Interviewing Jason Biggs

I don't think many us will forget the scene in the infamous film American Pie, of an undersexed, horny, awkward teenager having sexual relations with a certain piece of pastry, but Jason Biggs is far more than a guy who has zero self-control over his teenage hormones.

Jason has had perhaps one of the most amazing careers that a 22 year-old from New Jersey could possibly ask for. We all remember him in American Pie, but what many of us don't know is that Jason began his career as a dramatic actor. At age 12 he went to Seattle to test for the play Conversations With My Father, which starred Judd Hirsch. The play then went straight to Broadway—as did Jason.

Since filming American Pie, Jason has been involved in four other films: Boys and Girls and Loser, which open this summer, and Prozac Nation and Saving Silverman, both which are being filmed in Vancouver.

Check out the following exclusive interview with Jason on TeenHollywood.com, and as Jason points out, don't believe everything you read.

What are you doing in Vancouver now?

I just finished shooting this movie Prozac Nation with Christina Ricci and Jessica Lange. We finished that last week and now we're working solely on Saving Silverman with Steve Zahn and Jack Black.

Saving Silverman? What's the premise of that film?

I play Daren Silverman, who has been infatuated with this girl, played by Amanda Detmer. He's known her since high school, years have passed and he still thinks that she's the one for him, and he can't get over her. Then one day he meets this girl, played by Amanda Pete, falls for her immediately, they live together and within two weeks they're engaged. She's totally controlling and evil and runs his life, like a puppet master. She comes between his friendship with Steve Zahn and Jack Black and she's totally ruining his life.

So Steve Zahn and Jack black try to save me—hence the title—from our marriage in order to save our friendship, by kidnapping Amanda Peet and faking her death. It's totally hilarious. It's really funny.

And those two together, Steve Zahn and Jack Black are just comedy at it's finest.

So you're working with Amanda Detmer again?

Yeah, I'm working with Detmer again, which is very cool. She's awesome.

Is this your first time up in Vancouver?

It's my first time working and spending any significant amount of time here, I spent some time in Seattle when I was younger and came up for the occasional day trip, and I've snowboarded at Whistler a few times, but this is the first time I'm really spending any time here.

It's a great city.

Yeah, it's beautiful, and if you like the outdoors, like I do, then it's the right city.

All right, let's talk about Loser here a little bit. What can we expect from Paul and Dora—the two main characters.

You expect them at the onset as underdogs. Both are struggling at school in their own weird way. Paul because compared to everyone else, his "hip" roommates have marked him as a loser, so he doesn't really make any friends. Dora is struggling because she's trying to pay her own way through school and she can't get a job and she's having an affair with one of her professors, who's just totally taking advantage her.

Kind of a dog?

Yeah just like a dog! Exactly!

So they meet and Dora befriends Paul. They find in each other hope and confidence and a great friendship, which eventually leads into a romance. It's really sweet and it's funny. It's really sweet. You're just rooting for these two characters. Kind of two moral people trapped on an immoral world. There ya go! There's your sound bite. :o)

You worked with Mena (Suvari) in American Pie as well, but you never really had many scenes with her...

No, that's the funny thing about it. We had maybe worked a couple of days together on American Pie, but our characters never had a line of dialogue spoken between them. As for Mena and myself we had had the only conversation or two—we'd done some occasional photo shoots for American Pie, what have you—but we didn't really know each other that well. But we came into Loser with that American Pie connection, which is a pretty strong connection for all of us in the cast, because it did such great things for all of us.

So we had the connection and we just grew on that. Loser actually gave us a chance to get to know each other very well because we worked directly opposite each other everyday for three months. We became really good friends and we have great chemistry off scene, which will hopefully translate on screen.

Did you two get a chance to hang out together off screen as well?

Yeah, but we worked some long days, but for the most part there wasn't really too much time, but where there was time we went to concerts. We were in Toronto, so we went to a Leafs game, a Raptors game, and the occasional meal.

For the most part you're working together for 12-14 hours a day, so in between shots and whatnot we were always hanging out and goofing around.

I want to ask you about something I read that happened on the set in Toronto and I want to know if it's true. It was something about you getting in the wrong cab?

Oh! That was actually in the New York leg of our shoot. It actually wasn't me. That was mis-printed, but it was some of my co-stars. There's a scene where my three roommates are walking down the street and the very end of the scene they hail a cab, get in the cab, drive off for a little bit and then there's a cut to the next scene.

We had (on set) our own cab and cab driver, who would come up on queue and pull up next to them and they would get in, and he would drive a couple of feet and stop. Well, I guess a real cab driver was driving by at the same moment he put his hand out to call our cab, and that cab pulled over, so they got in that cab and the cab started driving away. :o) It was very funny.

Ok, so it wasn't you that this happened to, because the story ended with you being a gentleman and paying the cabbie.

