Yahoo News How a box of comics from Jason Mantzoukas led to Ali Wong's role in Paper Girls
Ali Wong's journey to Paper Girls started in quarantine.
Back at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many of us were stuck inside with little to do, Wong got a surprise delivery from her good friend Jason Mantzoukas: a box full of comics.
Wong and Mantzoukas had previously bonded over their shared love of the comic series Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. They'd even discussed how much they'd love to play the leads, Alana and Marko, in any potential screen adaptation. They gave up that dream after deciding that both they were too old to play the roles, and that the series would likely never get made anyway (it would certainly be hard to adapt Staples' imaginative sci-fi visuals to the screen!). But in that quarantine box, Mantzoukas introduced Wong to another Vaughan comic, Paper Girls (co-created by artist Cliff Chiang). And this one was being made into a series.
"Jason was being such a good friend. He sent me this huge box of comic books, and it included the whole series of Paper Girls," Wong tells EW over Zoom. "I think I finished it in one or two days. I loved it so much. He didn't even tell me that it centered on a young Asian-American girl!"
Prime Video Young Erin Tieng (Riley Lai Nelet) talks with her future self (Ali Wong) in 'Paper Girls.'
Indeed it does. Although Paper Girls stars a four-girl ensemble, young Erin Tieng is the primary viewpoint character for the reader/viewer. In this time travel saga, she's also the first to meet her future self — a role that Wong actually was the right age for. She jumped at the chance.
"I reached out, and the producers asked me to read for it," Wong says. "But before I read for it, Jason said to me, 'you know, they might have a hard time seeing you as adult Erin because adult Erin is a person whose dreams did not come true. Ali Wong, you are a person whose dreams all came true.'"
But that's not how Wong saw it.
"I think what people forget is that my first stand-up special, Baby Cobra, came out in 2016. That was only six years ago," Wong says. "I started stand-up when I was 22. So for the longest time, I was a person who who was disappointed at how my life had turned out so far. I can say that in retrospect. I was someone who, if I'd met my younger self, they would've been like, 'What are you doing? This is so sad.'"
Wong ended up being perfect for the role. And once she got cast, she was able to return the favor for Mantzoukas, encouraging him to read for the role of Grand Father — the leader of the time police known as the Old Watch who hunt the Paper Girls protagonists for jumping around in time periods they don't belong.
Anjali Pinto/Prime Video Grand Father (Jason Mantzoukas) and Prioress (Adina Porter) in 'Paper Girls.'
"Even though we didn't get to work directly together, it was really beautiful to be part of this show together," Wong says. "We just get to talk about how great the girls are and how we're so happy about the reception they've been getting about their performance, because it's really about them."
Paper Girls is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
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