SHE'S GOT THE MOVES

Dancer-turned-actress Amie Donald is about as far as you can get from the role she's best known for

- SARAH BAHR

Onscreen, Amie Donald is best known for her role as the killer robot M3gan in the sci-fi horror franchise.

But, in real life, Donald, 15, spends a majority of her days in the idyllic, sun-soaked setting of lushly forested New Zealand, where kiwi roam and she's apt to take a bush walk outside her parents' home in suburban Auckland.

"I really enjoy all the nature here," she said on a video call from the house on a recent morning. Her long brown hair fell in beachy waves as sunlight danced on her white sweater. Framed photos of her and her parents and her older brother filled the walls behind her.

Donald is about the furthest you could get from the cutthroat killer robot returning in the new sequel, M3gan 2.0, now in Thai cinemas. For one thing, she smiles far too much. Other people, she said, would describe her as "very caring". She wasn't a fan of horror films until landing M3gan — though she's since started watching them with her father, and now counts It and The Purge among her favourites. "I love them so much," she said.

M3gan, the robot that becomes frighteningly protective of a young girl named Cady, was Donald's first role in a film, following her TV debut as Maya Monkey, an acrobatic girl with simian features, in Netflix's postapocalyptic series Sweet Tooth.