Roundtable Interview: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Superbad

Foul-mouthed, warm-hearted, eminently quotable and deeply hilarious, Superbad might wind up being the best comedy of the year. Jonah Hill (Knocked Up, 10 Items or Less) and Michael Cera (Arrested Development) star as Seth and Evan, two high school life-long friends who -- in an effort to impress girls -- volunteer to buy the booze for a party. Armed only with the implausible fake I.D. their friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has -- which states that he's a 25-year old resident of Hawaii with the one-word name 'McLovin' -- their search for booze goes disastrously wrong, sending Seth and Evan into the night while Fogell becomes the new best friend of two deeply inept cops (Bill Hader and co-writer Seth Rogen). At a round table interview in San Francisco, Hill, Cera and Mintz-Plasse talked about high school life, working with Judd Apatow's comedy juggernaut, how to play a character who's constantly upset, the possibility of Superbad 2 and getting punched in the face; Cinematical's questions are indicated.

Cinematical: Michael and Josh, you're playing characters named 'Evan' and 'Seth' in a screenplay written by ... Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen. Did you often go to those guys ...

Michael Cera: They were on the set all the time.

Cinematical: But would you go to them for character notes, or was it all in the script?

MC: We would go to them -- not for character notes, 'How would you play it?'But, rather, 'How should I play this?', because they had very good ideas, they were very attached to the script. ...

Jonah Hill: But we weren't doing impressions; we weren't playing them in any way...

MC: I was actually doing an impression of Seth ... which is strange.

JH: This isn't an autobiographical movie for them; we weren't playing them, they just kept the names the same.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse: They were probably just too lazy to change them. ...

How far back does the script go?

JH: They started writing it when they were 13 ... over ten years ago? Which I think is why it's kind of awesome; it felt very realistic, because they started writing it while they were in high school.
How much did you deviate from the script? How much improv was there?

JH: Quite a bit ...

MC: ... but the whole story was very meticulously written, and the characters -- the way they spoke, their voices and their dynamics -- (any improv) was just re-wordings, or different things we thought might be funny, so it doesn't get too stale, trying to find some new things that might be funnier. ... I mean, I didn't work on Knocked Up, but watching it, it feels like there was a very loose outline and you guys could say whatever you wanted to within that? This was more scripted than that.

JH: Well, only because ... I feel like we improvised a ton on Superbad; the thing was we had to get certain story points out; in Knocked Up, a lot of times, there'd be a scene with us roommates, and we wouldn't know what the scene was about. There'd be a written version, and we'd do the written version, but then we could kind of go wherever we wanted, or wherever Judd (Apatow) wanted. ...

MC: The improvisation in Superbad served a different purpose, almost. ...

JH: It really had to push the story forward. But a lot of the jokes -- the majority of the jokes have been switched around and improvised and re-written.

I was wondering about when (Christopher Mintz-Platz's character, Fogle) is (beatboxing and scratching,) "Wakka-wakka-wakkah. ... How is that scripted?

MC: Well, that's just him doing that.

CMP: Yeah.

MC: That's Chris. You can't harness that on the page. ...

Cinematical: The other question I'd have for Chris is: You're off shooting the Fogell/McLovin odyssey with Bill Hader and Seth Rogen; did you ever feel like you were in a separate movie, cut off ...?

CMP: Kind of, yeah; it's like its own little ... they probably could have made two movies ...

MC: Two less interesting movies.

CMP: Right, two less interesting movies ... so it's good they made one awesome movie. ...

JH: We didn't really work with Chris that much.

MC: That's true.

JH: Just a couple scenes.

CMP: it was awesome, though, for me, because I was either filming with these guys -- which is awesome -- or I was filming with Bill and Seth. Or I was filming sex with a girl. (Laughter) Those are the three things I was really doing. ...

JH: ... Or getting punched in the face.

CMP: Oh, yeah.

Jonah, your character has an interesting moment (when Fogell/McLovin is seemingly arrested for trying to buy booze with a fake ID) and all you say is 'He's caught, he's done ... and we still have to get alcohol; that's the mission."

JH: That was a joke that didn't play very well in the theater -- that we always found really funny while we were shooting -- but we wondered "Is it really a joke?" because people are kind of into the story. ...

MC: ... And (audiences) are like, 'He's a dick!'

JH: But to me, that was always a very funny joke. ...

MC: I don't know; I think it says a lot about the character ... It says a lot about how you to relate to each other.

JH: Exactly! "He's gone now!"

CMP: I thought it was great how you (indicates Cera) really cared: "He must be so scared. ..."

Cinematical: Jonah, your character spends pretty much the whole film in a fairly agitated state; was that all James Lipton-y acting tricks, or did you just, you know, drink a lot of Red Bull?

