Mary and Ryan Reach their "Final Destination"

Young actors Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High) and Ryan Merriman (Halloween 8: Resurrection) were both in The Ring 2...but they never met. He was the unlucky dude who watched that tape and got killed in the opening teaser and she played Sissy Spacek in a flashback. Both actors get a kick out of publicity that says they're 'together again in Final Destination 3', the scary third installment of the popular 'death's gonna getcha' horror franchise.

For our chat recently in L.A.'s Culver City area, the twenty-something actors looked casual and relaxed in each other's company. Mary wore a cute brown BCBG dress that complimented her long auburn hair. Ryan kicked back in a gray tee with stenciled lions on it and jeans. The duo talked about their future film projects and revealed their favorite "death" scenes in the film, fun on set, accidents on set and how the awesome roller coaster scenes were shot...over and over again. In the film, Mary is the gal with the weird death premonitions so we wanted to know we were safe.....

TeenHollywood: If you have any premonitions, we're leaving.

Mary: Good idea.

Ryan: I don't know. That lamp behind you looks questionable.

TeenHollywood: Do you love or hate roller coasters in real life?

Ryan: I love 'um.

Mary: I have a love/hate relationship with them I think. I loved them and now, after going on one twenty times in a row, I just have that memory of my head killing me and feeling like it was going to explode. So, every time I think of a roller coaster, I think of that.

Ryan: I'd definitely never ride that roller coaster again, the one we did 25 trips on.

TeenHollywood: You mean the one in Canada where you were shooting. Is it dangerous to go that many times in a row?

Ryan: I think it is.

Mary: I felt like I could have a brain hemorrhage at any moment after that.

Ryan: It's more like a hangover, like a good tequila hangover.

Mary: Uh, no. I've never had one of those.

Ryan: Haven't been to Cancun, obviously. No, it was. I thought somebody would throw up but nobody ever did.

TeenHollywood: When you read the script, you know that the creative deaths are really what people go to see. As an actor, what makes you want to do a film like this?

Mary: I just want to be a working actor and that's the most important thing. Of course you want to do interesting work and this was. This was a great role. It was really challenging and whether or not people particularly care or not about the acting in it and just want to go see the deaths, I understand that that's part of it but as long as I know that I did a good job, hopefully, some other people out there will see that I put my all into it. That, hopefully stands for itself.

Ryan: I've always been a fan of the Final Destination movies because it's not like some guy running around with a knife and not some cliché spirit haunting us. It's actual events and it's really smart how it all goes down, especially like in the Home Depot [awesome scene in this film] or whatever. There's the fork lift, the nails and it's just cool how it all goes down. Also, in between all that, our relationship, I thought was really good because, through all this confusion, we always stuck tight and stayed focused on the task at hand while everybody else was mocking us. The story was good. If that's not there then you really have a problem.

Mary: It wouldn't be as good a movie if we hadn't really committed to it and done our jobs.

Ryan: You don't want them waiting like 'hey, when's the next cool death gonna be?' You want them to care about us.

TeenHollywood: Were there any freaky accidents on the sets?

Ryan: There were. We just remembered this one. During one of the stunts, the drive-through, which is one of my favorite sequences [we agree]. Isn't that great? It was on a ratchet, a hydraulic pump that pulled the whole thing together, one car into the next. [He demonstrates with his hands] It folded the engine and the other one crumpled. It was one whole thing like a big press and some ungodly amount of pressure happened and it popped so all that pressure was released and that big hydraulic pump released from these concrete blocks and took out two cameras, three lights. If somebody had been standing there, it could have killed them easily.

Mary: I just remembered another one. The fireworks. A firework exploded in a camera guy's face. It went off when it wasn't supposed to.

Ryan: They put too small of a charge on a heavy firework so it burned and went poomp and just made it outside of the tube, like right there and it stuck. It wasn't enough to actually pressurize it. It blew up right there.

Mary: Yeah and they had the emergency people running past us like "what's going on!".

TeenHollywood: That's pretty spooky. Had you guys seen the other two films or did you rush to watch them?

Mary: I had seen them both. I, of course, watched them again when I knew I was going to be doing this but I was very familiar with it. I had auditioned for the second one so when I did that, I brushed up on the first one and so I was quite familiar with the series.

Ryan: Like I said I was a big fan because I thought it was cool the way it all went down. When I heard they were making a third one, I was like 'why not? Let's do it'.

TeenHollywood: What was your favorite death from either of the first two Final Destinations?

Mary: The first one, my favorite is Kristen [Cloke], the teacher. That kitchen one. You think she'll make it. She's on the ground and then the knives. She's in Black Christmas [upcoming horror film] also.

Ryan: I'd have to say the bus hit. Drop and boom! That was cool. It's a lot like Texas [Battle] in this film. The weight room. Oh, the thing's missed and he's like whoooo and bang!

TeenHollywood: Do you think the films have improved as they've gone on?

Mary: Oh yeah. I think they took it to a whole new level in this one.

Ryan: The technology is better.

