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Mary Elizabeth Winstead was so determined to “look cool” in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, she developed an agonizing case of tendonitis while filming her fight scenes.
Winstead plays the title character’s love interest Ramona V. Flowers in the big screen adaptation of the graphic novel and she completed a variety of stunts, including backflips, high kicks and tumbling down stairs.
Her favourite scenes involved swinging a giant hammer, but Winstead admits she hurt herself with the weapon, injuring her shoulder and developing tendonitis.
She tells Britain’s Total Film magazine, “I get to use it like a really cool weapon, kung fu-style. It was just really fun to get to learn that and execute it in a way that looks cool on screen. It feels really rewarding. It was tough, but I definitely felt tough and crazy.”
(Source)
On a break shooting scenes for the upcoming prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic The Thing, Winstead spoke with Under the Radar about screaming and scary movies, evil exes, and what it’s like to work with two geeks like Michael Cera and Edgar Wright.
Mike Hilleary: Looking at your filmography one would think you have a serious affinity for scary movies.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: I know. I don’t know if I have an affinity for it or if it has an affinity for me or both. I’m not sure.
What is it about them that you enjoy so much as an actress?
I guess I like wondering if they’re going to scare me, trying to figure out if the film is going work on that level. I’m a pretty tough scare, so I enjoy that sort of test of it.
What have you been working on today?
Today we were shooting a scene that kind of goes back a little bit more towards the beginning of the film where things first start going wrong. Someone gets attacked, and it’s kind of a difficult scene because it involves about 15 people. Everyone at the base comes out and finds this bloody massacre out in the snow. Trying to deal with everyone and all of our reactions is pretty intense. But it’s fun. In between stuff it feels like we’re all in school or something just hanging out.
How would you describe Wright as a director?
He’s just one of those guys who knows what he wants. He had more faith in me than I had in myself, I think, because at that point I had to fight for everything. Nobody was offering me anything. To think that somebody would be offering me this part that so many other actresses would have wanted, it’s still a crazy thought. I honestly don’t know what goes on in his head or how he goes from one point to the other, because it really is just all in his head. He knows exactly what he wants, and whatever he says you do it and you know it’s going to be great. He has such a specific vision, a specific style. He’s extremely funny and charming and smart and he brings all of that to everything that he does. All of that together I think is what makes his films so great.
To check out the full interview, just click here.
Comicus.it conducted a phone interview with Mary on her role in Scott Pilgrim. Read an excerpt below:
Hello Mary Elizabeth and welcome on ComicUs. Shall we start with the interview right now or do we have to defeat your seven evil ex-interviewer first…?
[Laughs] I think I’m going to give you the permission to start the interview, there won’t be any evil exes come calling.
Did you know the comic book by Bryan Lee O’Malley before taking the part? Did Edgar Wright recommend you all to read it as starting material or did he prefer you to concentrate on the script of the film version?
I read the books because Edgar Wright introduced me to them. I had a meeting with him and he told me he was going to be adapting these books to a film and thought I should take a look at them. So I went home and had the first three books, because that was how many were out at this time and I was blown away. I just thought, you know, EW combining that source materials would be such an amazing combination and I was so excited of being part of that project.
You have been involved in different action and fighting scenes too, were they hard scenes to perform?
Well, it was really challenging, and we trained for a few months together every day, eight hours a day, doing fight choreography and trainings. And we worked with an amazing stunt team who really wanted to bring out the best from us, and they kinda would watch out how it works and what work at it and what wont’ work at it. So in the end I was really able to do everything; it was really empowering to be in front of the camera and to be able to do all the stuffs. Too exciting.
To read the full interview, click HERE. (*Note: Scroll down until you reach the English version near the bottom).
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, where the premiere for Scott Pilgrim is taking place tonight, is providing people with the opportunity to see the premiere LIVE on their website! Celebrities will arrive at 6:30 Pacific time. So even if you can’t attend or simply live far away, click HERE to see the event unfold in all it’s epicness!
I’ve added 10 new production photos of Mary in Scott Pilgrim plus two new behind the scenes pictures to the gallery! Click the photos below to check them all out in the gallery! I CANNOT wait to see this film!
A great panel Friday afternoon was the Entertainment Weekly panel Women Who Kick Ass, starring Elizabeth Mitchell of Lost and V, Anna Torv of Fringe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ellen Wong of Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and Jena Malone of Sucker Punch.
Moderator Nicole Sperling asked the women if they were into comics or other geek stuff when they were kids. Torv used to dress up as Wonder Woman, while Malone and Wong preferred the Disney princess/heroines. Asked how hard it has been to get roles, Mitchell said she auditioned seven times and fought hard to play Juliet. On the other hand, she was given the role of Erika in V, which she found more terrifying. For Wong, nothing ever just falls into your lap, one has to fit for everything. She just tried to be herself in her audition for a Knives Chau, because she felt close to the character. Winstead said she would have fought hard to pay Ramona in Scott Pilgrim, but she was actually given the role. She would have fought for the role because Ramona is kind of tragic, but knows how to kick ass.
Do you expect to be role models? For Winstead, Ramona is a complete opposite from her, so she would like to take a bit of her “don’t care” attitude.
What was working with Quentin Tarantino like? It gave Winstead a great confidence that someone like him would want her in one of his films. He would sit down with her for an hour to tell her all the great things she did in a given scene, which was great for her as an actress.
What is your outlook on female characters having to be vixens? Winstead just filmed a movie where she plays a paleontologist that gets to kick alien ass, where in between takes the director told her not to get too pretty.
– All of the actresses agreed about the importance of attempting their own stunts. “Every actor I know wants to do their own stunts,” said Winstead, who worried about falling behind in her Scott Pilgrim training regimen when she was forced to take two weeks off due to illness.
To read the full interview click here
According to Market Watch, the world-premiere for Scott Pilgrim will take place at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on July 27! I really can’t wait to find out what Mary is going to wear!!! 
JULY 22, 2010, SAN DIEGO — Members of the cast of Universal Picture’s action-comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World are kicking off the awards ceremony for the 22nd annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, this Friday night as part of Comic-Con International, the largest comic book convention in the Western Hemisphere.
The Eisner Awards, considered the comics industry’s “Oscars,” will be held in the Indigo Room at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on Friday, July 23, 2010, at 8:30 p.m.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which opens August 13, is based on the graphic novel series by cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley. Volume 5 in the series is nominated in the Best Humor Publication category. Cast members from the film will be the first presenters of the evening, announcing the nominees and winners and three categories. Those expected to appear include Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Satya Bhabha, Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, Mae Whitman and Ellen Wong.
(source)
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