Mary Elizabeth Winstead Reveals Her Passionate Dislike for ‘Passions’
What To Know
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead began her career at age 14 on the soap opera Passions, which was known for its bizarre and chaotic storylines.
- Winstead described the experience as technically valuable but emotionally unrewarding.
- She ultimately broke her contract to leave the show, leading to more positive acting experiences.
Does Mary Elizabeth Winstead dislike Passions with a passion?
The Hand the Rocks the Cradle actress was recently a guest on Zach Sang’s podcast to discuss her career, which began when she was just a teen. At age 14, she landed the role of Jessica Bennett on the supernatural soap Passions, a daytime drama known for its totally unhinged storylines, campy tone, and eccentric characters, including witches, talking dolls, and unexpected love triangles. The gig marked her first major break in Hollywood and set the stage for a career that would span television, film, and beyond.
But the experience wasn’t exactly a dream come true.
“Passions is cool,” said Sang. “Like, there are talking dolls, and there were curses, and there were a lot of witches on screen. It was the frequency of a soap, right? So was it every day?”
“It was every day. We shot an episode a day,” revealed the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World actress. “I mean, that was a great training ground just for like technical stuff: you got to know your lines, you got to hit your mark… You’re just shooting, shooting, shooting…so that was good, at least for like learning the ropes, in that sense. But I can’t say that it was deeply rewarding.”
The off-the-rails Passions was well known for its bizarre and chaotic storylines, which pushed the soap to extremes when it came to tone, plot, and logic. From time travel to poor Timmmy being stuck in a well for over a month, the series gleefully broke every daytime convention imaginable, creating one of the most unforgettable soaps in TV history. And strangest.
As Jessica Bennett, Winstead played the “good” Bennett daughter, who often protected others from her scheming sister Kay (Taylor Anne Mountz and later Deanna Wright) while she also dealt with witches (Tabitha Lenox), living dolls (Timmy), and the occasional prophecy. This made Jessica one of the few “normal” residents in the bizarre town of Harmony. Her storylines focused on family loyalty, sibling rivalry, and the challenges of growing up amid the chaos. But unfortunately for Winstead, that challenge applied to both on and off camera.
NBC/courtesy Everett Collection (photo by Joe Pugliese)
In Off Camera with Sam Jones, Winstead opened up more about the experience a bit more, which veered more towards the negative. “I didn’t particularly enjoy the experience,” said the Ahsoka actress. “Luckily, I had worked a little bit before that, even if it was just in Utah and on little parts and things. But I had such an amazing experience on everything I had done leading up to this, that I kind of knew this wasn’t what everything was like.”
“There was a real militant vibe about the whole thing, which wasn’t friendly, and it wasn’t encouraging or warm. They had all these rules about parents, like my mom wasn’t allowed on set, ” revealed Winstead. “She had to be on the premises, but they wouldn’t let her on set. She had to stay in my dressing room all day long, and then there were times where she would kind of try and quietly be there [for me], and [they] would be like, ‘We’ll just pretend we didn’t see you around here.”
“So, I just was miserable. I was really unhappy. Even at 14, I just knew that this was bad,” said Winstead. “It was not what I thought I was getting into when I went out to L.A. to try to be an actor.”
The actress revealed she ultimately broke her contract to quit the show. Soon after leaving Passions, Winstead began landing roles that led to far more positive experiences on set and set her on the path to a successful career.
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