Mary: The special effects are amazing and the intricacies of everything and so creative. Every single death woven in this cosmic way. How is this all going to come together?

TeenHollywood: Did you do a lot of green screen work or was it mostly CGI?

Ryan: Mainly, with green screen, it was the roller coaster. With the actors, they had this really cool hydraulic set up where they could angle these cars upside down and just rake a camera across. There was this whole room of green, a whole stage. They built the whole set inside of the ride, the big opening with the skulls, that was all hand built. It was amazing. They actually put in a track where we take off and go up.

TeenHollywood: What were the real things on set that you got to react to in the deaths?

Mary: The 'blood' being splattered in our faces. That would give us that eeeek reaction because there were some pretty good impacts with the blood gun.

Ryan: The bad thing is you're anticipating [he flinches]. Is it going to happen soon? But you can't give that away so you have to be all serious and then pop!

Mary: That was awful. I hated that.

Ryan: Texas Battle had a different death scene than what you saw. In the first one, Mary got the brunt of it and then when we did the alternate, I said, 'whatever. I'll take the brunt of it. This'll never be in the movie, right?' So, sure enough they loaded this cannon up with so much crap and we were sitting there and 3,2,1 and boom! It got into my mouth. If you watch me right after it happens, I lean over and almost puke. That was real. It looked great.

Mary: It was gross stuff. It was a mix of banana and some strawberries stuck in there too. Some corn syrup, but you're not supposed to have it in your mouth. But it happened a lot for me. They're like 'spit it out! Spit it out!' It was kind of sweet.

TeenHollywood: Ewwwww. Was there an alternate ending?

Mary: Yes. We added on a whole new ending because the test audiences thought that it left it completely open. It was at the end of the bicentennial scene. It just sort of ended and we kind of....

Ryan: The bicentennial was bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, fireworks, horse, neck, cut the rope, kick, fire, boom, running, he's there, crash. It was nuts and then they were like fade away. And the audience was 'what the hell? No way. It's not over'.

Mary: I think the ending now is perfect. I love it.

TeenHollywood: So you had to come back and shoot the new ending?

Ryan: We both flew back to shoot that.

TeenHollywood: You were both working on other movies by then. What was it like to have to remember who your character was in this film?

Mary: It was tough. I was like 'oh, my God, again?' because I had gotten so far out of it. It's so grueling doing that for three months and then I'd gotten into doing this other role which is more lighthearted and a little more comedic and to have to go back into that right away, all these memories came back to me. But it was fun. The sequence is awesome.

Ryan: I didn't really have to tap too much into it because my character was kind of like 'hey, what are you doing here? Wow'. Whereas she had to experience the whole thing. I didn't have to go through any of that again.

Mary: There was my horrible tear experience.

Ryan: [We won't reveal the ending scene but Mary has to cry]. It cuts from that into her eyes and there's a tear coming out of her eye. She was crying all day. There are twelve people and they've got this huge focus lens on her and she would cry out of both eyes and they're like 'no, no. We just need the right eye'.

Mary: Sometimes, I would only cry out of this eye because the other eye doesn't always tear. I'd be streaming tears out of this eye and they'd just sit there with the camera on me staring at me. Is there a tear? I don't know. It was so frustrating because then they started trying to put fake tears on me and I was like 'no, take it away'.

Ryan: I'm an actress, d**n it!

TeenHollywood: Ryan, you have a huge TV background. Are you making a total break or would you go back for a good series or MOW?

Ryan: I did Ring 2, then Rings and before that was Spin and then Final Destination 3 and I just did another film. Between indies and big features I've done like six films now so, I don't know. I just like good scripts. But, this really came at a good time. Everybody needs that movie that gets their foot in the door. This film let me do some leading man, some hero stuff. There are some good dramatic scenes so I don't know, maybe. If theTV script is good.

TeenHollywood: Mary are you at the point where you don't have to just take something to work?

Mary: Well, I don't feel like I'm completely past that point but I think I'm working toward that. I'm working really steadily and things are busy and good and I'm doing work that I do want to do. If I get a script that I don't like, I'm not going to do it. I'm working my way up to being able to pick and choose.

TeenHollywood: You sang on stage when you were younger. Would you like to do a musical again?

Mary: Oh yeah.

Ryan: She does sing really good too.

TeenHollywood: What's coming up for you, Mary?

Mary: Bobby [the story of the Robert Kennedy assassination]. I just finished that. I play Susan Taylor, an aspiring actress who is working at the Ambassador Hotel and then I'm about to start shooting Black Christmas with Glen [Morgan] and Jim [Wong, who directed Final Destination 3]. We're shooting back up in Vancouver with the same crew.

Ryan: It's a reunion, different title.

TeenHollywood: And what's the name of your next film, Ryan?

Ryan: The film I did after I wrapped this was Home of the Giants with Haley Joel Osment and Danielle Panabaker. It's kind of like what Friday Night Lights was to football. This is about Indiana High School basketball. It's actually a really dark, cool story about how people are treated and how life revolves around the game. It's a very good script.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.