Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Now this is something unique. AICN recently held an early screening of SUPERBAD here in Austin with the stars in attendance. These stars were… Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who will henceforth be known as McLovin’. I had the chance to interview these cats after the screening. Thank God the movie rocked or this would have been really uncomfortable. The original plan was to meet in the lobby of the Four Seasons hotel and do the interview over a few drinks (non-alcoholic for the two underagers, of course, right?), but there was a piano player doing covers of The Beatles (BLACKBIRD was one of the few I heard) and a random selection of ‘90s rock. It was way too loud, so the decision was made to do the 25 minute interview up in one of the rooms. So, up we went to Jonah Hill’s room. Unfortunately I didn’t find mountains of coke or piles of weed. That’d make for a funnier story, I’m sure, but Hill is exactly as you’d expect. He’s a geek and he had mountains of comics/graphic novels (SCOTT PILGRIM being the title that stood out to me) and piles of DVDs (the FLETCH SE and THE VERY BEST OF THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW DVDs stood out). Then we began the chat. There needs to be a tad bit of set-up and a bit of explanation before we begin. I promise I won’t be long. SUPERBAD is a movie about geeks. Not the hyper reality John Hughes geeks, but real geeks, people you relate to instantly… well, if you are a geek or have ever been one in your life. The studio filled the place with UT students… jocks, frat boys and frat girls. The frat girls were going crazy for the geeks. All of them. I thought it was crazy. In the real world these chicks would not give these guys the time of day, but on the screen they turned into sex icons. They wanted them to score, they went “Awww” every time they did something super awkward and geeky. During the screening I was thinking my interview was going to be cancelled because these three were going to be bombarded with hot girls. No doubt about it. They’d be stupid to sit down with me, I thought. Then, during the Q&A, a pair of attractive girls stood up and asked what the three were doing after the movie. There it goes, I thought. Oh well, at least I saw the movie. The rep came up to me after the Q&A and I knew she was going to tell me the interview was off, but she just wanted to make sure I knew which hotel to go to. Idiots. Well, maybe not so much. A group of incredibly hot girls, including the two that stood up and asked what they were doing later, also showed up at the hotel. Like the fools they are, I went up to chat the group up instead of the hotties in the lobby. So, we begin the interview. A word of warning… the interview is certifiably insane. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. It’s a geek’s conversation, albeit a geek’s conversation with three people that are hilariously funny (me being the much less talented fourth member of the conversation). We spend less time on the movie than on the most random tangents you can imagine. I think it’s hilarious, but I was there. I have no idea how it’ll translate. Seeing the geeky books and DVDS got me talking about my most recent nerd purchase, the giant Making of STAR WARS book. And so we begin! Enjoy!
Quint: …it’s this giant coffee table book… and I’ve been totally burned by the prequels, but…
Jonah Hill: Yeah, yeah. That’s why I don’t follow STAR WARS anymore.
Quint: … but looking at this will make you a STAR WARS geek again.
Jonah Hill: Really?
Quint: Yeah. It’s this giant book, it weighs, like, 20 lbs and it has all these never before seen behind the scenes pictures and artwork. It has designs from when Lucas was planning EMPIRE and JEDI and he has all these designs of Vader with his mask opening up… like a mouth with teeth…
Michael Cera: No way! Sharp teeth and stuff?
Quint: Yeah, it was supposed to be for the tree scene in Dagobah, I think. It’s totally geeky.
Michael Cera: It must make for a good coffee table book.
Quint: (laughs) Yeah, geeky material. “Here Gramma, read this…” I was going to apologize that you guys had to talk to me and not get any action, but then I saw the group in the lobby…
Michael Cera: (to Jonah) Yeah, you came with that whole group…
Jonah Hill: Uhh… (long pause) What?
[Everyone laughs]
Jonah Hill: I’m very good with women, as you can tell. I am a lady’s man…
[At this point, Kraken, who was taking the pics you see, was checking some of the shots, playing with the different settings because the room was dark… and inadvertently aiming the lens at Hill’s lap… or maybe not inadvertently, who knows?]
Jonah Hill: … what pictures do you have over there?
Kraken: What? Oh… (everybody laughs). I’ve got some good stuff comin’, don’t worry about it.
Jonah Hill: Michael’s the Hugh Grant of SUPERBAD.
Quint: I was sitting behind a row of sorority girls who wouldn’t give someone like me the time of day, but…
Jonah Hill: Or us. (laughs)
Quint: … but when it’s on the screen all of a sudden McLovin’ is the sex icon.
Michael Cera: It’s so true.
Jonah Hill: I agree with you. I think, like, the women in particular… Mike has a girlfriend and I don’t have a girlfriend, but I think… Every girl I know who has seen the movie… It’s definitely not me and Mike who are going to be pullin’ in girls. I think it’s McLovin’. He’s the one they all want.
Michael Cera: And you openly embrace it, too. You’re not afraid of it all.
McLovin’: If girls come runnin’ up, I’m not gonna run away.
[Everybody Laughs]
Michael Cera: (to me) Are you memorizing this stuff to write down?
Quint: (motioning to the tape recorder on the table in-between us all) I got a machine doing it for me.
[Everybody Laughs]
Quint: But it’s not just McLovin’, though. That scene where you (Michael) are drunk… the girls in front of me were all, “Awww…”
McLovin’: They were drooling over you.
