Violet McGraw Shares Why M3GAN’s Relationship With Cady Seemed So Real

At 11 years old, Violet McGraw has an acting career that most adult actors could only dream of. She’s worked with some of the biggest directors and actors on the biggest projects in the business over the past several years.

Most recently, McGraw can be seen as “Cady” in A24’s M3GAN. Violet excelled at portraying a young girl who tragically loses her parents, moves in with her aunt “Gemma” (Allison Williams) then finds comfort in befriending a lovely, cutting edge robot doll who turns into a psycho killing machine.

“My sister (Madeleine McGraw, The Black Phone actor) just always told me to live in the moment, pretend like it’s actually happening,” the young actress told me. “So I’ve always just been living in the moment and how Cady would feel and how she is so far.

“She has lost her parents, she still kind of feels uncomfortable at Gemma’s house but then when Meghan comes in she feels a lot safer and more comfortable and she’s not alone.”

It was recently announced M3GAN would be getting a sequel, with Violet and Allison Williams returning.

“Oh wow! It’s really happening! This is so amazing! I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see what M3GAN has planned!” said McGraw, after hearing the big news.

The relationship Violet establishes with the doll in M3GAN as Cady is some impressive performing from the actress. Once Gemma senses the connection is getting too strong and tries to pry Cady away from M3GAN, Cady snaps.

“I developed a relationship with the doll. I would just have a conversation with her, even when we weren’t filming,” McGraw said. “I would tell her about myself, I would tell her about my day. So that’s what made it really easy for me when I’m talking to M3GAN because she’s actually my best friend in real life.”

In 2021’s Black Widow, which brought audiences back to the theater as the pandemic began dying down, Violet jumped into the MCU by playing young Yelena Belova. The adult version of Belova is played by Florence Pugh.

“I think I was eight or nine,” McGraw said of filming Black Widow. “I just thought it was so neat to be part of a Marvel film because before that it was always a dream of mine to be a part of a Marvel film and it was my favorite Marvel character and I just can’t believe I got the role.

“It was so cool … the special effects, how they did the green screen. In that, I was blonde, I had a wig on. I thought it was cool and I got to be Yelena and it was an amazing experience.”

Violet impressed Haunting of Hill House (NetflixNFLX
series) director Mike Flanagan so much that he also put her in his feature film and sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep.

“Mike is such a good director,” McGraw, who also worked on 2018’s Ready Player One with Steven Spielberg when she was four, said. “When I worked with him in the Haunting of Hill House it was my first thing I did with him and I was six at the time and he was always so patient with me and gave me such good direction.

“He’s definitely one of the reasons why I definitely want to keep going in this business because he was just so amazing to me and I want to keep going so I can keep working with these amazing people.”

There weren’t any strenuous acting or theater classes for Violet. At age 11, and with the help of her mom and sister, she takes a simplistic but focused approach to booking gigs from auditions: she reads the script and goes back over key parts.

The young prodigy has set goals for herself although she’s already worked with some of the biggest names in show business.

“What I really hope to achieve is just to keep going in acting,” McGraw stated. “I definitely want to be an actor when I grow up, I think it’ll be really fun to keep going and I also would love to be a professional soccer player because I love soccer a lot. I’ve been on a club team for three years now.”

Given everything Violet has already achieved in her blooming career and with her positive outlook, it seemed only fitting to ask her advice for those even younger who want to do what she does.

“You have to just live in the moment. You have to just be patient,” McGraw advised. “You have to listen really well and you always just have to respect everybody in the industry because they all work really hard,” said McGraw, thoughtfully.