Weaving explains the “hell yes or hell no” mentality that continues to serve her well.

Samara Weaving on ‘pressure to top’ Ready or Not, almost headlining Scream, and her secret for choosing roles

Weaving explains the "hell yes or hell no" mentality that continues to serve her well.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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March 18, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton in 'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come'. Credit:

Pief Weyman/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Samara Weaving lives by a simple rule when it comes to role selection: "If it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no."

But even that "is quite terrifying to do," she admits, speaking with ** on a rare rainy day in Los Angeles over Zoom in February. "I think it's fighting the imposter syndrome of, 'I'm never gonna work again, I'll just do whatever,'" she adds, "and learning that's not fun nor good and doesn't really work out well."

It's a mentality that continues to serve her well, even now as she returns to the film that put her on the map.

Samara Weaving as Grace in the first 'Ready or Not' (2019).

Eric Zachanowich/Fox Searchlight Pictures/courtesy Everett

*Ready or Not* (2019) was "quite weird," Weaving describes. After marrying her boyfriend of a few months at his wealthy family's estate, her character, Grace, plays the traditional welcome-to-the-family game, which ends up being a kill-or-be-killed, survive-the-night round of Hide and Seek with Satan-worshipping in-laws. That, for Weaving, was a forceful "hell yes!"

"Tonally, we loved it, but we really didn't know how audiences would react to it," she says. "When it did so well, it was such a wonderful surprise. I think it's a testament to, if you make something that you enjoy and you wanna watch, people will like it."

It's since become a cult favorite. Now, six years later, *Ready or Not 2: Here I Come* (directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, known collectively as Radio Silence) hits theaters this weekend, picking up directly after the events of the first. Grace's haphazard victory triggered the next round: She gets to play the game again with the heads of four rival families all hunting her. Whoever wins this time will lead the Devil-worshipping council that controls the world, but now Grace's sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), is stuck playing with her.

**: How long have all of you been talking about a sequel? Is this a fairly new development, or were you talking about it on that first movie?**

**SAMARA WEAVING:** We weren't talking about it seriously on the first movie. We really didn't know how people were gonna take it, but when it did quite well, and then the fan base kept growing even after it wasn't in theaters anymore, we were flirting with the idea. And then I didn't know if it had been too long. It was always sort of this in-the-background conversation, and then suddenly it started to become quite real. We wanted to make sure that we made the best sequel possible, which is tough. There's a lot of pressure to top that first one. I don't think we would do it if we didn't all love each other so much, because it is hard work making something like that.

Samara Weaving in 'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come'.

Pief Weyman/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

**Do you remember your reaction to seeing their take for the sequel?**

There was quite a few different ideas of what it was gonna be. I can't remember who exactly sat me down and pitched me that idea [of picking up directly after], but I remember I was eating lunch and my jaw dropping, going, "That is it. That's the way in." And then immediately getting stressed because I realized, "How am I going to plan this character arc? Where else can she go from here?"

**What were the challenges of thinking back to how you ended the first movie and picking up right where you left off?**

I like to map out the character's arc. With the first one, I really wanted to avoid playing the same emotional beat over and over again. I was like, how can we see her in denial and then bargaining and then getting really mad about it and then being at a level of acceptance around it — having different colors of fear, essentially, and survival. What was great [for the sequel] was having Kathryn in the scenes with me. Having someone new to the experience, that was the key because I could bounce off of her.

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**This movie was kind of a who's who of the Radio Silence universe. *Abigail* people sprinkled around. [Newton appeared in *Abigail* alongside Kevin Durand, who's also in *Ready or Not 2*.]**

Yeah, they really set us up. Meanwhile, Radio Silence are setting me and Kathryn up almost like playing matchmaker. We had worked together, actually, but not met properly on *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*. I think we met at an Oscars party years ago for something like *Three Billboards*. She was just as weird as me and just as strange, and we fell in love. If the first one is a breakup movie, this is a falling-in-love movie.

Kathryn Newton and Samara Weaving in 'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come'.

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

**Did you end up having to reshoot any of that final scene in the first movie?**

We had to recreate the scene from the last one, yeah, but Colin and the rest of the makeup team did such a phenomenal job because they had to match the continuity of the blood perfectly. I think there was an FX team that worked for a month purely on that one shot, stitching the last shot of the first movie and the first shot of the second movie together. It was wild because we were on stages and they'd recreated the staircase and I had the old dress on and they had strapped a huge camera rig to me, almost like a fancy GoPro.

**A favorite Hollywood what-if story is that the Radio Silence guys originally wanted you for Sam Carpenter in *Scream*. What did that mean to you at the time, especially after working with them on *Ready or Not*, that they would name a character after you?**

I know! That was really tough. I think I had just done so many horrors. I had something [else]. I can't really remember, but I do think everything happened for a reason. But that is something that I go, "Hmm. What could've been?" But who knows? Maybe if I did it, I would've, I don't know, lost my mind and killed someone or something. We could've had a huge fight and a falling out and then *Ready or Not 2* wouldn't have happened. Super butterfly effect.

Melissa Barrera as Sam Carpenter in 'Scream VI'.

Everett Collection

**But then they brought you in for *Scream VI*.**

They rang me and they were like, "Do you wanna be the Drew Barrymore opening?" And I was like, "Hell yeah, I do!" You joking?! So fun.

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*Ready or Not 2: Here I Come* opens in theaters this weekend.

*This interview has been edited for clarity and length.*

- Horror Movies

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Source: “EW Horror”