Apologies to all for the lack of news on here lately! Been feeling under the weather & while I’m still not feeling totally great, I thought I’d update you all with the latest round of news. First up, during last week’s Critics Choice Awards that took place on Sunday, it was announced (during a moment in the show they were going to commercial) that the Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off won best animated series! Congratulations to the whole team on that and everyone involved. It was well deserved!
In related news, GLAAD just came out with their list of nominations for the 35th annual GLAAD Media Awards and SPTO is nominated in the ‘Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series‘ against shows like Netflix’s Bodies & The Fall of the House of Usher. The awards ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 14, 2024 at The Beverly Hilton and in New York on Saturday, May 11, 2024 at The New York Hilton Midtown.
Finally, Mary gave a brand new interview with The Hollywood Reporter this past week discussing her roles in both Ahsoka and returning to the role of Ramona in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. I added some highlights from the interview below, but as always, click the link above to read the interview in full.
You had these two exciting projects that you couldn’t talk about for the longest time, and that’s something you’d never really experienced. A big part of the job is talking about the job. So did it feel pretty isolating? Did it make you anxious?
I suppose it came along at a good time for me because life was so busy anyway. So I didn’t really mind having the opportunity to do the work and letting it speak for itself. There was something liberating about it. That’s not to say that it’s stressful speaking to you, but the thought of promoting something is often another layer of stress. So, in that sense, it was a little bit freeing, but in another sense, the lack of celebration was a bit hard, particularly with Ahsoka. It was unfortunate to not really be able to get together with one another and celebrate all the effort that went into it. So it was nice once the strike was over, as we were able to get together and just have a meal and say, “Oh my God, look at what we made.” Those kinds of things are special, and I’m happy that we’re able to do that again.
When the Ahsoka offer came in, did you walk down the hall and say, “Hey, you! What should I know about this? What’s the deal with the volume? Is C-3PO cool?” Did that conversation happen [with Ewan McGregor]?
(Laughs.) Definitely. We talked a lot about what the experience of being a part of that world is like. Of course, we had those conversations before that as well, but it became a different conversation once it became a reality that I might actually be stepping into it. And I also had a familiarity with the project from being around on the Obi-Wan set. I had a familiarity with some of the people involved, not in a super close sense, but in the way that someone might be a friend of a friend. So you’ve heard about them and you’ve heard how cool they are to work with.
And just being on the Obi-Wan set and getting to see what a positive environment it was, there was something incredibly moving about that. I got to see people working on Star Wars who were such big fans of Star Wars, and that’s something that you can’t really feel and know until you’re there and you feel that energy and what a special thing it is to be a part of. There’s something really infectious about being on a set where everybody really wants to be there. So having had that experience when the offer came through, it made me even more excited than I would’ve otherwise been. Obviously the prospect of being in Star Wars is exciting regardless, but knowing what it feels like to be in that community made it something that I would never want to turn down.
I hear stories all the time of actors calling other actors to vet directors and producers, so who better to ask, right?
Absolutely. It was great to have a direct line to what this experience was going to be like, and it was nothing but positive.
From 10 Cloverfield Lane and Gemini Man to Birds of Prey and Kate, you’d done five years’ worth of jobs that really put you through the wringer, physically. So was part of you glad that Hera didn’t have to get too physical for the time being?
Yeah, it was really perfect for me just in terms of where I was in my life at the time. It was my first job back after having a baby, and I was still feeling my way back into my body in terms of my physicality in the role and in my roles, in general. So it was perfect for me to feel strong and like a warrior, but in a way that didn’t require me to wreck my body, which was still in some level of postpartum recovery even at that stage.
Everyone sounded pretty on point, but it was almost eerie how well you recaptured Ramona. Do you partially credit the inflection or tone you chose for her way back when?
Yeah, I thought it was a really great opportunity to go back and recapture that tone, but also bring some new shades to her, which I really appreciated getting to do. I got to do more scenes with a bit of a smile or a bit of warmth or a bit of cheekiness or things that the film didn’t really have time to explore. The focus of the film version of Ramona was really this deadpan personality. That tone suited the film, but it was nice that the animated series gave me several episodes to explore her and bring those other shades to her. So it was a cool challenge to find that voice, but then also open her up in new ways.