Aubrey Plaza has had one of Hollywood’s coolest careers. Whether she’s stealing the show on Parks and Recreation, blowing our minds in The White Lotus, or showing up to fight murderous dolls in Child’s Play — this gal can do just about anything.
Amongst her iconic film roles, one in particular is as beloved today as it was nearly 13 years ago when the movie first debuted. That’s right, I’m talking about Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Feeling old yet? I sure am. In a recent Vanity Fair rewatch interview, Plaza spoke about her time on that one of a kind project.
“Why am I so angry? God, Julie Powers is so angry. I couldn’t be any angrier at him (Michael Cera’s Scott Pilgrim) for no reason. This character was really fun to play. This was one of the first roles I ever had, I had no idea what was going on, I just couldn’t believe I was in a movie at that point.”
With the recent Netflix announcement for an anime adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim source material, something fans have been pushing for years, a particularly welcome detail is that Aubrey Plaza is reprising her role as Julie Powers. Aggression — passive or otherwise — is a tongue-in-cheek quality Plaza is certainly no stranger to — she’s deftly portrayed characters with an edge of angst for years.
“It was so fun because every scene I just had to come in really hot, really aggressive, and I don’t know why it was so easy for me to do that.”
To have one actor (like Aubrey Plaza) grow beyond a movie like Scott Pilgrim vs the World and create a stellar career for themselves is one thing, but to have basically anyone connected to the movie gain international acclaim is entirely different. Seriously, have you ever looked up the cast of this movie and seen what they’ve been up to lately?
If they’re not winning awards, starring in Marvel movies, or lending their golden pipes to Pixar — plenty of the Pilgrim cast and crew have gone on to make legendary careers in entertainment, and I think that’s pretty rad; Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, and Ellen Wong are all co-alumni.
“The cast of this movie is incredible, and we were all young and having fun. It felt like camp. I was spoiled, early on, to get to work on a movie like this with all those incredible people. I had no idea what was going to happen to all these people, I feel like I have had a lot of experiences like that in my life.”
Any time a performer says their experience on a project “felt like camp,” I know things will end up alright before the credits roll. Why? Well, that level of creative fusion can only be found with certain folks at certain times — and to our great benefit, it seems Scott Pilgrim vs the World had the juice. Now let’s just hope the upcoming anime can do the same.
