stating that "[they] were at the beginning of what's going to be a long successful career for her." Ellis describe her role as "a girl who can have some fun cause they're going on a trip and they'll gonna have a good time, yet someone who can stand up to Clear, to come and challenge Clear on a race, and to bother with Clear." The character's surname was based by writer Jeffrey Reddick to American director Roger Corman, who directed the horror comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors. Originally, Kimberly and her father Michael's surname was "Burroughs" (in honor of Canadian actress Jackie Burroughs, who starred as Kate Flynn in the acclaimed crime thriller film The Grey Fox) instead of Corman in the original script, but the writers decided to change it in the script revision. In a 2020 interview with Digital Spy, Craig Perry revealed Kimberly and Officer Thomas Burke (portrayed by Michael Landes) were originally going to be included in the climax of Final Destination 3 (2006), which saw both characters intersect with Wendy Christensen on the 081 train, effectively wrapping up the franchise. However, one of the two actors (Landes or Cook) were unavailable, so they decided not to pursue the idea. He commented further, "If we couldn't do it all the way, we decided it was best not to do it. To have just one of them leaves an open ending which would make no sense in Death's overarching plan.So we pocketed it because we knew that there was a really interesting idea about the cause and effect in the world of Final Destination, and then it managed to perfectly land in Final Destination 5 (2011). Reception Cook's performance met mixed reviews among critics. Robert Koehler of Variety said that "the giddy sequences also help in getting past the generally awful thesping, led by Cook, whose blurry grasp of emotions betrays Ellis' apparent disinterest in his actors." David Grove of Film Threat panned Cook's acting, stating that "she's no great actress, but she's a real looker" and teased that "since when did a horror movie suffer from having two dumb blondes as leads" (referring to Cook, who is a natural blonde in real life), the other actress referring to Larter's portrayal of Clear Rivers. Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com commented about Cook's emotional scenes: Taking over where Devon Sawa's Alex took off, A. J. Cook (2001's