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| Seann William Scott Gets Promoted |
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| Interviews - Actor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Jenna Bensoussan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 23 June 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Seann William Scott It's lunchtime when we meet, and Seann is more than ready to chow down. "They have been starving me," laughs Scott. "They call it the promotion starve act. Really... they don’t let me eat. They gave me like two Teddy Grahams. That’s what they gave me for breakfast," he insists earnestly as he turns around and looks behind him at the PR rep with a sinister grin on his face, much to their protest. We decided to eat while we chatted. Seann is a sushi-savvy guy, and of course, insisted that I share half of everything he was having. Who can refuse that? Once our beverages arrived and things began to get rolling with the food, we started talking about Seann's latest film release -- The Promotion. This production opens a window into the lives of two men striving to make their mark in the world, competing against one another; sometimes doing things against their better judgment. "I feel what makes the movie really special is Steve’s writing. I think Steve’s writing is really unique and different. I love his type of comedy and the little touches he puts into how people speak in his movies. It's kind of a lyrical tone and I appreciate that. I think Steve really nailed the every day struggle... That where am I at in my life; can I buy this for my wife; can I buy this house; is this job the right one?"says Scott. "The character was a chance to do something different as an actor. I thought the guy was a good guy and that the film had just enough of a comedic element to it that it was a good role for me as an actor. It wasn’t too much of a stretch for people to believe me in the role in this movie because it is such a funny thing. I also just really love Steve’s work. It seemed like the right step, or direction, for what I needed to do with my career. As much as I still want to do big broad comedies, and a bunch of other things, I think it’s just as important to do movies that have more substance in them instead of just selling a product." At this point I had to interject. I thought he did a fabulous job bringing a great depth to his character, while still maintaining a light-hearted presence, and effectively balancing it with flashes of inner turmoil and conflict that radiated very well on screen. I'd definitely like to see him in more dramatic roles, to which he quickly chuckled, "Thank you! I would like to see me in more dramas." With a more serious tone, he continued, "I’d like to get into some serious drama too though and I think this role may have helped open that door for me to do that. I’d like to do that for sure." Humor has definitely been a marker for most of his previous roles. He explains, "My humor is that I really am comfortable making fun of myself. And a movie is like theatre with all the action too. I like Chow Yun-Fat. Have you ever seen him in Hard Boiled? It was kind of what made him a huge star. It is with John Woo. He is the one who held his guns out like this [holds hands to depict the action from the film]. So, that was why Hollywood gangsters started to hold their guns like that because he made it cool. And in the movies his face is always really calm and he said one of the reasons he came off that way, and it became one of his trademark looks, was because it hurt so bad when he was shooting (the gun). It would just ricochet off his arms. He learned everybody's names on set the very first day too (Bulletproof Monk). It was unbelievable, every single person on set, and he knew their names. Of course I didn’t. I tried but, I just couldn’t remember." Back to talking about The Promotion, Seann reveals his state of mind while filming. "I was going through a lot of personal stuff while I was doing this movie, so I was dealing with those things; and in a way I am playing a character that is learning to grow, and I’m growing as an actor, and personally I was looking at life in a very different way. That was the main connection I had to the experience while filming The Promotion." Shooting the film was a comedic challenge at times for Scott as well. "I was concerned about ruining takes because John C. Reilly was so funny. There is this one time when he was at the urinal and he goes, 'I’m F*cked', and I laughed. He said, 'Ah come on, that was a good one,' and it was. It was one of the best ones he had done, but I ruined the take. I was like, I can’t do this, this guy has won an Academy award or been nominated and what have I done….evolution. He was great, but intimidating. He was so funny." Because this film centers around competition in the business world, I thought of how competitive it must be in the world of Hollywood, but Seann insists it is a non-issue for him personally. "I usually only compete with myself, but back in the day I had an actor friend and we both auditioned for Varsity Blues, but I knew I was never going to get it because I sucked. There were times where we auditioned for the same role, but we never really competed." There was even less competition on set between Scott and Reilly. "Being on the set was fun. Steve was funny. He is such a laid back, cool kind of guy. I just love working with him. We are a lot like brothers with similar senses of humor, so I had a feeling we were making something special." Seann goes on to talk about his