Actor Michael Cera starred in 2007’s “Juno,” a dramedy that spoke to a generation. Fellow big-screen thespian Jason Schwartzman did the same in “Rushmore” nearly a decade earlier. Now the pair do it again, this time joining forces in the highly stylized “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” based on the popular graphic novel series.
It’s something director Edgar Wright (“Hot Fuzz”) says the actors joked about on the set. Cera plays Scott Pilgrim, a slacker musician who pines for female hipster Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who seems to change her hair color as often as her boyfriends. To have her, Pilgrim must battle her seven evil ex-partners, including Gideon (Schwartzman), the biggest baddie of the bunch.
Having “Juno’s” Paulie Bleeker facing off against “Rushmore’s” Max Fischer is something Wright likens to a third-act rumble in a “Rocky” flick. Yet all epic pairings aside, the actors say they simply jumped at the chance to work together.
“‘Rushmore’ means more to me than any other movie,” says Cera, “and it was insane to be sword fighting with Jason. I couldn’t believe it.”
Sitting next to Cera and Wright in a Buckhead restaurant, Schwartzman soaks up the sentiment, then throws one back.
“I always loved watching [Cera’s] work,” Schwartzman says, “and when Edgar said he was going to be in this film, I just had to work with this guy.”
Working together required the pair to step into an imaginative world conceived by Wright, co-screenwriter Michael Bacall and comic creator Bryan Lee O'Malley. It’s a fantastic alternate reality where video game graphics and pop culture sound bites nimbly intertwine with the real world.
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” plays like sensory overload with dizzying action and oodles of computer-generated imagery (CGI). But Wright seamlessly integrates real sets, in-camera effects and computer animation.
“That was important,” Wright says. “People sometimes use CGI as a derogatory term. But there’s a lot of physical artistry going on. The fights aren’t powered by CGI. This is all amazing choreography.”
Cera and his battling co-stars did many of their own stunts in the fight sequences, some of which took as much as three weeks to complete.
But the meticulous action was actually instantly gratifying for Cera “in a way it never had before. We were filming these sequences, and Edgar and editor Paul Machliss would be cutting a shot we had done 10 minutes ago, and putting the pieces together. We’d see the fight scene coming together, and that was really amazing.”
Equally amazing to Cera is the response preview audiences are giving “Pilgrim.” The crowd at a recent sold-out sneak peek at The Plaza Theatre in Atlanta reacted with near-constant laughter, cheers and applause. And the noise hit a fever pitch when Cera, Schwartzman and Wright made a surprise appearance after the film for a Q&A.
But it was the late July screening at Comic-Con International in San Diego where Cera got his first taste of acceptance from “Pilgrim” comic fans.
“Comic Con was the most gratifying, because they didn’t hate it and they could have,” he recalls. “They stood up afterward and were cheering throughout it. The people who love the graphic novel seemed to be satisfied with the film, which felt incredible.”
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