Movies

Why Allison Williams Says She's the Opposite of a Scream Queen (Exclusive)

By Jennifer Drysdale‍ 8:33 AM PDT, May 21, 2019

Allison Williams has a couple of thrillers under her belt, but that doesn't mean she's a "scream queen." In fact, Williams told ET's Katie Krause that she thinks she's the "opposite" of that label.

"Well, I think I'm the opposite of a scream queen in that... I'm making other people scream," the actress revealed at the press day for her new Netflix horror movie, The Perfection.

"Charlotte, my character in The Perfection, so nicely picks up on and uses the association people might have with me from Get Out. And in a way, I think it works for the movie and it's helpful to the movie," she continued. "But it's not like I decided, 'Only send me scripts that are psychological.'

In The Perfection, Williams stars as a troubled musical prodigy who seeks out the new star pupil (Logan Browning) of her former school.

"It's challenging to describe [this movie]," Williams confessed. "Because the movie pretty quickly starts [by making] sure you are aware that what you are seeing is probably not the objective reality of the situation. So, it's really hard to describe, beyond two musicians who came out of the same academy end up judging a competition together in Shanghai and there's a lot between them even though they've never met."

Both actresses had to learn to play the cello for their roles -- but haven't exactly held on to that ability.

"Can is an interesting word," Williams joked. "It is too challenging and we played it for too short a period of time. We had ambitions to be cellists for the rest of our lives and I thought it was just going to become a part of my life... and sadly, that just did not happen."

And while there's a theme of competition between Williams and Browning's characters, the pair couldn't have been more supportive of one another. While Browning joked that she hoped the movie has audiences feeling "nauseated" and wanting to "second guess your friends," she said she believes that it's up to everyone to come together and change the narrative of women being pitted against each other.

"You need everyone from different angles," Browning declared. "So, when it comes to solving this one issue, I think it's a matter of the duets and it's a matter of the choir, it's a matter of everyone being part of the solution and not just women. It's a matter of the men being in the room too."

Williams, who said the film also touches on themes of empowerment, couldn't have been more on the same page with her co-star.

"I think we both feel that you can get into more intense subject matter in a different way in this genre, in a way that changes the way you're having a conversation that everyone's been having so many times that they've forgotten what it really means and lost the ability to make progress with it," she explained. "I think that was attractive to both of us when we read the script."

The Perfection is available to stream on Netflix starting Friday.