[Jonah makes a bizarre sound, like a high pitched Mumbles from DICK TRACY]
Michael Cera: That’s ridiculous.
Quint: It’s the truth.
Jonah Hill: I see it. I see it.
Michael Cera: I see it happening.
[Everybody Laughs]
McLovin’: People love you from (Arrested Development).
Michael Cera: Girls are drooling over my completely personality-less torso…
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: Expressionless! Your torso is the blandest thing I’ve seen in my entire life!
Michael Cera: My torso is like Ross on Friends.
[Everybody Laughs]
Michael Cera: My torso’s the Ross of this movie.
Jonah Hill: Your torso’s the Steven Wright… (lotsa laughs) Which, I’m… I’m a big Steven Wright fan… that sounded like such a douchebag comment.
Michael Cera: Why does that sound like a douchebag thing? Because my torso’s completely unattractive?
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: (to the tape recorder) Mr. Wright, if you’re listening, how dare I compare you to Michael Cera’s torso? It’s so fucked up! (pause) I saw Steven Wright at Whole Foods maybe four or five days ago.
Michael Cera: No way.
Jonah Hill: I saw him and we were ordering sandwiches next to each other and I’m, like, the biggest Steven Wright fan and I just go, “Steven Wright?” And he’s like, “Yeah?” And I’m like, (whispers) “You’re so fucking awesome.” He was like (in the Steven Wright monotone), “Thanks, man. Where are you from?” And I’m like, “I grew up in Los Angeles.” I didn’t tell him I was an actor. I didn’t want to act like a douche and be like, “I’m an actor!” I just said, “You’re just so funny, dude.” And he’s like, “Thanks, man.”
Michael Cera: You should tell him what you said when you met Rivers Cuomo.
Jonah Hill: (laughs) Oh, man.
McLovin’: Did you really meet him?
Jonah Hill: I met Rivers Cuomo one time.
Michael Cera: He had dessert with him, right?
Jonah Hill: I had dessert with him and…
Michael Cera: He’s my hero.
Jonah Hill: Michael and I are probably the two biggest Weezer fans you’ll ever meet on the planet Earth.
McLovin’: Bullshit.
Jonah Hill: I’m completely obsessed. Pinkerton is both of our favorite records…. Not of all time, but mine of modern rock n’ roll music. When I met Rivers Cuomo, everyone was all like, “Don’t talk about Weezer. Just be nice…” It was great. I was making him laugh, we were having this great conversation and all of a sudden… It’s like you meeting with John Lennon (and not bringing up The Beatles)… and I just go, “DudePinkerton’sthefuckin’bestalbumever…” Like, I couldn’t hold it anymore!
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: And for the rest of the night he totally stopped engaging me… We were totally cool and making each other laugh and then I was, like, “You don’t understand… Pinkerton’s the best fuckin’ album ever.” From then on, like, no conversation, no eye contact… So, that’s that one… Thanks, Mike.
[Everybody Laughs]
Quint: Now for your second most embarrassing story…
Jonah Hill: We’ve got some good ones…
Michael Cera: Well, Rivers Cuomo, when you met Rivers Cuomo…
Jonah Hill: And then Steven Wright.
Michael Cera: I met Chris Mintz-Plasse on the set of SUPERBAD.
Jonah Hill: Mintzy. Mintzy and me hangin’ out stateside. Sorry, we haven’t let you ask any questions.
Quint: This is totally fine. I honestly didn’t have much prepared because I hadn’t seen the movie… I figured this would be the most laid back and fun interview ever or the most awkward interview ever…
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: We can talk about Drew McWeeny.
Quint: We can certainly talk about Drew McWeeny.
Jonah Hill: He’s an awesome guy.
Quint: I hear he has a small penis.
Jonah Hill: WHAT!?!
McLovin’: Well, his name is “McWeeny.”
Jonah Hill: You said that, not I!
Quint: Maybe, but I’m the one transcribing this!
[Everybody Laughs]
Michael Cera: Drew SmallWeeny?
Jonah Hill: Oooooo… I love Drew. I met Drew for the first time on the set of SUPERBAD and that was the first person from Ain’t It Cool I ever met and I’ve always read the site, which I told you always sounds like bullshit, but I literally do read the site every day. I go to bed at two or three in the morning when I’m writing and every night before bedtime… If you went on my bookmarks right now the third bookmark is Ain’t It Cool News.
Quint: What are your first two?
Jonah Hill: Embarrassingly enough behind MySpace… It’s number one… how fucked up is that? Guess what number two is?
Michael Cera: LemonParty.org. [Quint note… do NOT go there… trust me]
Jonah Hill: Facebook.
Michael Cera: Oh my gosh.
Jonah Hill: That’s how lame I am… The not lame one is Ain’t It Cool. But Drew’s the nicest. We met him and he’s just been so cool to us every since.
Quint: Drew’s a good guy.
Jonah Hill: He’s a good man. He’s the West Coast guy…
Michael Cera: Is he Moriarty?
Quint: Yeah.
Michael Cera: He’s a really cool guy.
[At this point, Kraken’s wife, who was with her sea monster, asked if they’d met Drew outside of work and seen his kid, Toshiro]
Michael Cera: No way! Toshiro?
