Jason Biggs Shakes 'Pie Guy' Reputation
Even as a Broadway star, it's hard getting away from the pie.
Jason Biggs was in the theater district the other day for an interview. When a photographer asked him to venture into nearby Times Square for a few shots, Biggs knew better than to say yes. After all, it was 3 p.m. on a Friday, and teen-age girls were lined up outside the MTV studios on Broadway for the start of MTV's "Total Request Live."
Catching a glimpse of host Carson Daly through the windows would have been OK. But meeting a guy from "American Pie" in person? At street level? And not just any "American Pie" guy. The one with the pie. That would have been sweet.
Biggs turned down the request before you could say Mrs. Smith's. "It's just the eyes, and the approaching people, and the fact that it's a chain reaction. I get pretty uncomfortable," he said later as he sat in a midtown restaurant after a photo shoot in the relative anonymity of a Times Square side street.
"I enjoy in the sense that it's flattering and it's indicative of some sort of success on my part," he said. "The day that it goes away is the day I will probably start complaining and start wondering where myself and my career are at."
Where he and his career are now is a pretty nice place. Biggs is both a teen hero in movies and appearing on the Broadway stage, co-starring with Kathleen Turner in "The Graduate." It is a role that helps him break out of typecasting and prove he can hold his own against a dominating veteran actress like Turner, who plays Mrs. Robinson.
And playing Benjamin, a role that helped launch and define Dustin Hoffman's film career, allows Biggs to challenge his own career. "Monotony is not so comfortable," he said. "Physically speaking, I don't think I'll be able to play in those teen movie roles forever. Let's try something new. Let's go to Broadway."
The gross-out comedy star is meticulously polite in person. Dressed in a neat, cowboy shirt with mother of pearl buttons, he dined at an upscale restaurant popular with the theater crowd. Biggs slowly ate his salmon, pausing often to thank his waiter, and he made sure that everyone at the table had water.
A big part of Biggs' appeal is his ability to remain genuine and likable even in scenes where his character suffers through absurd humiliations. It's a skill that actors like Tom Hanks - one of Biggs' favorites - have parlayed into brilliant careers.
Biggs relies on his likability whether playing a high school senior caught in a compromising position with a pie, or Benjamin, the recent graduate who has an affair with a woman he calls "the most attractive of all my parents' friends."
"What I bring to the table is that endearing quality which enables me to play these embarrassing situations but still, you know, keep the audience with me and have them root for me," he said.
