For Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinksi Pulled Off the Perfect Combo Move on ‘Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’
On June 6, the 2024 IndieWire Honors ceremony will celebrate 13 creators and stars responsible for some of the most stellar work of the TV season. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, this event is a new edition of its IndieWire Honors event focused entirely on television. In the days leading up to the event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their peers.
Ahead, “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” star Mary Elizabeth Winstead tells IndieWire about the joy that our Spark award winners, Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski, brought to the older, wiser — but still hilarious — animated version of Scott Pilgrim.
As told to Sarah Shachat. The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I was first introduced to the world of “Scott Pilgrim” through Edgar Wright, who met with me about the role of Ramona and slipped me the books by Bryan Lee O’Malley— probably a couple years before we ever made the film — and I completely fell in love with them. I couldn’t imagine doing any other project; it was actually really difficult to go on auditions and take meetings because I kept saying, “No, I’m just going to do this movie. I don’t really want to do any of the other ones.” So, I was pretty obsessed with it.
Then at some point, when things started to become a bit more real, Edgar created all these parties and events with other people involved in the project and, very quickly, we became pretty close as a group; all of us would hang out and go to dinners and go to movies and to Edgar’s parties, and it became almost like this college experience. We were all majoring in “Scott Pilgrim” together. That’s where I met Bryan, who I always remember being the quiet guy, the shy guy, which was funny considering he was the person who started it all. But I always remember and respected that he didn’t need to show off how talented and smart he was. He let the work speak for itself — and it did. We all just loved it so much.
So did BenDavid. I first met BenDavid at a party about a year after “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” had come out. He came up to me and my then-husband at the time and gushed about “Scott Pilgrim” — just kind of nonstop about how he was the biggest fan of it in the world. Then he became one of our closest friends, and through us, became one of Bryan’s closest friends. I’m basically taking credit for the two of them, but this amazing kismet happened, and they found each other and were able to collaborate.
I was so blown away by how Bryan and BenDavid were able to simultaneously capture these young guys that they were in 2009 or 2010 and at the same time bring all this wisdom and heartache and regret and hope that comes with getting older, infusing these characters and the world of “Scott Pilgrim” with that. It’s really beautiful and totally unexpected to bring this new lens to the story — and I related to all of it so much from my own personal experience. We were all babies together when we made the movie and we’ve all grown; we’ve all gotten divorced; we’ve all gone through really similar experiences from 2010 to now. There’s something really amazing about getting to express that growth through these characters.
There’s also something that just pops off the page when you’re reading Bryan and BenDavid’s scripts. You can see so clearly what the story’s going to be. We had Science Saru, these incredible animators, bringing it to life — basing it on the comics but obviously adding their own twist to it, so there was definitely an element of surprise for me watching the show. But at the same time, there’s something really visual about the writing and the comedic visual cues Bryan and BenDavid put into the scripts. You know how it’s going to play out visually, which is fantastic.
BenDavid is such a cinephile, and he brings all of the movie references and love of movies and genres in this show to the table. He knows every reference they take inspiration from. It’s so fun and so funny, laugh-out-loud weird and unexpected, and it takes all these twists and turns that you think you wouldn’t even be allowed to do. Bryan has this unique ability to mine personal struggles for comedy in a very specific way. To be able to be silly and poppy and colorful and also bring this pathos to the story and have it still be totally Scott Pilgrim? That’s no easy feat. It’s the kind of thing that only exists because it’s coming from this very specific place and I don’t think anybody else would have been able to pull it off.
On “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” I learned a lot from just being around so many talented people, from the writing to the directing to all of the other actors; and I learned something about becoming a family through your work. There was something really special that hadn’t really happened to that degree for me before or really since. It’s so special that you can create this environment where you feel attached to a group of people throughout the whole of your life because you were put in a situation so bonding at a particularly unique time in your life.
On “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,” it was incredibly cathartic for me to get to play this version of Ramona; to get to see her go down this road and to have so much agency, for her to be making so many choices for herself and propelling the story forward herself. I was so happy to get to go through that with her. Bryan and BenDavid pulled it off in such a profound and beautiful way.
Putting that — and the two of them — together has made for the perfect combination.
Read Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski’s IndieWire Honors interview here.