Quint: Toshiro Lucas McWeeny.
Michael Cera: No way!
Jonah Hill: That’s a great name.
Quint: Toshi.
McLovin’: Toshi McWeeny.
Quint: Yeah, he’s going to have a hard time at school… or he’ll be a samurai.
[Everybody Laughs]
Quint: So, have you had anybody come up to you since the trailer came out and called you McLovin’?
McLovin’: Some. Actually, one kid at my school did. He’s like, “Aw, dude! My brother saw the movie and said to tell you, ‘What’s up, McLovin’?’” I’m like, “Oh, cool. Thanks, dude.”
Quint: You know, it’s a real tragedy that you’re graduating before this comes out.
McLovin’: You’re tellin’ me, man!
Quint: You’d all of a sudden be the most popular guy in the school, you’d be like the prom king if the rest of the school saw you in this.
Michael Cera: That’s what we always said.
Jonah Hill: We always thought it was so funny that Chris was going back to high school. He filmed for a couple of months then went back to high school. Imagine if it came out when he was still in high school with those same people who he’s known for years…
McLovin’: No, high school’s definitely different after the (trailer) came out. I get, like, random people that I’ve maybe talked to once in my life, maybe never, going like, “Dude! I saw your preview! The shit was tiiiiighhhttt!”
Michael Cera: Stranger hugs.
Jonah Hill: That’s what making movies is all about.
Quint: Are you prepared to be known as McLovin’ for the rest of you life?
McLovin’: Yeah, I’m prepared. I’m so excited.
Michael Cera: Just embrace it.
Quint: Well, like I imagine you get “George Michael” all the time.
Michael Cera: Not a lot of people…
Jonah Hill: I call him George Michael all the time.
Michael Cera: But not a huge amount of people ever watched that show. I feel like hopefully twice as many people will see the (SUPERBAD).
Quint: I don’t know, man. You get those diehards like the guys who sat in the first row tonight and told you it was the best night of their lives being there.
Jonah Hill: What’s funny is that Mike and I are very close friends in real life. We are boyfriend and boyfriend… (laughs) No, but what I’m saying is from what I notice… Basically our night consists of usually playing video games and when people do come up to him and do recognize him from the show, they’re usually always really cool people. To me, that’s the best you can hope for.
Michael Cera: I can’t imagine what it’s like to work on something that you hated working on and the people that come up to you are people you don’t really (want to talk to).
Jonah Hill: Like me.
McLovin’: (to Jonah Hill) Didn’t you do something on the Oxygen Network?
Jonah Hill: (laughs) Yeah.
Quint: Was it on before or after Talk Sex With Sue Johanson?
Michael Cera: Talk Sex has been on for, like, 10 years.
Jonah Hill: Dude, honestly… that’s the funniest show of all time.
Michael Cera: That filmed in Canada, right?
Quint: Yes.
Michael Cera: Because I’d see the live taping of it…
Jonah Hill: They don’t talk like that in the states. Elderly women can not get away with that here.
Quint: Really, it’s not the talk that gets me, but the hand… descriptions…
Michael Cera: It’s not even descriptions sometimes. She’ll actually act stuff out.
Jonah Hill: Sue Johanson will love SUPERBAD.
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: She’s gonna lose her shit for SUPERBAD.
Quint: Maybe… maybe she’ll be like, “The vein on the last penis drawing was in the wrong place… It wouldn’t go all the way up the shaft.”
Michael Cera: “Siiiiidddeee of the shaft…”
Jonah Hill: (and this part is a perfect Sue Johanson impersonation) “Side-shaft,” (pronounced “Sideshift”).
Quint: (laughs) Have you ever been into a Marie Calendar’s?
Jonah Hill: Mike was going to spend Thanksgiving at Marie Calendars and I invited him to my parent’s house.
Quint: Have you ever seen a picture of Marie Calendar?
Jonah Hill: No.
Michael Cera: No, but the girl who played my cousin on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT went to school with Marie Calendar’s, like, grandson. He was this weird kid. Whenever he’d play baseball, if he would run to first base, someone would run out and squirt water in his face. I swear that is true. He was the craziest kid ever.
Jonah Hill: He’s like, “I’m Siiirr Calendar… Spritz watah in my face… I’m not like you, paupers. I enjoy a spritz of warm watah…”
Michael Cera: I love Marie Calendar’s.
McLovin’: They got great pie.
Jonah Hill: How depressing is this? Mike was going to eat at Marie Calendar’s by himself at Thanksgiving because his family was in Canada…
Michael Cera: And nobody likes me.
Jonah Hill: And no one likes him. And I, luckily, caught wind of this and took him over to my parent’s house for Thanksgiving.
Michael Cera: And I found out Jonah’s mom did wardrobe on TAXI.
Jonah Hill: Yeah, my mom did wardrobe on TAXI. Fun little fact.
Quint: For the trivia section on your IMDB page… But just so you don’t think I’m crazy for bringing it up… the connecting tissue was that if you walk into one of those restaurants and see the plaque that says, “This is Marie Calendar,” she looks exactly like Sue Johanson.
Jonah Hill: Oh really?
Quint: So if there was ever a Marie Calendar biopic, we know who is starring.
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: Let’s make that! That’d be great. Or a Sue Johanson pic starring Marie Calendar. Why not just reverse it and get Marie Calender to play Sue Johanson?
