Model Behavior

The Muse sat down with Seann William Scott (Stifler in American Pie) to discuss his new movie Role Models. Wheeler (Scott) and Danny (Paul Rudd) are two energy drink hustlers sentenced to 150 hours of mentoring a couple of atypical kids after a run-in with the law.

The Muse: Did you have a mentor while you were growing up?

Seann William Scott: I didn’t really have a specific mentor like one of these guys, but I had a really great relationship with my dad. I also get along really well with my brother, and I really admire him. He helped found the newspaper The Onion. I was a mentor myself one summer, but I found that it just really got me a lot of attention from girls. I would bring him along and girls would be like, ‘Aww, that’s so sweet!’ That was cool and everything, but I stopped mentoring after that summer.

The Muse: The character of Wheeler seems much like your American Pie role of Steve Stifler ‘-‘- an overtly sexual, potty-mouthed slacker. Did you want to re-create this role for a particular reason?

SWS: I was excited to go back and be Stifler ‘-‘- he’s a really fun character to play. I honestly don’t care about being typecast ‘-‘- I just want to make people laugh.

The Muse: How was working with McLovin himself, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad)?

SWS: What a great kid. One of the first conversations we had, he came up to me and said, ‘Everyone keeps calling me McLovin! Does everyone still call you Stifler?’ I told him that that was expected, but that he should take it as a compliment ‘-‘- especially with girls. I don’t know, I feel like when people remember a character of mine like that, it means I’ve done my job. But, yeah, Chris is a genuine, sweet, funny kid and a great improviser.

The Muse: What about with newcomer Bobb’e J. Thompson, who plays Ronnie, Wheeler’s ‘little’?

SWS: This kid is like a little Eddie Murphy. He is hilarious! He was nervous the first couple days of shooting, but he got over it pretty fast. He has a really sharp sense of humor for a 12-year-old, and I had to keep reminding myself not to laugh as he threw out all these swear words. There’s a scene where he slaps me as he gets out of my car, and I had to keep telling him, ‘Don’t worry, just hit me as hard as you can, that’s the only way it’ll look good’ and when he finally did, my left ear wouldn’t stop ringing. I had to tell myself, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, you’ll ruin it.’

The Muse: Another one of your co-stars is Jane Lynch (The 40 Year-Old Virgin) who plays the director of the mentoring program, Sturdy Wings.

SWS: Probably my favorite comedians of all time are Eugene Levy, Fred Willard and Jane Lynch. She is so funny, just a brilliant actor and comedienne, a very bright woman. She improvs a lot in the movie, and the bit she does about cocaine is just hilarious.

The Muse: Much of Role Models’ dialogue seems very off-the-cuff. How much of it was scripted and how much was improvised?

SWS: Actually, most of the movie is improvised. For instance, after reading the script, I pictured Danny and Wheeler to be best friends, but from the start, Paul [Rudd] suggested that they were more of an odd couple. Wheeler thinks they’re good friends, but Danny doesn’t really like Wheeler that much. I’d rather write my own stuff and improv than follow a set script any day.

The Muse: Role Models features the medieval role-playing world called Laire, which Mintz-Plasse’s character Augie devotes his life to. Had you ever encountered anything like this before filming?

SWS: Never. It was all kind of weird to me at first. It’s based off of real games called LARPs [live action role playing games], and it was interesting to see that people do this kind of thing all the time. At first, I was just like, ‘What the hell is this?’ But now, I get why it’s fun. Chris added a lot of heart to the whole thing. Without him, I think the Laire stuff would have just been weird.

The Muse: The majority of your career has been in comedy. Any thought of doing work in other genres?

SWS: I think I’m going to be doing comedy for a while. I would love to do dramas, but I feel like I have so much more work to do in this genre. Hearing the audience laugh at one of your movies is such a rewarding feeling.

The Muse: What was your worst job?

SWS: I sold churros at the Los Angeles Zoo while I was waiting for American Pie to come out. It was my second day there, and I had yet to see any animals. I had a friend watch my churros as I walked around for a bit. All of a sudden, I felt something hard hit the back of my head. I look down and see a pine cone at my feet, and then over to the gorilla cage next to me where a large gorilla is holding another pine cone. He’s about to throw the second one at me when I said, ‘You’re right, gorilla. I quit.’ And then I quit selling churros. And then American Pie was released.

The Muse: Did you ever go through a ‘weird phase’ growing up?

SWS: I’m still going through my weird phase. [laughs] No, I really am! Well, in seventh grade I had a ton of acne. It was awful, it was embarrassing to go to school. But then I found Proactiv and that fixed that.

The Muse: What message would you like the audience to take away from Role Models?

SWS: I hope that everyone sees it has heart, especially between the kid and me. I don’t know if we were able to accomplish putting heart into this movie, but we all really just tried to be funny.