M3GAN may be back with a bad attitude, but so is Tess, and actress Jen Van Epps couldn’t be more thrilled about it.
The stop-motion sensation, scene-stealing Tess of moral spine and whip smarts in M3GAN, sat down with our own Nakia Richardson for an exclusive, raucous interview to chat about all things from the movie’s surprise box office hit boom to the cultural connotations of AI and the delight of STEM girlies holding it down in horror.
The energy from the start was charged.
“You look amazing,” Nakia dripped, finding the tone exquisitely right in pure love. Jen smiled, serving nerd-chic reality through her signature specs and minimal style. “Thanks! You look amazing too, clearly!”
And so there is much to celebrate.
On the coattails of the surprise success of M3GAN, the film that emerged unexpectedly last year and garnered immediate pop culture appeal, the sequel M3GAN 2.0 is already making huge waves. Did Jen herself fall under the phenomenon, though?
“Not at all!” she laughed. “When we were filming it, I kept thinking. There is a child in a rubber doll suit walking around. I thought, What are we doing?!”She joked. “Even when Brian [Jordan Alvarez] told me it was good, I thought, You’re being nice.”.
And I saw it at the premiere and went, ‘Holy cow.’ My brother-in-law, a brutally honest producer, leaned over and said, ‘This is going to be a hit.’ And I thought, Let’s go.
Buckle up.”
M3GAN tore through meme culture, Halloween costume season, and even reality dating shows like Love Island. “I was watching Love Island, and there was M3GAN?! Like, how did she get in here? ” Jen laughed.
And then there is Tess.
In M3GAN 2.0, Jen’s not simply hanging in there; she’s flourishing. “I think she’s discovered her own a lot,” Jen claimed. “She’s fighting for better working conditions, better pay, and actually using her tech whiz skills. I never want to see my character be there for tokenism. I want development. And Tess? She expands.”
As Nakia observed, M3GAN is not only horror, it’s a woman in STEM romance. Jen fully agreed.
“We’re at the point where AI is not sci-fi anymore,” Nakia explained. “It’s real, and everybody’s having the conversations about it. Were you even thinking about robots and AI beforehand?
“Honestly? No,” said Jen. “AI was still that blobby thing back then. I used to imagine robots like. a cleaning mop rampaging around your house. But now? Yes. The stakes are higher than ever.”
Much to our surprise, Jen had an unusual hands-off experience with ChatGPT and generative AI. “I feel like I’m the only one who hasn’t used it!” she laughed. “Except once for a dog audition photo. That’s it. I haven’t even used it correctly.”
At the conclusion of the interview, Nakia posed one final question: What can fans look forward to in M3GAN 2.0?
“It’s better in all ways,” Jen promised. “Two robots this time, not one. The laughs are bigger. The energy is bigger. And the genre-bending? Better. It’s forging its own beat. It’s not horror. It’s something else.”
And if louder words were needed on genre-bending, Jen’s actions speak louder than them.
“I am Chinese-Black, a genre bender myself,” she stated. “Representation is important. I have had people reach out to me and tell me how empowering it was to see a Blasian woman in that kind of role. That means the world.” With a gigantic smile and a hearty goodbye, Jen left as Tess would’ve: low-key, tough, and prepared to take on whatever was next. M3GAN 2.0 hits theaters soon. And trust us, you ain’t ready.