favorite bits of the film. "My favorite scene with John is cracking cheese. My favorite scene with me in it is reading the speech. Two of my favorite moments are the back flip at the end. I think that is a glorious moment. There is a lot of joy. There is just such an explosion as it just comes out of nowhere. It is just a weird, cool moment. The other is when John is in the subway trying to block the audience and I look back at him and give him the thumbs up and it kind of disarms him a bit, and his reaction to that is great. I didn’t know what he was doing, but it kind of broke him a bit, and that is when we go up the escalator and he takes his wrist brace off and puts it down because he wants to play fair. I like that. Steve told me he was going to put that in there three years before we filmed it... Maybe two years before we filmed it. I loved it. It was the first meeting we ever had and he talked about this one moment with the thumb. None of that was in the original script. That sounded awesome. It definitely has some neat moments in it. I really appreciate what Steve did." Once filming was over and the promotion of the movie began, Seann became a little more aware of how people live around him...those that aren't so fortunate. "We had a guy we were working with who was driving me around last week and I wanted him to come and see the movie and he said (about the movie), 'That’s me.' He has six kids and he's 33 years-old so he is dealing with that constant concern over bills and the like, and when he said 'That is me,' I liked that he got something out of the movie other than a laugh." About this time our conversation took a swift 180 degree turn. He starts asking me questions. Then Seann comments, "It is so nice here (Florida). I’ve never been here." More questions about Florida living follow, and then he says, "This is beautiful, and so near the water. I am going to come back. I live in New York now, but it is a two and a half hour flight to get here! It is like only a movie away. I’m coming back!" Yes -- he is coming back and we are going to party like it's 1999. I promised to buy the first round of beer... At this point we take a moment to shovel some food in our mouths. Seann pauses to get information about some of the treats we have been eating, and enjoying, and then asks me to try the "weird" eel sauce and the questionable sushi sample on a small plate in between us. And naturally, I am the guinea pig, ever the experimenter of uncharted food stuffs. I bite. I chew. It's good. I have no idea what it was... Then we move on to discuss New York. Everyone loves New York! Broadway soon came into our battling banter. You can't talk about New York and not talk about Broadway after all. Equus is coming to stage there this fall. Seann comments, "That play sounds crazy! Isn't that the one he got naked for (speaking of Daniel Radcliffe)? They said he was really, really good. I would be so scared! I could never do that or theatre. One of the only things I would want to do on stage, one of my dreams actually, would be The Nightmare Before Christmas on Broadway. I’d love to play Jack Skellington because I like to sing. That would be cool, but anything else, no. Just to do theatre, I don’t think I could ever do it. My mind is always thinking too much. I could probably do it, but I don’t actually have any desire to do it." As we start to round out our conversation, Seann goes into a few of his upcoming projects. "Coming up I have a movie called Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot. That is a comedy/drama from the production company that put out 21 Grams and Eternal Sunshine. It’s really cool. It’s a great movie based on a true story, by a guy named Jeff Nichols, whose book just got published, about a guy who has Dyslexia, ADD, trouble balancing, recovering alcoholic...he’s a bit of a mess. He goes to an AA meeting so he can talk about his problems and eventually becomes a stand up comedian. He’s a really complicated guy and it’s a really interesting movie. Gretchen Mol is in it, and Jeff Garlin. It’s got a real cool cast." Seann continues, "Then there’s a movie called Role Models, which comes out November 12. This is going back to the big crazy R-rated, raunchy comedy with Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch and Joe Lo Truglio." "I am also in a movie called Gary the Tennis Coach (AKA: Balls Out: The Gary Houseman Story), which is super raunchy...a really crazy comedy. They may have to go straight to DVD because I think we are going to get an NC-17 rating. I produced it and we did what was written but the guy who directed it, Danny Leiner, he directed it and it is really raunchy. It makes American Pie look like a cartoon. So we will see. It is kind of like a West End film on acid." Among other bits and pieces of miscellaneous chit chat, here's a random guy quote that you won't hear too often from any dude, "Guys really have it easy. They don’t get pregnant and don’t have a period, or have to deal with any of that kind of stuff. It must be so frustrating. Guys, geez, can’t trust them...we’re such idiots," says Scott. Of course I protested, not all guys are idiots. In point of fact, Seann is one of the nicest guys anyone could hope to meet. He is funny, witty, generous and not too hard on the eyes either... I'd say, with his talent, robust personality and open mind, Seann William Scott is easily a sleeping star waiting to shine brightly in Hollywood's sky of booming entertainers.          
3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |
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