A Quentin Tarantino Movie Helped A Star Land Their Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Role

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Certain movies endure as time capsules of the era and culture that gave rise to them. So it is with "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," director Edgar Wright's 2010 film adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's "Scott Pilgrim" comic books (or graphic novels, if we're being fancy). It's a movie that roundly holds up when it comes to Wright's prowess behind the camera, with many scenes drifting hazily into one another — reflecting the mindset of Mr. Pilgrim (Michael Cera), an aimless 22-year-old Canadian bassist in a go-nowhere garage band — in-between the film's high-octane action. But if self-involved, immature hipsters are your kryptonite, then it may test your patience.

It's also interesting to look back at Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the 20-something American woman who sweeps Scott off his feet. On the surface, Ramona embodies a trope that pervaded Hollywood movies in the 2000s. Typically referred to by the (arguably problematic) moniker of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, this archetype usually took on the form of a quirky woman in her 20s who appears to exist chiefly to fall in love with disenchanted men and push them to get their lives on track. Yet, for all the ways that Ramona fulfills that role, she's also wounded by her past mistakes and trying to find her own way (even as her ex-partners literally battle it out with Scott in their efforts to control her).

Winstead plays Ramona with a spot-on mix of aloofness and vulnerability, so it's a good thing that Wright was close with Quentin Tarantino. As Winstead revealed in Entertainment Weekly's 2020 "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" oral history, she, Wright, and Tarantino were all "hanging around" when she starred in the latter's unconventional 2007 slasher flick "Death Proof." This led to Wright casting her as Ramona.

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"Death Proof" might not always get the respect it deserves, yet it's not what one would call a real showcase for Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She only appears in roughly a quarter of the film and doesn't get a whole lot of Quentin Tarantino's famously meaty dialogue to sink her teeth into. It's a testament, then, to Winstead's screen presence that Edgar Wright "had the idea" of casting her as Ramona after seeing the movie. "I think it had a lot to do with my eyes looking really similar to the drawing," she (sorta) joked to EW.

Later, Winstead defended Ramona as a character:

"What I liked about Ramona is that she's not asking for the attention, it just kind of follows her around, whatever she does. She's the reluctant femme fatale. She's not trying to be this cool or anything, she just sort of attracts this attention, and it's a little bit exhausting. It was cool to get to play what I guess people would see as this Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but, to me, that's not what she was trying to be at all. She was just trying to figure herself out."

Much as I agree with Winstead, though, it's 2023's splendid "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" that truly does right by Ramona. An animated remix (so to speak) of Wright's "Scott Pilgrim" movie that features the same actors, the series makes Ramona its lead and does a far better job of unpacking and examining her baggage. (That and, frankly, Ramona's more interesting than Scott. Sorry, Scott.) It may have only gotten a single season before being canceled by Netflix, but "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" alone is reason enough to be grateful that Tarantino put Winstead on Wright's radar.