• Home
• /
• Entertainment

Win-Win situation

“I’VE HEARD ‘OH, you’re going to break out’ or ‘You’re going to become the next big thing’ or ‘You’re going to start getting offers,”’ Mary Elizabeth Winstead says.

“And I’ve been hearing that for years.”

Winstead has heard all that for good reason. Still only 25, she has appeared in several television shows and more than a dozen features, none of which has exploded sufficiently to catapult her to the next level.

Cases in point: the werewolves-in-Seattle series Wolf Lake (2001-2002), the Disney family adventure film Sky High (2005), the horror flick Final Destination 3 (2006), the ensemble drama Bobby (2006), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), in which she played the daughter of Bruce Willis’ iconic John McClane, and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, half of the double feature Grindhouse (2007).

“I’m pretty happy with where I’m at,” Winstead says. “I’ve gotten some really good opportunities. I would love to get to the point where I get to choose whatever projects I want to do, but at the same time it’s pretty great to be in the industry and have your anonymity and to be just a completely normal person.

“So I’m prepared for anything,” she says, “we’ll see where Scott Pilgrim ends up taking me. Hopefully it’ll be somewhere beyond where I am now.”

Michael Cera of Superbad fame stars as the titular hero in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – playing a likable doofus and bass player who falls hard for Ramona Flowers (Winstead). Ramona is a sexy delivery girl with ever-changing hair colours, the ability to travel through subspace and, oh yeah, seven evil exes, who follow her around and demand to battle any and all new boyfriends.

Speaking by telephone from her Los Angeles home, Winstead calls the new release “completely faithful” to the Brian O’Malley comic books, right down to Ramona’s roller skates and oversized hammer (see above right). She adds that, thanks to director Edgar Wright, it’s also unlike anything anyone ever has seen on screen.

“Everything about it is so different,” the actress says. “Starting with the tone and the pacing, it’s so Edgar. If you’re familiar with his other films, like Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007), or with the TV show Spaced (1999-2001), it takes even what he’s done before to a new level.

“Doing a film that matches up fight scenes and romance and comedy and music in a way that’s never been done before is exciting,” Winstead continues. “Edgar has described the fights as being like what you’d see in a musical, where the emotions get too strong and people break into song. In this, when emotions get too strong, they break into fights.”

PLAYING IT STRAIGHT

Ramona, in many ways, serves as the film’s straight man. “Exactly,” Winstead says. “I saw her as a bit of a tragic figure actually, because she’s never been able to move on with he