Mary Elizabeth Winstead celebrates her birthday today, but how much do you know about her? Here are some facts you might not know.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been a fixture on the big and small screens for 25 years now. The actress, who celebrates her birthday today, has had a varied career, from soap operas to horror franchises such as Final Destination, to the Star Wars universe, and has garnered a legion of fans for her roles.
But how much do you know about Mary Elizabeth Winstead? Here are some facts that you might not know about her.
She initially wanted to be a ballet dancer
As a girl growing up in Utah, Mary Elizabeth took a strong interest in ballet, and displayed some talent – including attending a summer program at the prestigious Joffrey Ballet dance company in Chicago.
While she harboured ambitions of becoming a ballerina, and appeared in local productions, her body had other ideas. As she recounted in a radio interview in 2017: “I realized pretty early on that I was already too tall by the time I was 13… You know, your body has to stay that way for your entire life, and it’s pretty hard on your muscles and bones.”
As a result, she turned her attention to acting, which worked out quite well instead.
She’s part of a music duo
Music is also a passion for Mary Elizabeth and since 2012, she has been part of a duo, called Got a Girl, with rapper and producer Dan the Automator.
The pair first met at a cast dinner for Scott Pilgrim vs the World, which she starred in and Dan provided music to. They hit it off and kept in touch, eventually forming Got a Girl.
To date, they have only released one studio album, in 2014, the brilliantly named I Love You but I Must Drive Off This Cliff Now. Mary Elizabeth wrote all of the lyrics for the album.
She started her career in a soap opera
After minor roles in shows such as Touched by an Angel and Promised Land, Mary Elizabeth’s first major on-screen role came in the NBC soap opera Passions. She was one of the founding cast members, portraying Jessica Bennett.
However, Mary Elizabeth only lasted eight months on screen in the role, before she decided to leave the show, having largely not enjoyed the experience. Her character was taken over by several other actresses over the next eight years.
She met her husband on set
Mary Elizabeth is married to Scottish actor Ewan McGregor and has been since April 2022. The have a son together, who was born in 2021.
The pair met on the set of the TV series of black comedy drama anthology series Fargo, which ran on FX in 2017. They both starred in the third season of the show. Ewan played St Cloud probation officer Ray Stussy, while Mary Elizabeth played his parolee girlfriend, Nikki Swango. The pair dream of a better life, and attempt to steal a valuable stamp from Stussy’s older brother. But things don’t go according to plan.
The pair went public with their relationship in October 2017. Mary Elizabeth had announced her separation from her first husband, Riley Stearns, in May of that year.
She is fight trained
In the 2010 comic book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Mary Elizabeth played Ramona Flowers, a mysterious delivery girl and the objective of Scott’s affections. For her role – in which she is involved in various fight scenes – Mary Elizabeth underwent two months of fight training, and she performed most of her own stunts in the movie.
