Kathryn Newton Talks Winner, a Possible Society Revival and More
Kathryn Newton Paul Morigi/Getty Images
In the pool of talented Gen Z starlets, Kathryn Newton is a true chameleon. At just 27 years old, she’s already tackled genres ranging from horror to comedy — and made her mark as Paul Rudd’s daughter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Her latest film, Winner, adds biopic to her ever-growing list of accomplishments, offering a new challenge that the actress was happy to dive into head on.
Newton portrays Brittany Winner, the sister of Reality Winner (Emilia Jones), an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator who received the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information in 2018. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Newton explained how her interest in the black comedy started from the ground up.
“I really wanted to work with [director] Susanna Fogel,” she told Us. “I almost worked with her on a film a couple years before and I didn’t end up having that opportunity. And she just always stayed with me as someone who was a great director.”
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It was the challenge of crafting a character based on a real person, however, that really drew Newton in. While Winner focuses mainly on Reality’s story, Newton was determined to make Brittany a complex person with goals, dreams and thoughts of her own.
“My character was a little glimpse into somebody, and I didn’t want her to just be a victim,” she explained. “I didn’t want her to just be the result of her sister making a decision. I wanted to really show her fullness and humanity as someone who had her own life and her own things happening.”
Despite being a secondary face in the film, Newton hopes that audiences “feel” what Brittany is going through in the shadow of her sister’s decisions. To do that, she tried to zero in on the small intricacies of who the character is — a process that was helped by speaking with Brittany herself.
“I talked to her on the phone, I listened to her [“Sassy Toxicologist”] podcast. She is a very successful scientist. She’s a chemist. And so she’s very intelligent. There was nothing I was going to do to change that,” Newton said of her process. “I just kind of wanted to be like her. So I spent a lot of time trying to absorb her.”
Newton was even able to wear some of Brittany’s real clothes in the project, while others were direct replicas. That included the wedding dress Newton dons in the film, which Brittany wore when she tied the knot with her now ex-husband.
“The pictures are amazing,” she said. “Same hair, everything.”
At the end of the day, it’s about Brittany being satisfied with Newton’s performance and making sure viewers feel empathetic toward her experience living on the periphery of Reality’s story.
“Could you imagine someone talking about your life and it’s really not about you? So how do you consolidate that and tell me everything?” Newton asked. “We all felt responsible to highlight what Brittany was going through, as well as Reality.”
There was also the task of bringing an authentic sister dynamic to life with Jones, but the duo, who are longtime friends, had no real issues. For Newton, it was simply a matter of having to “listen” to what Jones was saying and remain in awe of her performance.
“She’s so wonderful in the movie, and it almost felt like we weren’t acting,” Newton shared, recalling that their emotionally charged final scene in the movie (no spoilers!) only took two takes to land.
“[That scene] was like, ‘Oh, no, how am I gonna do this? What am I gonna do? How am I gonna get there?’ And it was the first take,” she said. “We only needed, like, two takes and it was done. It was just a good connection. … It was like we weren’t really trying very hard, even though we were.”
When it comes to the magic of bringing a scene to life, Newton doesn’t exactly “know” how she does it, but acting alongside seasoned pros like Connie Britton and Zach Galifianakis — who portray her and Jones’ parents in the film — definitely helps.
“You just wanna do it. You want to be with them and you want to be in the scene with them,” she explained. “So they just say ‘action’ and you forget about everything, all the stress of trying to do a good job. There’s no room for that, and everyone’s so incredible.”
Kathryn Newton MovieStillsDB
“You just kind of have to sit there and hope they don’t even notice that you don’t know what you’re doing,” she added with a laugh. (Editor’s note: She definitely does know what she’s doing.)
Newton’s connection with her castmates — a list that includes Britton, Galifianakis, Rudd, Vince Vaughn and Jensen Ackles, among others — remains long after a project wraps. The actress said she feels both lucky and “humbled” to know she could call up any of her past costars for advice at any time, and she often does.
The experience of working with such immense talent, she said, has taught her an important universal lesson: kindness first.
“Sometimes you just feel understood when you work with someone who you’re a fan of and you see how they carry themselves and it makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing,” she told Us. “Because the best people, they are that nice, and they are that talented, and it seems pretty effortless because [of that]. That’s the main thing I’ve learned — is the best of the best are just nice people. So stay cool.”
That approachable demeanor — and, yes, her undeniable talent — has helped Newton find future projects as well. Blumhouse founder Jason Blum cast her in her first film, 2012’s Paramount Activity 4, only to ask her to return opposite Vaughn in Freaky eight years later. What once were thought to be one-time working relationships have since turned into “longtime” friendships for Newton, something she never would have “believed” while growing up as a young actress.
Kathryn Newton MovieStillsDB
“I still call Jensen [from Supernatural] and ask him for advice. Like, you don’t think they’re gonna be your friends because everyone always tells you not to get too excited about it,” she confessed. “But as I’ve gotten older and have my real friends from high school and home, I’m surprised how many of the people I’ve worked with have genuinely stayed in my life. I can’t believe it.”
So, the question remains — with her willingness to work with the same actors time and time again, would that make way for a return of the one-season wonder Netflix hit The Society? The Netflix drama, which aired in 2019, was briefly renewed for a second season only to subsequently be canceled a short time later.
While all the stars of the still-beloved sci-fi series have moved on, Newton said she would absolutely be down to reprise her role as group leader Allie — as long as everyone else was in too.
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“I want Toby Wallace and Olivia DeJonge and Gideon Adlon and Alex Fitz. I keep trying to find something for us. I keep trying to work with all of them again,” she said. “I think that they’re all incredible actors, like, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, I could keep going. Jack Mulhern, they were all great. … We did it when we were so young and it was such a formative time of our lives beyond our careers.”
Newton says she counts The Society’s creator and showrunner, Christopher Keyser, among that long list of past colleagues she can call up for advice — and reviving the series is a topic the pair have broached before.
“We talk about it and how much we want it to happen. So maybe they’re figuring it out,” she said, teasing, “I did see that they were talking about it, so why not? If it’s a good script — maybe it’s one episode, maybe it’s three, you know?”
Whether the cast gets back together for another go-round or not, Newton will be cheering for all of them from the sidelines. “It’s like a high school reunion,” she said. “And I’m really excited to see where we end up.”
Winner is now available on demand.
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