[More Laughs]
Quint: Just tie the skeleton’s wrists to a puppeteer?
Jonah Hill: (Laughs) Marie, we have a weird proposition for you…
Michael Cera: Marie, we know you’ve never acted before…
Quint: … but we need you told this vibrating anal bead…
Michael Cera: Just one bead…
Jonah Hill: Just one bead… go. Marc Forster is directing the Sue Johanson biopic starring Marie Calendar! (laughs) Johnny Depp’s playing…
Quint: The bead?
Jonah Hill: … Berto Calendar, her nephew…
Michael Cera: Who gets sprayed in the face…
Jonah Hill: (laughing) Who gets sprayed in the face with water!!! But this is Sue Johanson! This isn’t a Marie Calendar (biopic)! Why would Marie Calendar’s nephew who got sprayed in the face be a character? (Pause) Alright, this all got fucked up.
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: I’m not gonna point fingers, but mostly you two guys… generally… in that general direction.
Michael Cera: I think he’d be in it. If something awful happens to Marie in the movie, it’d be the scene where he’s just playing baseball, minding his own business, someone sprays him with water, then someone runs up to him and is like, “Something happened to your grandma, man!” It could work!
[More Laughs]
Jonah Hill: “You gotta go to the hospital right now!” Wait, is the Sue Johanson thing or the Marie Calendar biopic?
Michael Cera: She plays Marie Calendar…
McLovin’: I thought Marie Calendar was playing her…
Quint: Well, that’s the competing project. It’s like CAPOTE and INFAMOUS.
[More Laughs]
Michael Cera: Exactly!
Jonah Hill: See, there are two Sue Johanson biopics going on… one from the dildo’s point of view…
[More Laughs]
Jonah Hill: Thank God only funny people read this website! Sorry, let’s go on… I’m retarded. Can we mention the movie, at least?
Quint: Sure… I thought it was great, man. What I loved about it was it was kind of the movie with the biggest heart and the most f-bombs at the same time.
Michael Cera: Yeah, it’s true. I figure, like, anyone who won’t like this movie will walk out within the first five minutes.
McLovin’: You can totally tell (what) the movie (is).
Michael Cera: Yeah, it’s true. There’s no messing around.
Quint: As vulgar as the movie gets sometimes, it still…
Michael Cera: It’s not the movie that’s vulgar, it’s the character stuff…
Quint: It’s strange. I don’t want to say that it’s reality because it’s not, but you guys bring a sense of reality to it…
McLovin’: Kids do talk like that, though, in high school… a lot. That is realistic.
Michael Cera: Not just school students talk like that.
Jonah Hill: I talk like that!
Quint: It’s relatable. Being the fat kid in high school, I had the moments you (Jonah) have in the movie. Watching, I was like, “Well, that was me.” I think pretty much every geek can relate to somebody in that movie.
Jonah Hill: Totally and I think what’s funny is that my friends in high school… I think what we achieved well, or what we were trying to achieve well, was… In high school movies or in teen movies in general… which is a terrible term. I guess our movie’s about teenagers, so you’d have to call it a teen movie, you know what I’m saying?
But every teen movie has a nerd in it and he’s got suspenders and …
McLovin’: He has tape on his glasses, yeah.
Jonah Hill: And his name is, like, Boner, and his khakis end right below his nipples. For guys like me, I can only speak for myself, I was like… I didn’t hook up with hot girls in high school, but it wasn’t so clean as like, “Dweeb!” and “Jock!”
It was kind of like everyone was themselves and was cool or not cool in certain ways, but it was like…
Michael Cera: I think Saved By The Bell captured it nicely.
Jonah Hill: (laughs) Mike is more of a Slater archetype…
Michael Cera: I was not close friends with Kelly Kapowski, but we said hi… I high fived her in the hall…
Jonah Hill: I’m just saying that it doesn’t talk down to teenagers like they’re retarded, basically. That was the goal of the movie, not to be like, “Hey, you’re a dweeb, so you’re gonna eat prunes from your lunchbox and shit your pants!”
Michael Cera: (laughing) “And shit your pants”?
Quint: Or ‘You’re the funny fat sidekick, so you’re always going to have a candy bar in your pocket.’
Jonah Hill: Exactly, totally. It’s talking down to your audience. It’s like they’re retarded and they need a very broad stereotype to understand what kind of person that is when in real life people are draped in nuance. There are little things that describe a person. It’s not so clear cut, you know what I’m saying? There were nerdy lookin’ dudes in my high school that got tons of girls because they were either really good with women or good at talking… In high school it all amounts to whether you get girls or not.
McLovin’: I’m a nerdy lookin’ kid and I never get picked on at all.
[There’s a knock at the door]
Jonah Hill: Should we get the door? I think my male dancer’s here…
Michael Cera: Berto, is that you?
Sony PR Lady: Five minutes… We got kicked out of the hallway. Someone filed a noise complaint.
Michael Cera: You got kicked out of what?
Jonah Hill: The hallway.
Quint: Was the noise complaint about us?
Sony PR Lady: No, for us.
Quint: What were you girls doing out there?
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: (after a long, awkward pause) So, uh… You guys like to party?
