Weapons Star Amy Madigan Calls Fan-Favorite Aunt Gladys Role ‘Gratifying’ After Decades in Hollywood

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Weapons, in theaters now.

Amy Madigan is enjoying the passionate response to her shocking role in Weapons.

The actress, 74, spoke about her surprise pivotal role as Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger’s horror movie for the first time in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Thursday, Aug. 14.

“The people I work with will send me some links and things like that,” Madigan said of online reactions to her character Aunt Gladys, who emerges as the primary villain of Weapons. The movie follows a small town after 17 kids from the same elementary school class run out of their homes late one night and disappear.

“It’s really nice because I felt my work is really good in this piece. I’ve been doing it a long time, so to get something that’s this gratifying and people like it… it’s fun,” said Madigan, who is married to Ed Harris and is known for roles in films like Field of Dreams, Gone Baby Gone and Uncle Buck.

“It’s given me a good giggle,” she continued, “but as you’re going up, you could come down just as quickly. So you have to take it with a grain of salt.”

Weapons also stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams and Benedict Wong as various characters who have the misfortune of meeting Gladys in the movie, as well as child star Cary Christopher, whose family Gladys moves in with before setting the film’s events in motion.

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According to EW, Madigan skipped doing press at the movie’s Los Angeles premiere earlier this month and did not participate in interviews prior in order to preserve the movie’s mystery.

“We really wanted to make her a very, very unique person,” Madigan told the outlet of creating Gladys. “You have to be careful. You don’t want it to be like the person from this spooky movie or the person from that.”

“The look is very jarring,” she added. “Gladys looks great. She’s really happy with how she looks. She loves her wardrobe. She loves who she is. So there’s a certain confidence that you walk in that room with. I don’t walk in with great confidence like that. Sometimes I do. So with Gladys, she’s very confident.”

While speaking with EW, Madigan discussed performing several of her own stunts and working with Barbarian director Cregger on the film.

She also admitted she does not claim to know the specifics behind her character’s backstory.

“People ask that question, ‘Is she real or is it this or that?’ I said, ‘Good, you guys figure it out ’cause I can’t answer that,’ ” Madigan said.

As for potentially playing the part again, she added, “It’s not that I discount it, but in this business, nothing’s real till it’s real. I just had such a great time working with Zach and being inside that brain of his. That’s really the gift of how the movie came out. The other stuff has to do with all sorts of conversations that I would never be privy in and business things like that. But, you know, I love Gladys, so I’ll leave it at that.”

Weapons is in theaters now.