| 'SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD' - exclusive Q&A with ALISON PILL & MARK WEBBER! |
| Written by Shahlin Graves / Q&A: SUPPLIED |
| Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:07 |
 The effervescent 'SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD' is my favourite film of 2010. There's absolutely nothing that I do not like about it, from the fleeting appearance that the drummer in one of my favourite bands makes, to the oddly endearing duck-like gawk of one Michael Cera. If the fact that Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene wrote all of the songs for Pilgrim's rival-band Crash And The Boys doesn't move you into joyous raptures, you can also take your pick of Beck's composed songs for Scott's band Sex Bob-omb, the influence of Metric and Emily Haines on the portrayal of Clash At Demonhead, 'The Legend Of Zelda' theme-song used in a dream sequence, Tennessee Thomas of The Like playing drummer Lynette Guycott, former tween-starlet Brie Larson all grown-up as Envy Adams, former Phantom Planet drummer (now of Coconut Records) Jason Schwartzman perfectly despicable as evil-ex mastermind Gideon Gordon Graves - and non-music related, but Anna Kendrick is awesome as usual, playing Scott's sister Stacey. I love this film. So what better way to cap off 2010 than with an exclusive Q&A with SEX BOB-OMB band members Kim Pine and Stephen Stills, who in reality answer to the names of ALISON PILL and MARK WEBBER, respectively.  Q: Can you introduce us to who your character is in the movie? ALISON PILL: I play Kim Pine, who is the drummer of Sex Bob-Omb and the ex-girlfriend of Scott Pilgrim. MARK WEBBER: I play Stephen Stills, the front man/guitarist of the band Sex Bob-Omb, the "talent". Now it's interesting, there was an incredibly famous musician named Stephen Stills. How much do you think that is playing into that? Do you think that audiences are even going to be aware of it? MARK: Um... I think it depends on what age you are. ALISON: It depends on whether you're at the movie for the music. If you're there because you're a fan of Metric and Broken Social Scene - then you'll get it. How cool is it to be in a band? How were your own musical skills prior to this movie? ALISON: I've been singing for a long time and picked up various instruments over the years, but I've never been a drummer. It's something that I wasn't even sure that I could do. I'm not the most co-ordinated individual in the world. MARK: No, but that's what made it shocking - just how great she became on drums. It was pretty amazing. ALISON: It was really fun. You're a pretty proactive drummer. Before they can even say three... you were already starting. ALISON: <laughs> Do you think you're that way in general? Are you a very proactive kind of person? ALISON: Uh, Kim Pine, or me? Kim Pine. ALISON: No, Kim Pine doesn't really care. She'll start when she wants, that's kind of her thing. Mark, how were your guitar skills prior to this? MARK: Oh, they were non-existent. They're still non-existent. But I had to learn how to sing and I feel like I did that fairly well, plus I can fake-play the guitar pretty good. Beck actually did the music for your band. Was he actually on set with you? How close did you work with him at all? ALISON: We didn't. He wrote the songs, recorded them here in L.A. and then sent them along with Nigel Godrich, who is the best producer working today. And then he worked with Mark... MARK: I had to go in the studio... Jimmy Shaw from Metric, his home studio, and re-record the vocals for the Sex Bob-Omb tracks. And that was amazing.  What type of band rehearsal was there for the three of you? ALISON: It was the four of us, because Johnny Simmons was always there, he's Young Neil in the movie. And all of us got to play around the first few rehearsals. We didn't play to track, we just bummed around in the space and kind of played seven-minute versions of every song, just to get used to playing together. And then eventually we had to be responsible and learn exactly how Beck had recorded his instrumentals and play exactly to that. Did you have a chance to talk to Bryan [Lee O'Malley]? Because so much of what he wrote was autobiographical, there were actually people he based those characters on. MARK: Yeah, Bryan was around... ALISON: And the real Comeau is in the movie. He's the announcer at the first band show... MARK: That's true - a little interesting titbit. Bryan has written such an amazing series, so we always had that as reference material. Bryan is just such an amazing guy - he's a super sweet, humble, down to earth person who was also very excited about what was going on and to see his books turn into this big monstrosity. It was the first time he was ever exposed to anything like this. Did you find it important as actors to want to go back to the source material and look at the comic and the graphic novels? MARK: Totally. None