‘M3GAN’ Premiere Featured Eight Look-Alike Dolls Dancing to Taylor Swift Song in Now-Viral Moment

‘M3GAN’ Premiere Featured Eight Look-Alike Dolls Dancing to Taylor Swift Song in Now-Viral Moment,There were M3GANs everywhere you looked on Wednesday night in and around Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theatre as Universal and Blumhouse presented the first screening of the robotic doll thriller.

‘M3GAN’ Premiere Featured Eight Look-Alike Dolls Dancing to Taylor Swift Song in Now-Viral Moment

Jason Blum and Allison Williams pose with four M3GAN lookalikes at the ‘M3GAN’ premiere in L.A.Alberto Rodriguez/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

Logo textIt was a real M3GAN-palooza last night in Hollywood.

Universal Pictures rolled out the black carpet in front of TCL Chinese Theatre for the world premiere of Blumhouse’s next horror title, M3GAN. The Gerard Johnstone film centers on a brilliant toy company roboticist, played by Allison Williams, who fast-tracks a secret invention after a tragedy makes her the guardian of her 8-year-old niece, Cady, played by Violet McGraw. The invention: a lifelike doll named M3GAN that is paired with Cady to offer comfort and friendship, a decision that sets off a dramatic series of extreme events.

Then, reps cleared the carpet for a surprise performance starring eight M3GAN lookalikes dancing to Taylor Swift’s “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” a track that is featured on the film’s newest trailer. The group, who also appeared at the after-party, performed the same dance inside the theater before the premiere.

How about a #M3GAN dance choreographed to Taylor Swift with 8 M3GANs? pic.twitter.com/wg32DyTolG
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) December 8, 2022

But wait, there’s more. Über-producer Jason Blum arrived to the premiere dressed as M3GAN, recycling the costume he first wore to Blumhouse’s Halloween party in October.

“I love getting in drag anyway, no matter what the occasion is, but to have an occasion to wear my M3GAN costume again was a dream come true,” Blum told The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet. “I begged my [communications] team to allow me to do this again, and they finally said yes.”

Was that a tough negotiation to get the comms team to agree? “I had to do a little bit of hemming and hawing, but they know how much I like to wear the costume so it wasn’t terrible.”

Also not awful was the glam process. “I’ve done it twice now and the first time took about three hours. This time was less — about an hour and 45 minutes,” confirmed Blum. “I’ve got it down now. I might even do it a third time for Halloween ’23. Why not?”

If the response to Wednesday night’s premiere is any indication, the costume could be a huge hit by next October. Or sooner, since the film opens in theaters on Jan. 6. (The premiere was early to get ahead of the holiday break.) Directed by Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper based on a story conceived by Wan and hammered out by Wan with Cooper, the film also stars Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Lori Dungey and Stephane Garneau-Monten.

But about all of those M3GANs, technically, there were a few more in attendance. Not to spoil all the movie magic, but to capture what was needed for M3GAN’s performance, the filmmakers relied on a real robotic prototype in some scenes while others featured a young actress, Amie Donald, in a mask and gloves. Her voice came to life thanks to the talents of another young actress, Jenna Davis.

Aside from Williams, the actor who has the most screen time with M3GAN is McGraw, who tells THR that she loved every minute of it. “It was really fun because I had a scary, terrifying doll that was my best friend and it was a really cool experience hanging out with M3GAN to see how they did her,” says McGraw, who previously starred in The Haunting of Hill House. “They made an actual robot and had a puppeteer team that would make her eyes blink and move her arms and mouth.”

In another surprise twist, McGraw and Donald ended up becoming fast friends by the end of filming. “We became so close and would hang out on and off set, on our lunch breaks. Amie is the sweetest person you will ever meet and she’s definitely one of my best friends.”

M3GAN Premiere Los Angeles — Jenna Davis, Amie Donald and Violet McGrawAlberto Rodriguez/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

Friendship and professional success also brought Williams to the role. She first worked with Blum and Blumhouse on the critical and commercial smash Get Out. “Jason said, ‘I think we have the next one to do with you,'” Williams recalled of how the project came her way. “I was basically ready to say yes before even reading it or hearing anything about it. Then I read the script and was like, ‘I’m in.’ Then I talked to Gerard and was like, ‘I’m in.’ Then he said it was James Wan producing and he came up with the idea, and I was like, ‘I’m even more in now.’ It felt like coming home because I had such a great experience on Get Out. It’s nice to be back in this group.”

But long before the group officially got back together, Blum said they had to make sure M3GAN was good enough to get invited to the party. “The challenge of the movie was M3GAN, obviously,” he said. “We’ve made mistakes before with special effects and so we did not start pre-production until we had M3GAN down perfectly. We worked on M3GAN for a year to figure out how much practical effects, how much VFX and how much CGI we wanted to use to create it. Sometimes we wanted the audience to forget that she was a robot and other times we wanted them to remember that she was a robot.”

No doubt Wednesday’s premiere audience had the same problem with so many M3GANs in attendance.