Ever since Zach Cregger’s astoundingly enjoyable second function movie “Weapons” hit theaters in August 2025, folks have been discussing the film’s large diva Aunt Gladys Lilly, played in an Oscar-worthy performance by veteran actress Amy Madigan. Even though we are potentially getting a “Weapons” prequel centered around Gladys — a witch who mainly feeds off of individuals’s power and turns them into extremely weaponizable zombies to assist her survive — a part of the superior factor about Gladys is that we do not know the place the heck she got here from, how outdated she even is, or something concrete about her historical past. (She describes two “sick” folks as having “a contact of consumption,” which is a actually old-timey phrase for sickness, in order that’s a clue however nonetheless, that does not supply up a complete lot of data.) Gladys is movie’s antagonist, contemplating that she kidnaps 17 kids (and a handful of adults) and makes use of their power to gasoline her, however she’s nonetheless fascinating.
So what does Madigan take into consideration a very humorous and deeply unusual fan principle about Gladys? On Entertainment Weekly’s “The Awardist” podcast, Madigan was introduced with a very bonkers concept that her character is linked to Elvis Presley. Gladys Presley, the rock star’s mom, apparently struggled with an alcohol habit (something that’s a big underlying theme in “Weapons”). Madigan was, frankly, shocked to listen to about this.
“That shocked me. I imply, like, what?” Madigan responded, chuckling heartily. “Folks had been pulling out threads of issues and so they interpreted it in a manner, and that is the enjoyable about it. That is what’s thrilling about it. … I by no means would’ve ever considered Elvis’ mother. So it is like, yeah, go forward and run with that. I am not saying sure to that or no to that, however okay, that is a principle.”
Amy Madigan knew the function was dangerous
Elsewhere on the podcast, Amy Madigan appeared to return to phrases with the truth that, in terms of “Weapons,” Aunt Gladys has brought on fairly a stir. (Significantly, do me a favor and see what number of Gladyses you see throughout Halloween weekend.) She’s eminently meme-able, a deeply fascinating character, and Madigan performs her completely, however nonetheless, Madigan — who’s been in the whole lot from “Discipline of Goals” to “Gray’s Anatomy” — is reeling from the eye only a little bit. “Folks actually like Gladys, they appear they wanna hang around together with her,” Madigan stated on “The Awardist,” nonetheless laughing a bit. “It is a large deal to return in a while in my life. I am attempting to take pleasure in it. It is a little nerve-racking for me.”
Nonetheless, Madigan acknowledged that playing Gladys in “Weapons” was “risky,” and she or he’s truly proper in a bigger sense; not solely is the function audacious, however the ambition and scale of the challenge far surpasses that of Zach Cregger’s directorial debut “Barbarian” (and pulls it off, frankly). After saying she knew Cregger wished to do one thing “dangerous” and “distinctive,” Madigan continued:
“Dangerous is type of a very enjoyable factor to take part in. I may create Gladys, and she or he’s a giant character, and it appeared to work for this, in order that was very releasing, if we discuss concerning the phrase dangerous. It was very releasing in a manner. … Zach stated to me type of early on, ‘You simply wait to see how individuals are gonna come to Gladys.’ And I type of went, ‘Oh, nicely, let’s simply see, Zach,’ and we’re in the midst of work. However he was truly appropriate.”
A part of the draw for Gladys, apart from Madigan’s frankly unbelievable efficiency, is her look. So how did that come about?
Aunt Gladys’ look is each terrifying and extremely foolish, based on Amy Madigan
When you’ve seen “Weapons” — and I positive hope you will have, as a result of in any other case this whole article has spoiled various the film for you! — that the way in which Gladys appears is not simply puzzling and attention-grabbing. Gladys’ look truly offers two of the movie’s greatest leap scares, showing within the goals of each elementary college trainer Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), who taught the category containing all the lacking kids, and a kind of children’ dads, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin). Seeing Gladys in each of these goals is downright horrifying, particularly as a result of she’s notably grotesque-looking with pink lipstick askew and white pancake make-up caked onto her face. Her regular look is not that significantly better — her lipstick is smeared and absurd, her wig is totally weird, and her garments are loudly coloured and baffling. Based on Amy Madigan, it took a very very long time to decide on the look, however it was a big success as soon as they figured it out.
“Once we had been performing some checks earlier than everyone was round, we had the actually horrible look,” Madigan stated of Gladys’ look, pioneered by particular make-up results designer Jason Collins and the movie’s costume designer Trish Summerville. “And it took us many hours to determine that out,” she remembers. “I walked in there and everybody simply stopped for a minute. They had been type of [she pulls back, laughs] Zach was in sheer delight. ‘trigger that is what he hoped for.”
I get why Cregger was so happy with Madigan’s look as Gladys, and once more, when you watched the film, you understand her look is simply the tip of the iceberg. “Weapons” is streaming on HBO Max now, simply in time so that you can get some Halloween costume inspiration from Gladys herself.