[More Laughs]
Jonah Hill: What I was saying was the movie was not trying to achieve… Like, what a normal teen movie does is… I hate even calling it a teen movie…
Michael Cera: We tried to put the cool back in school…
Jonah Hill: We tried putting the Chool back in School.
Michael Cera: The H is the only thing preventing us from putting the cool back in school.
[Everbody Laughs]
Quint: I think that’s one of the biggest successes of this new group with Judd (Apatow) and Seth (Rogen). Everything they’ve done has this…
McLovin’: Has that realistic feeling…
Quint: Well, they’re all outrageous, but they always capture those little moments that are shared between friends that immediately make the audience relate to the characters on the screen. Like the “Want to know how I know you’re gay?” stuff… When you can connect to a movie, especially a comedy, that makes all the difference.
Michael Cera: And they put a lot of real life conversations in stuff, too. A lot of the stuff in the movie is fairly verbatim.
Jonah Hill: I remember when Mike and I were starting to do it, or were asked to do it or said yes to do it… Seth and Evan (Goldberg) have been two of my best friends for a while anyway, so we would all just hang out and they would basically be like, “What’s a story from when you were in high school? What’s some stuff you would have done to get alcohol?”
The thing about Judd (Apatow)’s process, also with KNOCKED UP, was rehearsing and recording the rehearsal. So, essentially allowing the actor to write what would be most natural and true to them. You know what I’m saying? So, hopefully our things don’t sound like it’s acting or sound like it’s being read off a script as opposed to sounding like it actually happened or that you were talking about something that was actually going on in your life.
Michael Cera: And after they cast people, too, at least with me and Chris, they kind of tailor it to you…
Jonah Hill: Yeah, me too.
Quint: Did they go out to you in the first place, Michael?
Michael Cera: Ah, no. You know, I auditioned a bunch of times for the movie. Then, after you’re cast, you know, you do these table reads…
Jonah Hill: I’ve got a crazy story for how I came to be in this movie. Do you want to hear it real quick?
Quint: Please.
Jonah Hill: It’s really quick. We were making a movie called KNOCKED UP where I play one of Seth’s friends in the movie. I had watched every audition tape for SUPERBAD. They were about to make this right after KNOCKED UP and the whole time I wasn’t even being considered for it.
Michael Cera: Yeah, I auditioned with a bunch of kids where up for Seth…
Jonah Hill: And we all watched Michael Cera’s audition tape and were like, “That’s it. He’s the dude.” I wasn’t even involved, they were just like, “What do you think of this guy?” I went, “Fuckin’ funniest dude ever. You gotta cast him.”
And then they had read every young actor, pretty much, for Fogle (McLovin) and Seth…
McLovin’: Did you guys see my audition tape?
Jonah Hill: We auditioned with you, dumbass.
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: We were there live!
Quint: They lived it.
Jonah Hill: No, we never caught anything about you, we never caught wind that you were doin’ it.
Michael Cera: (Laughing) “Have you guys heard about this Chris Mintz-Plasse…”
Jonah Hill: We had heard your name around the El Segundo improv circuit…
McLovin’: (laughing) Oh, screw you guys.
Michael Cera: We still have the tape, too…
Jonah Hill: (Laughs) So, whatever… So, one day we’re standing around and I had had read it. Seth and Judd and I have all the same agents and stuff, so I read it and I was like, “Man, this would be the best part ever for me to play. It’d be perfect. I think I should play it.”
Everyone was like, “Oh, man… of course, but you’re just too old.” I’m 23, so they were like, “You’re too old.”
One day we were all standing around on the set of KNOCKED UP… it’s me, Seth, Bill Hader and Bill Hader’s writing partner, Nick Jasenovec, and Bill and Nick were just visiting for the day. They had read a million Seths and they couldn’t find the guy, they couldn’t figure it out.
Judd comes up, looking all defeated and crazy, probably because he’s exhausted, and he looks at me. He’s staring at me all weird. We’ve known each other for a couple of years now and I was like, “Why the fuck you starin’ at me, man?” He’s like, “How long could you look, you think?”
I said, “I don’t know… probably like 18 or 17…”
Michael Cera; “I don’t know, the perfect age…”
[Everybody laughs]
Jonah Hill: Yeah. But, I wasn’t thinking about it. He was just starin’ at me all weird. I was like, “Probably 18 or 17,” and he goes, to me and Seth… we were standing outside of Seth’s trailer, and (Judd) goes, “Go in there and make a tape. Just read a scene together.”
Literally, we were outside of it, walked inside, read a scene together, I improvised a bunch… gave Judd the tape, Judd watched it… We were shooting at Sony, even though it’s a Universal movie, we were shooting at Sony for some of it. Judd walked it upstairs to Amy Pascal’s office, played it for her and that day I was in SUPERBAD.
Michael Cera: And you’re how I found out… I didn’t even know I was…
Jonah Hill: Yeah, Mike didn’t even know he was cast.
Michael Cera: You called me and left me a message.
Jonah Hill: And Judd came back from Amy’s office and was like, “Congratulations.” Then I called Mike. Mike and I had met through a mutual friend, and I go, “I guess we’re doing a movie together!” And you were like, “No way!!!”
Michael Cera: I still have the message. I didn’t even know I was cast until he called.
