SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary With a Look Back at the Making and Some Fun Casting What Ifs
It’s been ten years since the instant classic Scott Pilgrim vs. the World hit theaters and made its mark in cinematic history. The action flick/love story stole our hearts, telling the tale of Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) falling for the mysterious Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and battling her seven evil exes to win his place as her boyfriend. The rest of the brilliant cast includes Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Ellen Wong, Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Mae Whitman, Brandon Routh, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, and Satya Bhabha.
This was a perfect movie that was directed by Edgar Wright and adapted by Wright and Michael Bacall, based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley. Multiple publications reached out to the director and the cast and talked to them about their experience, and one awesome piece of info that Wright talked to Variety about was the casting of the film, and the big names that almost got cast in it:
“Sometimes there will be an [actor] I see… Like when I saw Betty Gilpin in GLOW. I was like, ‘Why does this woman look familiar? She’s amazing, oh, my God. Why do I know her? Why does that name sound familiar?’ And it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, she read for Scott Pilgrim.’ That’s what I do feel quite good about,” he said, “because I looked at my notes again and I had written by Betty Gilpin: ‘She’s great.’ At least I feel good about the fact that even if people lost out on the roles… there’s a lot of people who were kind of next.”
Sebastian Stan almost landed the role of Stephen, the frontman of Sex Bob-Omb. Scott’s ex, and drummer of the band, Kim, had now big names Rooney Mara and Zoe Kazan audition for the role. And even Robert Pattinson threw his hat in the ring for the role that eventually went to Chris Evans.
Michael Cera compared the yearlong movie shoot to feeling like summer camp, and Wright recalled his favorite on-set memory to THR, saying:
"I have this thing where I wouldn't make the actors do anything that I wouldn't do, so if there were any rigs, like flying up in the air, I would do it and sometimes video myself, or do it in front of Michael." Of the training classes, Wright remembers working out at 8 in the morning with the main cast, even those who weren't in any fight scenes, like Kieran Culkin. "The kids who weren't in the fight scenes felt left out that they weren't doing any of the training, so they just came along for the hell of it just to train. It was so fun. Seeing Michael and Chris Evans doing push-ups together is just... this is why you get into the business, for these, sort of, beautiful moments."
Cera told the publication that despite having to train himself to stop blinking for extended periods of time with all the lengthy close-up shots between him and his nemeses in the fight sequences, it was a joy to work on the entire time, and he went through a big separation anxiety as soon as the film wrapped.
Check out the first of the tweets Wright has put out in celebration of the film’s anniversary below, and maybe give the movie a rewatch this week. Have fun!