of this would be happening if it weren't for Bryan having written what he did. And it was great to be able to look at an expression that your character was making on a page and have that as a point of reference. This movie really speaks to a generation in a language that is relevant to that generation, whether it be the video iconography or the anime. I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about that aspect of the movie... ALISON: I'm not really part of this generation in many ways <laughs>, so a lot of it is beyond me. To me the movie is just awesome and funny and there's a love story at the heart of it, and the cast is really good, so that's more what I connected with. I don't have a Twitter account, I'm not on Facebook, I don't even have the Internet at my house right now, I don't have any video games - so I'm kind of the wrong audience in some ways! MARK: I have a Twitter account. But I am right there with Alison in so many ways. I think that is what's really great about this movie, that it embodies a certain aspect of youth culture and popular culture in a way that is just really smartly done. ALISON: And it feels really natural, I mean the storytelling itself is so fit for this generation. MARK: Yeah. It doesn't feel gimmicky or forced. It comes from a really pure place with really talented people. ALISON: And I don't think that there's a sense of taking advantage of this generation's tropes. It just makes sense for the movie to be done this way. The heart of the film, is about relationships and anybody whether they've played video games or not have either broken a heart or had a heart broken. I was wondering as the film chronicles this redemption vs. retribution aspect of how we deal with it, how do your characters respond to it? You had a bad relationship with Scott going into it, but what do you think that element brings to the movie? MARK: Something that people can identify with, it's the rooted realism in the film. When it gets crazy, big and magical, at its core, it's about relationships and the way in which people deal with baggage and their pasts and how they're going to proceed.  How honest are you with friends, because it's like at the very beginning of the movie when Scott comes in and says, "I met this new girl", you guys are ruthless. Do you sit with situations like that when friends come in and pass along information? ALISON: I'm pretty honest. MARK: I'm pretty honest too. ALISON: Like, "that was a dumb move..." MARK: Honest. Very honest. It's important. ALISON: It's important, that's why you have them around - nobody else is going to tell you. MARK: Yeah, you've got to... If you're somebody's friend, you've got to be straight up, otherwise, why are you friends? So how does honesty work on the set of a film, because sometimes you're going to have a good day and sometimes you're not. How does Edgar [Wright] deal with each actor? MARK: Edgar is... as a director, it's a sensitive thing. Honesty becomes a sensitive thing. He's a very straight up person and very specific and very good at his job, he's a great director - so part of being a really good director is knowing each actor and what their process is and you factor that into how you communicate with them. For us, we luckily all had each other as well, so I've known Alison for a while now and we know each other really well and how we work, so that was very comforting for me. And Michael and Johnny, we were all such a close group of people that really understood each other and really had each other's back. Now although you guys didn't get involved in a lot of the big action sequences, you were involved in a couple of the band playoffs where things kind of went to a different level. Can you walk us through a little bit of what those experiences were like? It seems like there were wind machines and wires... ALISON: They wanted me to have a stunt double to duck! I was like, "really? You guys, I know I didn't go through fight training for three months, but I'm pretty sure I can duck out of the way of a flying sparkler..." MARK: <laughs> It's true! She was not happy about that. ALISON: I was unhappy. Everybody else, all the guys were allowed to. I will point out some sexism. And then Mark got to go up on a rig... MARK: On a rig, yeah, it was a whole thing. I had a whole stunt. She ended up ducking, by the way. ALISON: I did my own ducking. MARK: She ducked well. But for an audience, as a voyeur to those moments, when you're watching all the action take place, how cool was it to see it in the little bits and pieces... ALISON: Not at all cool. It's really boring. MARK: To be brutally honest. It's very fragmented. On the rare occasion when you'd see a bigger chunk of the choreography and some of the stunt guys and all that stuff, it's incredible what they do and their work ethic is insane... ALISON: And the way it all comes together is amazing. The fight scenes look incredible.  |
