Do you get scared silly when you’re standing in line at the theme park, waiting to board the roller coaster? If so, strap yourself in for another fun-filled thrill ride on the horror express as New Line Cinema is gearing up for Final Destination 3. Set to hit theaters in early 2006, the third installment in the franchise features a brand new cast of young thrill seekers, ready, willing and able to cheat death in new and terrifying ways. Starring up and comers as Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High, The Ring Two) and Ryan Merriman (The Ring Two, Taken), Final Destination 3 aims to breathe even more thrilling life into the horror genre with the franchise’s original writing of Glenn Morgan and James Wong back onboard.

In 2000, Morgan and Wong penned Final Destination took home a surprising worldwide gross of over $80 million at the box office and saw Death stalk a group of young characters onboard the dreaded Flight 180. In 2003, with The Matrix Reloaded and Harry Potter second unit action master David Ellis at the helm, Final Destination 2 nearly equaled the success of the original as Death emerged from a fiery, explosive highway accident. In 2006, Final Destination 3 takes flight with James Wong once again behind the camera, this time not onboard a plane but instead on something most of us have feared at one point in our lives - a roller coaster.

In the middle of the production’s film shoot in Vancouver, we sat down with the attractive, soft spoken and upbeat Final Destination 3 leading lady Mary Elizabeth Winstead to get the lowdown on what fans can expect from both her and her character, Wendy Christensen.

Vancouver’s been churning out some of the film world’s most exciting features in the past few years. Have you ever been here before?

I have, actually. I’ve been here a few times. I did a series here, Wolf Lake, for six months.

Can you tell us a little bit about your character and who she is?

Sure, I play Wendy Christensen, a high school senior. At the beginning of the movie, she’s sort of a fun-loving, intelligent girl, independent, a bit of a control freak, which is a big part of her character. She has a fear of losing control and a fear of roller coasters. Soon after, her whole world is turned upside down and she doesn’t ever want to lose control ever again. It’s like she just doesn’t care about anything anymore. She gets pulled into something, which gives her purpose - to cheat death.

How does she deal with fear in the face of death?

I think that what drives her is the pain that she feels. She’s trying to overcome it and make something positive out of it and regain control of her life and she’s not going to let anything get in her way.

What are your own feelings on death and dying?

It’s a scary thing. You don’t know what’s going to happen when you die, nobody really knows. I have a much greater fear of losing people that are close to me. I think about that a lot more than I think about myself dying. That tells me a lot in this character because she’s got that fear all around her.

You just came off of Sky High, starring Kurt Russell. Can you tell us how Final Destination 3 came about for you?

Basically, it was just like any other audition. I was excited about it because I auditioned for Final Destination 2, so I felt like this was my second chance to become a part of the series. I was in LA and this was something my agent sent me out on. I tried really hard to do my best and then just moved on. I really didn’t think about it at all. Then someone called and said I got the part and wanted to fly me to Canada right away. So it was all kind of whirlwind. It took a while to set in. I was in shock for the first two weeks, because it all happened so fast.

You were also in as well. How has Wolf Lake and The Ring Two helped to prepare you for this role?

It’s interesting because they both required me to have an eeriness about the way that I approached the characters, which seems kind of odd. You can’t act eerie, but in a strange way it comes natural to me. The feel of this film is supposed to be spooky and sort of eerie and I don’t really have to think about it. You feel it in the way that the scene is being played. For example, in The Ring Two, I had to cry and be very emotional, but it had to be creepy at the same time. You have to get your head in that weird space. It’s like, you know that you have to think of some of the things in life that make you really sad, emotional and angry. At the same time, though, you have to be creeped out. It sounds really weird, but I found a way to put my head in that place.

Given the legacy the characters in the first two Final Destination films left behind, what would you like fans to take away from your character?

I’d love them to just see her as a strong female character and also realistic. Even though this is a crazy, fun horror movie, I’m playing it real. The character is real to me and everything that’s going on is real to me. In the end I hope they feel that.

Article Written By Reg Seeton