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Actor Michael Cera, left, and director Edgar Wright get serious about their new movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” |
It’s Cera vs. Wright!
Michael Cera is the star of the new frenetic action movie/romance “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” Edgar Wright directed it, along with two earlier comedies “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead.”
I sat down with both at Chicago’s Peninsula Hotel for a brief chat.
DG. Mr. Wright, what led you to decide to treat the numerous action scenes in “Scott Pilgrim” as if they were musical numbers?
EW. In the books, when Scott Pilgrim destroys opponents, they explode into coins, just like in a video game. The only way I could think of to make that work in a film was to play it like a musical. In the same way in musicals where people break into songs or dance, here they break into fights.
A big fight scene in a Hong Kong action film is like a dance number. I used that as a cue for a way to structure the film. A lot of recent action films, particularly the Bourne films, are going for this rough-and-tumble realism. This is much more choreographed and stylized. Choreographing this with actors is more like learning ballet than it is a rough-and-tumble fist fight.”
DG. Mr. Cera, did you ever imagine you’d be a super action hero in a movie one day?
MC. No, I never thought about it. It wasn’t something that I ever dreamed about or anything. Besides, this movie is a lot more than that. (Read more…)