Justin Long: Hanging with Herbie and Lindsay

You might have seen cute, dark-haired Justin Long as the unlucky traveler captured by the scary demon dude in Jeepers Creepers or playing opposite Ben Stiller in Dodgeball. He was on TV in the popular series "Ed". Now, the young actor plays a car mechanic with a crush on a cute femme race car driver (played by Lindsay Lohan) in the actiony family film Herbie: Fully Loaded.

When we had our chat with Justin in L.A., we saw a kind of dorky guy with short hair, glasses and an attempt at facial hair enter the room and we just kind of sat there waiting for Justin. Duh, this WAS Justin who explained "I'm playing this crazy little redneck name Zurk in a movie called The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang that the Napoleon Dynamite guys are doing. Kevin Spacey is producing". Okay, good. He's gone big on the indie film circuit lately. We were worried for a while. The actor usually looks like he does in "Herbie". Longish hair, no facial hair, no glasses.

So, what's it like to work on a talking car and make passes at Lindsay? Stay tuned. Justin spills all and he's funny too.

TeenHollywood: Do you know anything about being a car mechanic?

Justin: I didn't know a lot. I could do your basics. I knew what tires were. I remember my first car was a Nissan 200 SX and it was a scrapper and I got it for free. I called it 'The Delorean' because I was A. obsessed with Back to the Future and B. I thought it kind of resembled the Delorean. I worked on it with my dad for like two weeks but all that really entailed was a lot of bondo-ing. We basically like sculpted the car. I was great artistically. I was really into animation and sculpting with clay so I wouldn't call it 'working on a car'. It was more like doing an art project. The whole bottom was all rusted out. We built the whole bottom of the car.

TeenHollywood: What about working with Lindsay? Did you meet on the set?

Justin: We met a couple of weeks before we started. She wanted to approve. I didn't have the mustache then so it was slightly more believable that she would approve me. I was terrified. I had never played like a romantic leading man and, aesthetically, there are a lot of realities that come along with that.

TeenHollywood: Did you work out a bit?

Justin: Yeah, I did. A lot of protein, cut out the carbs. I was doing this movie right before that called Dreamland where I played this kid in a trailer town and the wardrobe wasn't the greatest. They made the choice that I would not wear a shirt for most of the movie and he was kind of a poor guy, playing basketball all day so I had been kind of working out for that to play an athlete. Yeah, that [my look] was definitely a concern and I hate saying that because it's very vain. But, a lot of what the role entailed, dealt with vanity. They put highlights in my hair which I hate to admit.

TeenHollywood: You just turned 27. Were you worried that you might be too old for Lindsay [almost 19] although she's playing 22 in this movie?

Justin: That too, yeah. I know the reality is that I do look younger. I've been told I'm somewhat boyish. It's a blessing and a curse. She was 18 at the time and I was 26 and there's something kind of sad about it. I know I'll have gray, thinning hair and be going 'hey, mom. I'm going to school'.

TeenHollywood: Did you screen test with her?

Justin: It wasn't really a screen test. We were at a fancy hotel and I was meeting the director there. She came and we were just having breakfast and the producers, the Disney people were there and they were like 'Lindsay and Justin, why don't you guys sit near each other just kind of talk? Keep it casual though'. And they put a camera on us. It was really disconcerting. It's intimidating because she's a huge star and very attractive and I was just sort of making constellations with all her adorable little freckles. It was embarrassing. She was a kid. We were embarrassed but she already had the part so I had to be 'cool guy' who was chatting it up real casual with her.

TeenHollywood: Did you talk about cars?

Justin: I forget what we talked about. I kind of know Wilmer [Valderama, Lindsay's ex]. A buddy of mine [Topher Grace] was on "That '70's Show" so I had met Wilmer a while ago. We were just talking about that. They had just started dating. Wilmer was a good word at that time.

TeenHollywood: Did you have to have any training for "Herbie"?

Justin: I didn't go to driving school. I went to 'pit school'. It was like a whole day of this intense training where we had to jack up cars in a pit, In my own arrogance I was like 'I can fake it. I can change a tire and fill up a car with gas' because that is basically what they do. And I found out that, not in a million years, would I be able to do what these guys do; the precision and the timing that's involved is pretty unbelievable. I had no idea. They change these four tires and fill up the tank and they do it all in like fifteen seconds. For me, just watching was kind of fascinating. It's very visceral too. It's incredibly loud on the track. I learned that lesson the hard way. We got it down to maybe thirty seconds we were able to do it.

TeenHollywood: Do you do that during the actual NASCAR race?

Justin: We didn't do the actual working on the car scenes. It was mostly go get shots of us waiting for the cars to come up with the audience in the background. We shot those separately in a controlled environment. I'm sure someone would have died it we had done that. I was the jack man. That was my function in the pit. I'd always wanted to play a jack man in a pit crew so that was kind of cool.

TeenHollywood: Are you a fan of NASCAR?

Justin: Well, I have a new appreciation for it, which is not to say I'm a fan. I grew up in Connecticut and it just wasn't a big thing. I never really got it. It's hard to get watching on TV because it's like 'wow, they're going around again. Cars in a circle'. But being there, in the actual pit, we were a couple of yards away from these 200 mile an hour cars zooming by. It's just viscerally overwhelming and the noise and the fans, the smells. It was very sensual. When we were at the event I felt like I went through puberty.

TeenHollywood: Did you rehearse the kissing scene with Lindsay before you got in front of the cameras?

