Weapons Star Explains Why the Film’s Antagonist Is ‘Like an Artist’

The following contains major spoilers for Weapons, in theaters now.

Weapons star Amy Madigan has opened up about her already iconic role as Gladys and why the film’s villain is “like an artist.”

Speaking to the New York Times, Madigan responded to the question of what made her fall in love with the film’s murderous Gladys, saying, “I think she’s a very misunderstood woman! For lack of a better term, I am the bad guy in the movie, but a girl’s just doing what she has to do to get through. She has a plan, but I don’t think she quite knew how that was going to unfold.”

“She’s like an artist,” Madigan continued. “She’s very extemporaneous. I think she’s moved around a lot. She’s had to go to different places and when one’s not working, she’s kind of a creator of invention: ‘OK, I’m going to have to reach out to this family.’ She’s really needy in the sense that she needs all these people, she can’t do it on her own, and I found that really intriguing about her.” When asked for her take on the two potential backstories offered for Gladys by writer-director Zach Cregger, those being that either she is a human who uses dark magic to extend her life or that she is an inhuman entity entirely, Madigan replied, “I would say it is an amalgamation of things…. I liked mushing them together and I like the idea of mystery. As long as I’m intentional in my work and what I’m doing, then I’m OK with that.”

The follow-up to Cregger’s 2022 breakout horror hit Barbarian, Weapons revolves largely around Julia Gerner’s Justine Gandy, a school teacher whose entire class goes missing on the same night, save for Cary Christopher’s Alex Lilly. The film also stars Josh Brolin as Archer Graff, the father of one of the missing children, Benedict Wong as school principal Marcus Miller, Alden Ehrenreich as police officer Paul Morgan and Toby Huss as police captain Ed Locke. At the heart of the film’s horrifying mystery is, of course, Amy Madigan’s Gladys, who presents herself as Alex’s distant aunt, yet holds far more sinister truths just beneath her decidedly eccentric surface.

Upon its release, Weapons was lauded by critics and audiences alike. While the film has only been in theaters for little more than a week, it has already brought in more than $148 million at the box office against a budget of only $38 million. Weapons also boasts a near-perfect 94% “Certified Fresh” rating via review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as averaged across more than 300 verified critical reviews of the film. The audience-generated “Popcornmeter” score for the film stands at a similarly impressive 86% approval rating, as averaged across more than five thousand user-submitted reviews.

What’s Next for Weapons and Barbarian Creator Zach Cregger?

Julia Garner looks paranoid in Weapons
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Fans already know that Cregger is working on Sony Pictures’ upcoming Resident Evil feature film reboot, and that he has written what might be the hottest unproduced Batman script to date, but that doesn’t mean he is done with the world he established through Barbarian and Weapons. “I have another idea for something in this world that I’m kind of excited about,” Cregger said during a recent interview, confirming that he does indeed have a follow-up to Weapons in the works to at least some degree. “I’m not going to do it next, and I probably won’t do it after my next movie, but I do have one and I’d like to see it on the screen one day.”

Weapons is playing in theaters now.

Weapons

Release Date

August 8, 2025

Runtime

128 minutes

Director

Zach Cregger

Writers

Zach Cregger

Producers

Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz

• Julia Garner

  Justine Gandy

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