Yeah, well, they tend to embellish these things. :o)

Are you a fan of Amy Heckerling's other films: Fast Times at Richmont High and Clueless.

Oh my god, yeah! That's pretty much why I was so eager to do this movie—to work with Amy and know her work. I'm a huge fan of hers. It's funny, when we were doing American Pie, I kept hearing the Fast Times at Ridgemont High comparison, and to think that a year later I would be working with the director of that movie—one of the all time classics—is amazing. It's such a classic and I'm such a big fan of hers.

She's so amazing. She's an amazing director and she's just such an amazing person. She made me feel like it was such a collaboration and she and I were on the same page when it comes to my character. She's just an awesome laid back person. Everyone was happy to work for her and be on her set. She's so open to new ideas and I think that's why she's so good with younger themes. She's open to what we as young people have to say and it was really cool.

What do young think it is about the teen genre that is working?

Well, as you can see from my last teen flick, not all of them work. :o)

The truth of the matter is, not all teen flicks work. Younger people are not stupid. They're going to go to something that they're going to like. They're not dumb.

I guess why the genre is doing so well is just statically, I guess. Younger people are going, more than even. They're paying, that's the bottom line. They are the largest paying audience out there. So we as Hollywood are trying to capitalize on that and market movies to them, but like I said not all of them do well. Just because they're a younger audience doesn't mean they're young and dumb. They'll pay to see the good and probably won't pay to see the bad.

The hope is with a lot of these teen movies—with American Pie and I hope with Loser—is that they won't just appeal to a teen market, and that they'll appeal to a wider market. I think once you grow out of that teen demographic I think people are afraid to go see some of these films, because they think it's just a teen movie. But as we proved with American Pie that that's not the case and hopefully we can do it again.

Who was your favorite teen actor growing up?

John Cusak.

Really?

Oh yeah! He's still is one of my favorites.

Let's talk about Fast Times at Ridgemont High again. It was a great start for Sean Penn, kind of like how American Pie was for you. Do you hope to grow as actor to the level that Sean Penn has?

Well, of course, sure. I hesitate to compare myself to Sean Penn, but look what he's done. He started off in a classic teen genre comedy, and has gone on to play wonderful dramatic roles, and picked up the occasional Oscar nomination. He's an amazing actor and if I had a career even somewhat like his, I'd be a lucky person.

Do you prefer the comedy genre?

I love the comedy genre, but I come from a dramatic background. I love comedy. I love making people laugh, but for me comedy and drama are equally rewarding. I like going deep and finding feelings and emotions that I may not have felt before, with a dramatic role. At the same time getting to strut my comedy skills, and making myself and other people laugh is also a great feeling.

Prozac Nation is a pretty heavy drama. It's a nice change for me and it will give me a chance to show that I'm not just a funny man.

So there's another American Pie in the works, apparently.

Yeah...I don't know. Everyone keeps asking me. All I know is from what I read, which is the same stuff you guys read. I just read the other day that Adam Hurst, the original writer of the movie, is know coming on board to start from scratch a write a new script, because the script that was written, apparently they didn't like.

You know...who knows! The bottom line is on the one hand, I would love to work with that whole cast again, that was an amazing time. But at the same time, we're all pretty damn busy. Schedule permitting we'll see. But I haven't heard anything. No one's come to me with a script or anything.

It seems as if sometimes it's best to leave a film like American Pie alone. Sequels either work or they don't.

Yeah, on the one hand I kind of feel like, leave it alone. It was such an amazing thing for me and for all of us involved. It did so great and I hesitate to tarnish it by throwing out another one just for the sake of a dollar. But the chances are American Pie II will probably do really well.

I just wanted to clarify a few things here before I let you go. Your message boards are crazy! Do you surf on the Net a lot?

No I haven't checked that out for months. I don't have a computer here with me while I'm away, and when I'm at home my computer sucks. But I did check out my unofficial website when American Pie first came out, but are they going crazy now?

Well apparently, according to some of the messages, you were in an accident and had to go into surgery.

Oh my god! That's right. My publicist told me that. That's so funny how things are blown out of proportion or just totally wrong.

Have you hurt yourself doing anything recently?

I dislocated my shoulder in February, snowboarding, and I've been in physical therapy, but that's it.

And, are you getting married?

AM I GETTING MARRIED!!? Ok, wait. That's probably from...these little things that I'm sure were in print. In Saving Silvermen I'm playing a guy that's engaged to be married to Amanda Peet. Someone sees that in print and next thing you know "Jason Biggs is getting married!" God it's amazing.

How is it dealing with all this misinformed gossip?

It's pretty crazy. It can be overwhelming, but it's fun. It's exciting and the bottom line is it's all about my work and I'm just grateful that I keep getting opportunities to work with great people and do great things. So I'm happy. I'm excited. It's a period of adjustment for me because it is kind of weird too.

I just don't take it for granted and keep everything in perspective and enjoy it while it's here.