Q: How much of religion itself is the bad part of your character, and how much do you think is just herself?

MG: I don't think religion is the bad part, but I think extremism allows a consistency of behavior that is bad. Certainly she had a mania, which I discovered only in shooting.

When they first called her the "kooky" lady in the script I thought that's what you call somebody you don't like. But in shooting it, I actually understood that she was probably a paranoid schizophrenic because I felt she was hearing god. She was negotiating, she was exacting her negotiating, for her own self-preservation. Like, "Oh dear lord if I save one person, then I too can be saved." There something almost bossy, and pleading to her. Is religion the bad part of her? No. But this is a huge conversation.

What is religion? Look, the KKK were Christians, definitively Christians. What the hell is that? The people who forged new paths in America, slaughtered Indians. The same people torture people in the war. Gonzales, he's Christian and he says it's Ok to torture. How can you be Christian and be Ok with torture? I don't understand that. So to me, I say...it's a very fascinating thing. What is religion?

But now we're talking about books, words, written by men...war has always existed. We have to justify it in the name of "freedom." I mean, we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima in the name of "freedom." So, as a kid, I would think about that because I lived in Japan. But, how is that Christian, or how is that Ok? It was explained to me many many times that it was necessary and Ok. But it was still an atrocious act toward another human being.

It's embarrassing to talk about it. If I talk about it it's almost as if I'm pontificating it. Or I'm better than, you, I walk the Christian path, blah. blah, blah. But I'm not. I do have a "Prius." [laughs] But I do have a minivan too, it gets great mileage, I don't have a Hummer. These life-grappling questions we ask..."Thou shalt not kill." What about that? Or why would somebody rather look over here and say, "Chapter two, verse two, it says, 'Homosexuals are not Christian and cannot be loved by God.'" But over here, it says "love your neighbor, and love your neighbor as yourself." You know? These are the things that you grapple with, anyone in this room grapples with. Talking about it makes me seem like I'm preaching to you to grapple with them, but I'm not.

There are things that I grapple with playing with "Mrs. Carmody." Who is she, and why does she behave the way she does and how did she get to the way she behaves? There are people in this country who are just like that.

Q: Did you research on fundamentalist Christianity?

MG: Some. I bought the "Idiots Guide to Revelations." [laughs] So I could make all those words make sense. You know, The Four Horseman, and all that stuff. When you look at dialogue on a paper, and as an actor, if it's "bible-speak" it might as well be Shakespeare.

And so the approach should be Shakespearian towards it. So you say "...And so the Four Horsemen cometh, galloping across the mighty clouds, descending unto you and will take your very soul." Let's say I had that line.

If I say that again, [dramatically loud voice] "...And so the Four Horsemen cometh, galloping across the mighty clouds, descending unto you and will take your very soul!" It sounds so fake.

But if I can say it like this, [intense whisper] "...And so the Four Horsemen cometh, galloping across the mighty clouds, descending unto you and will take your very soul..." and I look at you and try to make it real and make it personal and take it down, then I understand who she is, and what she's saying and what she's fighting against. It was a very real process of dissecting language and making it very specific.

Q: How much were you on the same page with Frank? Did he want you to go "over the top, down play things?

MG: It's a rare occasion that I a feel a director has little ego attached and Frank has tremendous ego, in the best way, but only a little ego attached to my performance. He's helping me sculpt it, not control it. It was very collaborative.

I created five different looks initially. I had costumes, I had hair, we went to the bathroom from 10: 30 am to 2: 30 in the morning because I was shooting this other film, we created "the nun"-- high white shirt, black jacket, hair pulled back. I created "Tammy Faye," beautiful little jacket, pretty skirt and knee short, with glasses. I created an "environmental hippie" who was pissed off, a woman who never had an opportunity to be a mother. And then the "preacher's daughter." He liked the "nun" but I felt it was still a little too obvious. Like you would walk in and just know, that something was odd. And also, I didn't think it would sexual, it wouldn't be fun.

He was very supportive. There were moments where I thought I could've done more. But then there were other times where I felt like, had the camera been in a different place it would feel different. I would tell the camera guys, "There's this great shot happening on right now. As I'm talking about blood and death, there's a girl in the background sobbing, and I said how bout you come in on me on my line and then go out on her and then back on me. Frank would be like, "That's great, I love it, let me see it." And so we would do it.

There was one particular take, one of the preaching scenes, I'm preaching and I'm done now with the lines and I expect the camera to stop, but it keeps rolling. The extras are all around me and they're in it. And they also have a very religious background and they were completely surrendering to the process of this and they were there. One lady was stamping her feet, crying, brother John who was a Vietnam vet, who is win this coma for like a month after he fell down this mine shaft--they're all like right there. So Frank kept on rolling and I had to preach my own words for like four minutes. He kept that bloody camera rolling. [laughs] I had to come up with all kinds of things. The first minute, a fraction of a second, I'm halfway Marcia and halfway "Carmody." And at first, the first second is embarrassing because I can' preach, where's the script? But then the words just came out. It was really fun.

Q: Did you find, when you did "Canvas," when you learned about crazy people and psychosis, did it help?

MG: No, I didn't know she was crazy until I saw the film. I'd never placed it. I knew she was a little bit, but I didn't look at it medically, I looked at it in a different way. I thought she was right. The bug didn't eat her and that meant something. That meant she was chosen. What was interesting was that allowed her to be adamant.

Q: It seems that this role really struck a chord in you. Did you have that immediate reaction when you first read the script? The whole idea of fear?

MG: The Bible speech didn't strike a chord in me. The most interesting part for me was the "Lord of the Flies" element. What do human beings do? What would I do? And I don't know I would be so noble, you would think you would. But if there's bugs out that window or dinosaurs, grabbing you and eating your head off? Then I would think it would be the end of the world. And I would justify that by showing you where it says in the bible, or Nostradamus, and whatever. I would be able to sum up all the prophecy that was given, more than a scientific experiment drilling to another universe.

Now if I was in that store, would I horde a little something? I'm sure I would. Because I shove myself in the subway to get a seat sometimes. I push myself, to get there first. Do I think I'll be ultimately community minded? Like we're in this together? I only hope so because I don't think we can live in this day and age where there's global warming, where there's nuclear war, a lack of sustainability of food, millions of people dying of AIDS, you can't be in this world today, and not think of these things. We know there's an environmental shift happening. As that happens it will change the way we live.

Ever since I was born, we've been at war. I don't know any world that's different. And so, I'm saying unless we follow this path, of recognizing the need for each other across the nations, unless we follow that path, we face some devastating change. I think scientists are saying the same, not trying to be too "Mrs. Carmody." [laughs]

Q: You've had three films currently that have brought you in the public eye that show you in very different lights. Do you like having them out there at the same time?

MG: I've never had so many films come out at the same time. My fear would be that people would be sick of me. They were all shot at different times, but the other thing is I did a two week stint of "Into the Wild." In this year it's been six. I'm afraid people would be sick of me. But I have to work.

“The Mist” opens in theaters everywhere November 21st.