Ready or Not star Samara Weaving on facing off against Andie MacDowell and hanging with Bill & Ted

Why you know Samara Weaving: Played the titular role in Netflix’s 2017 horror movie The Babysitter and costarred with Steven Yeun in the same year’s Joe Lynch-directed rage virus action-thriller Mayhem.

Why you will know her: Plays the lead role in horror-comedy Ready or Not (out Wednesday) and portrays Thea Preston, the daughter of Alex Winter’s Bill S. Preston in Bill & Ted Face the Music (out Aug. 21, 2020).

Gory Days

The Australian actress’ credits range from soap operas to Oscar winners (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). But to horror fans, she is best known for Starz’s Ash vs Evil Dead and 2017’s Mayhem. The irony? “I can’t personally watch scary movies,” says Weaving, 27, the niece of Matrix star Hugo Weaving. “I get too afraid.”

One Wedding, Many Funerals

In Ready or Not, Weaving is a new bride who has to spend her wedding night playing a lethal game of hide-and-seek with her in-laws, including Andie MacDowell. “I accidentally whacked her in the face with a stunt brick,” says Weaving. “I really thought I was going to get fired, but she was cool about it.”

Bill & Ted & Samara

After wrapping her role as a “lovable psycho” in the Daniel Radcliffe-starring action-comedy Guns Akimbo, Weaving spent the summer shooting Bill & Ted Face the Music with Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves. “It’s so great to see them do those characters again,” she says. “It’s surreal.”

Watch the trailer for Ready or Not, above.

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• Bill & Ted Face the Music writer describes ‘moving’ script meeting with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter
• Bill & Ted 3 is officially happening