Jonah Hill: So, it was a crazy story. It all happened and I was just completely lucky and was in the right place. Literally Judd just walked up the stairs to the head of Sony’s office and played her the tape. So, it’s kind of a cool story, I think… Sorry for wasting everybody’s time… My self-indulgent story about Hollywood magic… I also blew a unicorn. That’s another story from my life…
Quint: That’ll go in the Sue Johanson biopic.
Jonah Hill: “How I Blew A Unicorn – Sue JoHILLson.”
Michael Cera: “The Right Way.”
Jonah Hill: “How I impregnated a leprechaun…”
Quint: “My Hollywood Story.”
Michael Cera: (picking up a copy of Denzel Washinton’s autobiography) “A Hand To Guide Me.”
Jonah Hill: Yeah, I bought this for Mike at the airport. The $25 joke that no one found funny.
Michael Cera: I find it very funny.
Jonah Hill: The Denzel Washington biography that I thought was hilarious to buy for Mike and…
Michael Cera: Also, when I first looked at the title A Hand To Guide Me, I read it as A Hand Guide To Me…
[More laughter]
Jonah Hill: I call him Denzy…. ‘cause we played rugby together for many, many years. Mintzy and Denzy went to Yale together… (a long pause) So, who wants to start jerkin’ off first? Is it just me?
[Everybody Laughs]
Michael Cera: I got the number for California Babes memorized…
From here, the conversation degenerated into talk about the awesome BBQ of the Salt Lick, Guillermo del Toro stories and various members of the conversation excusing each other to go to the can.
I’d transcribe all that, too, but it really is two or three conversations going on at once, involving me, the guys, Kraken and Sony’s PR lady. Makes no sense. However, here is a little coda to end it:
Jonah hit his iPod, in one of those travel speaker dock things and goes: “And now for some Smiths… Oh, great now you’re going to write that I was totally listening to “Jam” by myself before you guys got here. What if it was, like, Fallout Boy that came up or something really lame?” I say, “Like Sugar Ray…” Jonah: “Smashmouth! FUCK!! That’s why iPod shuffle is the devil’s work. You’ll be with the cutest girl you’ve ever had in your apartment ever in your life and, like, Dave Mathew’s Band’s “Crash” will come on and she’ll go, “You listen to this shit by yourself?” I’m like, “Fuck no, man… my ex-girlfriend, like, totally listened to it…”
To which I responded, “This is the most awesome interview ever.”
I hope you guys enjoyed it. I loved sitting and talking with these guys… didn’t love the transcribing and coding so much, but that’s the job.
These guys are the real deal. Hilarious, genuine and kind people… who are also talented and made a fuckin’ funny movie.
I really hope this translates. Let me know in the talkbacks below if you dug the chat.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
[More Laughs]
Quint: Just tie the skeleton’s wrists to a puppeteer?
Jonah Hill: (Laughs) Marie, we have a weird proposition for you…
Michael Cera: Marie, we know you’ve never acted before…
Quint: … but we need you told this vibrating anal bead…
Michael Cera: Just one bead…
Jonah Hill: Just one bead… go. Marc Forster is directing the Sue Johanson biopic starring Marie Calendar! (laughs) Johnny Depp’s playing…
Quint: The bead?
Jonah Hill: … Berto Calendar, her nephew…
Michael Cera: Who gets sprayed in the face…
Jonah Hill: (laughing) Who gets sprayed in the face with water!!! But this is Sue Johanson! This isn’t a Marie Calendar (biopic)! Why would Marie Calendar’s nephew who got sprayed in the face be a character? (Pause) Alright, this all got fucked up.
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: I’m not gonna point fingers, but mostly you two guys… generally… in that general direction.
Michael Cera: I think he’d be in it. If something awful happens to Marie in the movie, it’d be the scene where he’s just playing baseball, minding his own business, someone sprays him with water, then someone runs up to him and is like, “Something happened to your grandma, man!” It could work!
[More Laughs]
Jonah Hill: “You gotta go to the hospital right now!” Wait, is the Sue Johanson thing or the Marie Calendar biopic?
Michael Cera: She plays Marie Calendar…
McLovin’: I thought Marie Calendar was playing her…
Quint: Well, that’s the competing project. It’s like CAPOTE and INFAMOUS.
[More Laughs]
Michael Cera: Exactly!
Jonah Hill: See, there are two Sue Johanson biopics going on… one from the dildo’s point of view…
[More Laughs]
Jonah Hill: Thank God only funny people read this website! Sorry, let’s go on… I’m retarded. Can we mention the movie, at least?
Quint: Sure… I thought it was great, man. What I loved about it was it was kind of the movie with the biggest heart and the most f-bombs at the same time.
Michael Cera: Yeah, it’s true. I figure, like, anyone who won’t like this movie will walk out within the first five minutes.
McLovin’: You can totally tell (what) the movie (is).
Michael Cera: Yeah, it’s true. There’s no messing around.
Quint: As vulgar as the movie gets sometimes, it still…
Michael Cera: It’s not the movie that’s vulgar, it’s the character stuff…
Quint: It’s strange. I don’t want to say that it’s reality because it’s not, but you guys bring a sense of reality to it…
McLovin’: Kids do talk like that, though, in high school… a lot. That is realistic.
Michael Cera: Not just school students talk like that.
Jonah Hill: I talk like that!