JH: It was hard; I was nervous about it. It's hard to play a character who starts off kind of angry and then it's all different levels of intensity; what Michael's doing is a totally different pace, a different pacing of the scene. And it's also hard to be funny when you're super-angry, or super freaked-out about something. ...

MC: I have to say, as a testament to Jonah's performance: It's hard to find someone likeable that's really anxious and nervous all the time, but you really feel for his character. ...

JH: Thanks, Mike.

MC: ... You really care about what he's complaining about.

JH: Well, it was just difficult; I was scared that people weren't going to think it was funny; I was nervous that I kinda had to be so high energy and high-nerves the whole time, and find different levels of it. And we had me and (director Greg) Mottola talking every take about what level I had to be at; that was the big monitor for me. What level of anxiety of anger and anxiety and frustration am I at? I also didn't want every scene to be the same level ... I don't like to yell and s**t all the time, so it was interesting to figure out.

I saw the film with a lot of young people, and there was a lot of crowd talk of "instant classic. ..."

MC: Where did you see it?

JH: Did you see it at my parent's house?

I saw it here in the Bay Area ... But when you guys were making it, were you thinking in terms of Weird Science or Dazed and Confused, those classic teen films?

JH: I would say my biggest inspiration was Dazed and Confused.

CMP: Yeah.

MC: Especially as it takes place over one night. ...

Cinematical: And Superbad is sort of this non-traditional teen film ...

MC: Well, sort of; it's certainly more how I remember high school than how it's portrayed in movies. ...

Cinematical: But if Sony said to you "Okay, we're gonna go ahead with Superbad 2: The Search for Seth's Car ...." Would the idea of returning to these characters be fun, or would it seem like a betrayal. ...

MC: Yeah; yeah it would. It would be a betrayal and kill the story. ...

CMP: I think it would be fun. ...

JH: I think there's interest in doing it; first of all, but the movie hasn't come out yet; it could bomb, and no one will want a sequel. And to me, the story ... I love where the story ends. You know what I'm saying?

CMP: Yeah.

MC: Me too.

JH: I don't know if I want to see what happens. ...

MC: My favorite movie ever, I don't think I'd want a sequel to; if I heard they were making a sequel to Rushmore, It would be, like. 'Damn, why are they doing that?"

JH: Rushmore's pretty much a perfect movie; it's up there.

It seems whenever there's a story about teens in the media, about binge drinking or promiscuous sex, it's sort of ... (creepy, sensationalized voice): "Is your teenager doing this..." What do you think about this film as social commentary?

MC: Well, at the first screening I was at, there was a guy in his 20's and his mom ... and she came up to us and said, "You know, I think that (Superbad) had a great message about drinking. ..." Because we both drink and we don't get the girls, and everything goes against us.

JH: Had we not gotten drunk and just actually talked to the girls ... we would have probably gotten laid (laughs).

MC: The girl that I'm with drinks to the point of being out-of-commission by the end of the night. ...

JH: And then the reason that I don't hook up with the girl that I like is because I'm drunk and she doesn't drink ....
MC: ... There's sort of a backwards message there. And I also think that parents who go to see this went to high school, and know that people like this exist.

JH: I think it's more that it's not saying "Do this." Or "Don't do this." It's saying "This is what high school is like, and this is a funny story. ..."

MC: If you're afraid, don't let your kids go out. Just ... keep them at home, if you're afraid (of the kids depicted in Superbad). Just know that these kids exist.

JH: Buy your kids alcohol, so they don't have to go through all this s**t. (Laughter)

MC: Know your children so you're not all paranoid all the time.

Cinematical: My question for Michael and Christopher would have to be about entering this environment, where Greg Mottola shot a bunch of episodes of Undeclared and Jonah had the chance to work with Seth on the 40-Year-Old-Virgin and Knocked Up, there's a sort of Judd Apatow umbrella over Superbad -- did you two feel like you were coming towards this well-knit group. ...

MC: Yeah.

CMP: I felt I was very lucky, because when I auditioned, I didn't know what movie it was, I didn't know Apatow was producing it, I didn't know these people were part of it; my friends told me about it and I auditioned, and then I got it -- and then I realized that I was in with probably the best group of people working in Hollywood right now.

MC: Once we started hanging out with each other and got to know each other ... we became friends. Also, I had worked with Greg before (on Arrested Development,) but that was a few years prior. But there is that kind of a feeling -- it's very intimidating, knowing you have to be on your toes, and improvise; that's kind of daunting, at first. But what those guys concern themselves with is making you feel comfortable and like one of them, and that really helps in the end.