Justin: No. There's always this weird moment that happens when you are rehearsing any kind of make-out scene; any scene where you have to have any sort of intimate contact with a person. This is a G-rated Disney movie so it's not Basic Instinct. There was that moment where we are rehearsing, doing the lines and 'Oh I want to kiss you too'. 'I want to kiss you' and they're like 'that's when the kiss would happen. You don't have to do it now'. And I'm leaning in [he puckers up his lips to demonstrate]. It was easy because she's so hot'. It's always weird because it's choreographed and there are people all around and this boom guy. My friends were like 'oh, that must have been great'. I was just like 'I just hope the scene worked'. I hope it was good.

TeenHollywood: How did you handle the paparazzi while filming? They follow Lindsay everywhere.

Justin: I didn't notice them as much. It's such so a part of Lindsay's life that I think she's so much more in tune with their presence. She would point them out to me sometimes and I'd say 'what? Over there?' And, sure enough, in the distance, there they were. It was disconcerting because they won't leave me alone (he's kidding). There was a scene where we were driving Herbie down the street and they shut down the neighborhood but they find a way of getting in. It's kind of fascinating. And they're really nimble I noticed, those paparazzi. They were running between these buildings and running down the alleys. The car was going fifteen or twenty miles an hour and they ran over all sweating with the long lenses taking pictures.

TeenHollywood: So Lindsay wasn't at all freaked?

Justin: She's so adjusted to it. I was freaked out. 'Isn't this weird?' It was weird for me doing a scene because they were right in my eyeline. I was like 'this is great, a little romantic stroll in Herbie with no one around' and right over here are fifteen guys with telephoto lenses. It was difficult for me but she has a way of blocking them out. It's fascinating. I would never be able to do it.

TeenHollywood: Okay, truth now. Would you have peeked if Lindsay were actually changing in the back seat of your car (as she does in the film)?

Justin: if she was changing? No. I'd like to be a gentleman. My mama raised me not to peek. It was a lesson she taught me at a very early age. Don't peek when girls are changing. It's embedded in my head.

TeenHollywood: Is it true that you were voted 'most likely not to be seen in class" in school?

Justin: Yeah. How did you know that? [we say IMDB]. Yes, it's true. I went to Fairfield Prep in Connecticut. It wasn't so much cutting. On the record I was "sick". I had this thing. I just hated going to class. This was all through high school. I remember one semester I missed forty days of school. It's hard to fake illnesses. I feel so bad for my mother but I would fake a migraine. I had such a guilty conscience. I felt so bad about lying that I could work myself up into having this stress headache. If you concentrate hard enough you can give yourself a pretty good headache. I could stay home.

TeenHollywood: What did you do at home all day?

Justin: Watch "I Love Lucy" and the Marx Brothers movies.

TeenHollywood: Did you want to be an actor then?

Justin: Up until high school I wanted to be a football player and a herpetologist and a priest was another goal. I wanted to be Eric Dickerson of the LA Rams. I was obsessed with the Rams, a big football fan and I realized I'd have to be athletic and bigger than four foot nine to play any kind of professional sports. My older brother was doing a lot of high school plays at the time and I would go to his rehearsals. There were a plethora of hot girls and not a lot of guys. So, I felt like I had stumbled on this great utopian thing. It was fun. I grew to like the craft side too and the girls were still nice. By the time I got to college it was more of the same. I hate to admit that something that I love so dearly and have committed my life to was started with my libido. I was just a horny teenager.

TeenHollywood: Were bullies beating you up in class? Is that why you stayed home?

Justin: No. Contrary to popular belief, I was actually pretty cool in high school. I wasn't the class clown like people think I was. I was like Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf. I was friends with everybody. I was the social butterfly guy. I think it was a Ferris Buehller thing where word spread of this random illness that I was struggling with. People would send me flowers. It was hard for me at that school because it was all very jock-oriented.

TeenHollywood: Did you go with Lindsay to any clubs?

Justin: Yeah, right before we started the movie I went with Lindsay and Wilmer to Concord. It's not really my thing but it was fun because they know everybody. Wilmer's like the mayor of L.A. There's no lines. That's one reason I can't stand going out in L.A. because there's the hierarchy of the "rope". It really comes to light that Hollywood is just a heightened version of high school. She's sitting at the cool table. Part of it is like 'hey, I'm hanging with the cool kids and they're not gonna beat me up'.

TeenHollywood: So the paparazzi chased Herbie. Did you shoot any more driving on actual city streets?

Justin: The bulk of the movie was shot out in the middle of nowhere, out in the desert in Fontana (California) and the outlying areas. I don't think the paparazzi knew where we were. The garage was out on location out in the desert but it helped. I think surrounding yourself with the elements helps. It was so hot there and flies. It was great for me because, playing a mechanic, I got natural beads of sweat and I could swat flies. It gives you something organic to play with and use and maintain that illusion.

TeenHollywood: What kind of car do you really drive?

Justin: I drive a Toyota Prius. My friends all make fun of me. They do bits like 'save your scrambled eggs because it can be some fuel for your car'. Like the Delorean at the end of Back to the Future. 'Oh, we need a beer can to drop in there'. I had a Mercedes SLK and felt like such a jackass. It got to the point where I was 'that guy' driving it around with the top down. I love driving and it was like a stick shift. I loved taking it out on road trips. I just felt like if I can help the environmental thing. Now it's a completely different driving experience.

TeenHollywood: Do you get recognized from Jeepers Creepers?

Justin: Yeah, a lot of little kids are like 'you lost your eye'. I'm like 'you're four years old. What are you doing watching that'? It's R-rated. Kids love that movie.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.