During a set report visit via Ed Douglas of comingsoon.net, the young relatively unknown actress Ellen Wong spoke on all aspects of her character Knives Chau – who in the film is the ‘other’ woman in Scott Pilgrim’s life.
Interviewer: In the books, she starts out sweet and then starts to get more and more psychotic… which one do you prefer playing? More of the sweet Knives or the badass?
Wong: I like playing… I don't know. I think that's what was really exciting about playing Knives, too, from the beginning was that you get to kind of do both of that. She's almost like two different people, but that's what's cool about it, because I get to show her growth and that's the thing that's really cool about Knives, you get to really see her grow up from being meek and innocent and naïve at the beginning to this powerful girl who is going for what she really believes in and what she really wants. She fights for it!
Wong will have some fight scenes in the film and had already been practicing Taekwondo before she signed onto the film – and of interesting note, she was one of the first actors chosen for the movie.
Interviewer: Others have described your character as really annoying…
Wong: Nooooooooooo!!!! No!!! She's not! I'm sure we all can remember back in the day when you're 17, naïve, you're sort of just this unblemished teenager. You're sort of sheltered and haven't really seen the real world and then when you do see it, you're just like… "This is the world? This is reality?" And then Scott breaks up with her and she's forced to go back to her old life? No, she can't go back now! No, not after she's seen what exists out there, so she kind of fights for that and she wants to keep going, she's just passionate, she's determined, not annoying! (laughter)
Wong also made sure to ask comic series creator Bryan O’ Malley for some background on her character and why her name was Knives, she went on to say,
“I was like.. Why? I mean, it's kind of cool, but "Why? Why Knives? Why not like Satchel or…" I dunno.. (laughs) Okay, I guess that's not as badass, but you know what I mean, but it was funny because he (O’Malley) was telling me that this couple that he knew of--I won't say names, I won't say who, whatever--but like I think it was the wife was super-mad and she pulled knives on her husband, and he thought that was pretty hilarious so at that time, when he was writing for the books, he thought, "Oh, that's kind of cool, let's call her Knives" so he just kind of threw that in there, which I thought was pretty awesome, and I was like, "Oh, okay." I can see where that aggression is coming from.” Said Wong.
Wong also mentioned that her character is very faithfully represented from the books. Can’t wait for this one – from what I’m hearing there’s going to be lot’s of action in the film.