Quint: It’s relatable. Being the fat kid in high school, I had the moments you (Jonah) have in the movie. Watching, I was like, “Well, that was me.” I think pretty much every geek can relate to somebody in that movie.
Jonah Hill: Totally and I think what’s funny is that my friends in high school… I think what we achieved well, or what we were trying to achieve well, was… In high school movies or in teen movies in general… which is a terrible term. I guess our movie’s about teenagers, so you’d have to call it a teen movie, you know what I’m saying? But every teen movie has a nerd in it and he’s got suspenders and …
McLovin’: He has tape on his glasses, yeah.
Jonah Hill: And his name is, like, Boner, and his khakis end right below his nipples. For guys like me, I can only speak for myself, I was like… I didn’t hook up with hot girls in high school, but it wasn’t so clean as like, “Dweeb!” and “Jock!” It was kind of like everyone was themselves and was cool or not cool in certain ways, but it was like…
Michael Cera: I think Saved By The Bell captured it nicely.
Jonah Hill: (laughs) Mike is more of a Slater archetype…
Michael Cera: I was not close friends with Kelly Kapowski, but we said hi… I high fived her in the hall…
Jonah Hill: I’m just saying that it doesn’t talk down to teenagers like they’re retarded, basically. That was the goal of the movie, not to be like, “Hey, you’re a dweeb, so you’re gonna eat prunes from your lunchbox and shit your pants!”
Michael Cera: (laughing) “And shit your pants”?
Quint: Or ‘You’re the funny fat sidekick, so you’re always going to have a candy bar in your pocket.’
Jonah Hill: Exactly, totally. It’s talking down to your audience. It’s like they’re retarded and they need a very broad stereotype to understand what kind of person that is when in real life people are draped in nuance. There are little things that describe a person. It’s not so clear cut, you know what I’m saying? There were nerdy lookin’ dudes in my high school that got tons of girls because they were either really good with women or good at talking… In high school it all amounts to whether you get girls or not.
McLovin’: I’m a nerdy lookin’ kid and I never get picked on at all.
[There’s a knock at the door]
Jonah Hill: Should we get the door? I think my male dancer’s here…
Michael Cera: Berto, is that you?
Sony PR Lady: Five minutes… We got kicked out of the hallway. Someone filed a noise complaint.
Michael Cera: You got kicked out of what?
Jonah Hill: The hallway.
Quint: Was the noise complaint about us?
Sony PR Lady: No, for us.
Quint: What were you girls doing out there?
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: (after a long, awkward pause) So, uh… You guys like to party?
[More Laughs]
Jonah Hill: What I was saying was the movie was not trying to achieve… Like, what a normal teen movie does is… I hate even calling it a teen movie…
Michael Cera: We tried to put the cool back in school…
Jonah Hill: We tried putting the Chool back in School.
Michael Cera: The H is the only thing preventing us from putting the cool back in school.
[Everbody Laughs]
Quint: I think that’s one of the biggest successes of this new group with Judd (Apatow) and Seth (Rogen). Everything they’ve done has this…
McLovin’: Has that realistic feeling…
Quint: Well, they’re all outrageous, but they always capture those little moments that are shared between friends that immediately make the audience relate to the characters on the screen. Like the “Want to know how I know you’re gay?” stuff… When you can connect to a movie, especially a comedy, that makes all the difference.
Michael Cera: And they put a lot of real life conversations in stuff, too. A lot of the stuff in the movie is fairly verbatim.
Jonah Hill: I remember when Mike and I were starting to do it, or were asked to do it or said yes to do it… Seth and Evan (Goldberg) have been two of my best friends for a while anyway, so we would all just hang out and they would basically be like, “What’s a story from when you were in high school? What’s some stuff you would have done to get alcohol?” The thing about Judd (Apatow)’s process, also with KNOCKED UP, was rehearsing and recording the rehearsal. So, essentially allowing the actor to write what would be most natural and true to them. You know what I’m saying? So, hopefully our things don’t sound like it’s acting or sound like it’s being read off a script as opposed to sounding like it actually happened or that you were talking about something that was actually going on in your life.
Michael Cera: And after they cast people, too, at least with me and Chris, they kind of tailor it to you…
Jonah Hill: Yeah, me too.
Quint: Did they go out to you in the first place, Michael?
Michael Cera: Ah, no. You know, I auditioned a bunch of times for the movie. Then, after you’re cast, you know, you do these table reads…
Jonah Hill: I’ve got a crazy story for how I came to be in this movie. Do you want to hear it real quick?
Quint: Please.
Jonah Hill: It’s really quick. We were making a movie called KNOCKED UP where I play one of Seth’s friends in the movie. I had watched every audition tape for SUPERBAD. They were about to make this right after KNOCKED UP and the whole time I wasn’t even being considered for it.
Michael Cera: Yeah, I auditioned with a bunch of kids where up for Seth…
Jonah Hill: And we all watched Michael Cera’s audition tape and were like, “That’s it. He’s the dude.” I wasn’t even involved, they were just like, “What do you think of this guy?” I went, “Fuckin’ funniest dude ever. You gotta cast him.” And then they had read every young actor, pretty much, for Fogle (McLovin) and Seth…
McLovin’: Did you guys see my audition tape?
Jonah Hill: We auditioned with you, dumbass.
