay in it and be like acting, and I could hear them, their laughter. Yeah, your adrenaline always goes up when you see that cannon come at you. 

DEADLINE: That’s funny. Sorry to go back a few years, but I loved your Scream 6 opening scene and then the fact that there were the Grace costumes later in the movie. Did you know that was gonna happen? 

WEAVING: Yeah, they invited me onto set when they were filming the scene on the train, they had someone dressed up as Grace in the background, which was really cool. And Avery Plewes, the costume designer, did Scream as well with them. And we put me in an outfit as a little homage to it as well. The yellow dress that I was in, it’s yellow because of the Chucks, and it’s a turtleneck and tight, kind of like the wedding dress. And then I had like a bun similar to the opening of Ready or Not, so there were little hints of it. 

DEADLINE: That’s awesome. 

WEAVING: And they let me be Australian in that, which was fun. It was so funny though, because it came out, and then someone sent me a screenshot of a comment that was like, “hm, her Australian accent is not very good.”

DEADLINE: You’ve been immersed in all these American characters for too long. I wanna talk about Over Your Dead Body, which I feel like there’s even more gore in this one than in Ready or Not 2.

WEAVING: Yeah, that one’s, like, full action crazy.

DEADLINE: Yeah. Do you have a most memorable fight or stunt from either of those movies? 

WEAVING: Over Your Dead Body, because it’s quite, in full Jorma [Taccone] fashion, very funny. Whereas, by the way, Radio or Not 2 is really funny too, but it’s just different styles of comedy. But in Jorma’s, the fight scenes are so funny. And there was one scene where I have to get on someone’s shoulders, and it’s almost like this weird piggyback that happens. And then, we’re like running through the house, and I’m on his shoulders trying to attack him, but not really knowing what I’m doing. And then I get struck by a beam. And kudos to the stunt team on that one. I often think about—I’m going on a tangent—but I often think about in Bridget Jones’ Diary. Stay with me. In Bridget Jones’ Diary, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, they have that brawl at the end. And the stunts they were being told to do, were quite well choreographed. And the two of them were like, “These dudes are like gentlemen, they do not know how to fight. Do you mind if you just let us actually try to fight each other?” And it lends itself to comedy because they’re not fighters. Like there’s one point where, Colin’s got Hugh’s leg, or is it the other way around? And he’s sort of hopping. And I love that that’s what we can bring into that movie. It’s the same sentiment as, these people do not know how to fight, but they’re put in a position where they have to try. And that is so funny to me. 

DEADLINE: Yeah, that whole movie was just so unhinged in a really fun way. What was it like working with Jason Segel and building that very complicated relationship, where at first they’re trying to kill each other, and then, spoiler alert, they have to work together?

WEAVING: Third party comes in. It was so fun. I was really nervous because I was such a fan of the entire cast, and the director. I was freaking out. I’ve actually always wanted to do more comedy and really exercise that part of my brain. But really going in and doing them, these scenes are funny. There’s no sort of other genre at play, at least for the first act kind. And so, I asked Jorma if I could stay in my Aussie accent, because I knew that there’d be a lot of improv, and I didn’t want to have to do like accent math, if that makes sense. I wanted to be able to just say the silliest or the most organic thing that came to mind, and I thought that would be quite interesting for me, so we could just riff, Jason and I could just riff on set. I mean, the writing was so good, but just to add little things, and add little Aussie-isms. And he has that great line that’s in the trailer that’s like, “Your accent is British mixed with the Devil.” He made me laugh, that was Jason’s line. And then I actually went and did a bunch of courses at UCB, which was the most whimsical part of my week.

DEADLINE: That’s awesome.

WEAVING: Well, I’ve never gone to a drama school or anything, and I always love working with comedians, because they seem to have this toolkit that I don’t have access to. And so, I went and learnt this, I did UCB. I thought I was just gonna do 101 and I ended up going all the way to 401. I just loved it. So fun. 

DEADLINE: If you ever do like an improv show, I wanna see it, seriously. 

WEAVING: Really, it’s my quiet dream to just, low-key join an improv troupe and just go up and do it, but it’s so hard. 

DEADLINE: It seems daunting.

WEAVING: I have to earn it, but it is my quiet dream. So, I did feel quite prepared, but also, when you’re in the presence of Jason Segel, and he’s on, and he’s doing his thing, it’s magic. It’s pure magic, and I was just there to try and serve it back to him and be as good a scene partner as possible. It was interesting, he was helping me with the comedy and then I was sort of helping him with how to be scared and run from people. 

DEADLINE: Also, I wanna ask about Carolina Caroline, because that was just such a heartbreakingly good movie. Tell me about working with Kyle, because I also love that it was a ‘Scream King’ and a ‘Scream Queen’ in a little romance. It was cute. 

WEAVING: I know, it was so lovely. So, I watched Adam [Carter Rehmeier’s] movie, Dinner in America, that he wrote and directed, and Kyle’s in it. And if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend a watch. It should be up there with, like, Juno and Napoleon Dynamite. It’s just a little offbeat comedy that’s so sweet and funny and weird, and I fell in love with Adam and Kyle, watching that, and got sent this script and was just all in. They were just an absolute joy to work with, and I think that translates onto the screen. Kyle and I just really worked similarly, and I think without that chemistry, it just wouldn’t have worked. So, we got really lucky that we got along so well and we had Adam at the helm, who I just trust with my life. I’d take a bullet for that man. He’s such a savant, because he has a cinematography background, so he really understands. He’s planned all the shots in his head, and you just can absolutely trust him, because he’s so good at what he does. I’ve never done a movie like that, and I’ve always really wanted to. And when I read the script, I was crying and laughing, and it was so sweet and sincere. I really hope that gets the audience it deserves, because I think it’s really, really good. 

DEADLINE: Yeah, it really is. And I’m from the south, so I love anything that’s that region of the country. 

WEAVING: Oh, is my accent OK? 

DEADLINE: Oh yeah, it was great. Is there anything coming up that you can tell me about, or anything you’re excited about? 

WEAVING: No. Well, because I’m gonna have a baby, so I’m not doing much outsourcing just yet, in case I can’t. I don’t really know what the plan’s gonna look like. I’m reading scripts and flirting with [some projects], but I’m not like—

DEADLINE: “Hey, let’s do another fight scene while I’m 8 months pregnant.” That’s fair. That sounds like a good reason to take a break.

WEAVING: Yeah, you know, let Jimmy take that lead for a sec. I’m just so excited that these three films that I really love are coming out, and I really hope people go and see them. 

DEADLINE: Absolutely. And I just found out that your uncle is Hugo Weaving. I’m curious, any chance you’ll make a cameo in Priscilla 2?

WEAVING: I would love to. “It is a cock in a frock on a rock.” It’s the best line ever. Actually, you just reminded me I need to call my manager and be like, “What’s up with Priscilla man?” ‘Cause that would be dope, that would be so fun. I wonder if there’s a 30-something-year old role, post-baby. Just put me in as a background.