Samara Weaving is well on her way to being one of the leading Scream Queens of her generation, with memorable roles in films like Mayhem, The Babysitter and this week’s acclaimed horror-comedy Ready or Not. But in a new interview with Bloody-Disgusting the actor says we haven’t seen anything yet. Her most violent role ever is about to debut at TIFF, and it’s called Guns Akimbo.

Guns Akimbo, directed by Jason Lei Howden, stars Daniel Radcliffe as a slacker who gets pulled into a series of life-or-death gladiator fights for a TV series on the dark web, and Weaving co-stars as his ex-girlfriend Nova, who gets kidnapped to motivate him to participate.

“That film, that transformation was so wild, because… have you seen photos?” Weaving laughs.

“Yeah, it was like a social experiment. People would cross the street to get away from me. Because most of the time, because the turnaround is different in Australia, because we filmed it in New Zealand and I was under Equity, not SAG, so most of the time because it took like four or five hours to get into makeup, so I’d just go home with it on.

“Yeah, people would run away. I’d try and buy groceries and they would look very concerned.”

Those stylistic choices aren’t just for show either. “[The tattoos] say a lot about the character. There’s a lot of aggressive words,” she explains, laughing.

“It’s the most violent character I’ve ever played,” Weaving says. “Way more violent [than Mayhem]. In Mayhem they had to work with what they got. They had office supplies. This is…”

Samara Weaving trails off and starts laughing to herself. “Oh no…”

In spite of all that, Weaving admits that she’s actually pretty squeamish about violence.

“Yeah, I have trouble. ’80s and ’90s horror films, and thrillers, like Hitchcock films, I’m so down. Because you can kind of see the strings being pulled,” Weaving explains. “But my fiancé tried to show me It the other [day] – It’s on Instagram – he filmed my reaction. It’s too real, the effects these days. It’s so terrifying.

“And I think the stories are really great, and it’s so fun working on them because you’re like, ‘Ooh! This is how they do it!’” Weaving says. “But I still get so scared so easily.”