[Everybody Laughs]
Jonah Hill: We were there live!
Quint: They lived it.
Jonah Hill: No, we never caught anything about you, we never caught wind that you were doin’ it.
Michael Cera: (Laughing) “Have you guys heard about this Chris Mintz-Plasse…”
Jonah Hill: We had heard your name around the El Segundo improv circuit…
McLovin’: (laughing) Oh, screw you guys.
Michael Cera: We still have the tape, too…
Jonah Hill: (Laughs) So, whatever… So, one day we’re standing around and I had had read it. Seth and Judd and I have all the same agents and stuff, so I read it and I was like, “Man, this would be the best part ever for me to play. It’d be perfect. I think I should play it.” Everyone was like, “Oh, man… of course, but you’re just too old.” I’m 23, so they were like, “You’re too old.” One day we were all standing around on the set of KNOCKED UP… it’s me, Seth, Bill Hader and Bill Hader’s writing partner, Nick Jasenovec, and Bill and Nick were just visiting for the day. They had read a million Seths and they couldn’t find the guy, they couldn’t figure it out. Judd comes up, looking all defeated and crazy, probably because he’s exhausted, and he looks at me. He’s staring at me all weird. We’ve known each other for a couple of years now and I was like, “Why the fuck you starin’ at me, man?” He’s like, “How long could you look, you think?” I said, “I don’t know… probably like 18 or 17…”
Michael Cera; “I don’t know, the perfect age…”
[Everybody laughs]
Jonah Hill: Yeah. But, I wasn’t thinking about it. He was just starin’ at me all weird. I was like, “Probably 18 or 17,” and he goes, to me and Seth… we were standing outside of Seth’s trailer, and (Judd) goes, “Go in there and make a tape. Just read a scene together.” Literally, we were outside of it, walked inside, read a scene together, I improvised a bunch… gave Judd the tape, Judd watched it… We were shooting at Sony, even though it’s a Universal movie, we were shooting at Sony for some of it. Judd walked it upstairs to Amy Pascal’s office, played it for her and that day I was in SUPERBAD.
Michael Cera: And you’re how I found out… I didn’t even know I was…
Jonah Hill: Yeah, Mike didn’t even know he was cast.
Michael Cera: You called me and left me a message.
Jonah Hill: And Judd came back from Amy’s office and was like, “Congratulations.” Then I called Mike. Mike and I had met through a mutual friend, and I go, “I guess we’re doing a movie together!” And you were like, “No way!!!”
Michael Cera: I still have the message. I didn’t even know I was cast until he called.
Jonah Hill: So, it was a crazy story. It all happened and I was just completely lucky and was in the right place. Literally Judd just walked up the stairs to the head of Sony’s office and played her the tape. So, it’s kind of a cool story, I think… Sorry for wasting everybody’s time… My self-indulgent story about Hollywood magic… I also blew a unicorn. That’s another story from my life…
Quint: That’ll go in the Sue Johanson biopic.
Jonah Hill: “How I Blew A Unicorn – Sue JoHILLson.”
Michael Cera: “The Right Way.”
Jonah Hill: “How I impregnated a leprechaun…”
Quint: “My Hollywood Story.”
Michael Cera: (picking up a copy of Denzel Washinton’s autobiography) “A Hand To Guide Me.”
Jonah Hill: Yeah, I bought this for Mike at the airport. The $25 joke that no one found funny.
Michael Cera: I find it very funny.
Jonah Hill: The Denzel Washington biography that I thought was hilarious to buy for Mike and…
Michael Cera: Also, when I first looked at the title A Hand To Guide Me, I read it as A Hand Guide To Me…
[More laughter]
Jonah Hill: I call him Denzy…. ‘cause we played rugby together for many, many years. Mintzy and Denzy went to Yale together… (a long pause) So, who wants to start jerkin’ off first? Is it just me?
[Everybody Laughs]
Michael Cera: I got the number for California Babes memorized…
From here, the conversation degenerated into talk about the awesome BBQ of the Salt Lick, Guillermo del Toro stories and various members of the conversation excusing each other to go to the can.
I’d transcribe all that, too, but it really is two or three conversations going on at once, involving me, the guys, Kraken and Sony’s PR lady. Makes no sense. However, here is a little coda to end it:
Jonah hit his iPod, in one of those travel speaker dock things and goes: “And now for some Smiths… Oh, great now you’re going to write that I was totally listening to “Jam” by myself before you guys got here. What if it was, like, Fallout Boy that came up or something really lame?” I say, “Like Sugar Ray…” Jonah: “Smashmouth! FUCK!! That’s why iPod shuffle is the devil’s work. You’ll be with the cutest girl you’ve ever had in your apartment ever in your life and, like, Dave Mathew’s Band’s “Crash” will come on and she’ll go, “You listen to this shit by yourself?” I’m like, “Fuck no, man… my ex-girlfriend, like, totally listened to it…”
To which I responded, “This is the most awesome interview ever.”
I hope you guys enjoyed it. I loved sitting and talking with these guys… didn’t love the transcribing and coding so much, but that’s the job.
These guys are the real deal. Hilarious, genuine and kind people… who are also talented and made a fuckin’ funny movie.
I really hope this translates. Let me know in the talkbacks below if you dug the chat.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
