Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg in "Adventureland"

Kristen Stewart was popping up everywhere recently before heading to Vancouver to shoot New Moon. Two of her well-acted indie films are being released practically back-to-back (The Cake Eaters and Adventureland) so we chatted with her and cute Adventureland co-star Jesse Eisenberg ( Rodger Dodger, The Squid and the Whale) last week and learned what it was like to shoot a relatable, funny, bittersweet coming-of-age film in a real, working amusement park, what is so different about teens and young adults in the 1980's (when the film is set)and today and what would the two actors do for a career if, suddenly, they couldn't act anymore?

Kristen was again making herself more comfortable by sitting with legs crossed Indian-style in her chair, in minimum make-up but dressed up since our last interview in sleek black jacket, fancy navy blue beaded tee and skinny black slacks with rolled up cuffs. Obviously deciding not to wear the high heels provided by some stylist, she was sporting her own scruffy white deck-shoe style tennies. You go gurl!! Ever the non-conformist. Jesse seems shy at first but warms up as we go.

TeenHollywood: You are playing young people from the late '80s. Do you think there is any difference in what teens and young adults were like then and now? Did you have to talk to older people; ask them questions?

Jesse: What's it like to be smaller? Well, actually, the movie takes place in 1987 so they didn't have the same technology. I don't even know half of the technology that's used today anyway.. Twit... twi... Twitter? [laughter] Put some letters together and make a word. Would the relationships in the movie manifest in the same way if everybody had these things? You can't really dramatize text messages that much so maybe it's better that the movie takes place then because then you had to talk to people.

Kristen: It's so much easier. You can be more people if you are not connected with everybody. If you are not on Facebook updating everything you're doing every day or they can't get ahold of you via cell phone at any moment, you can have different aspects of your life. You can be different people to different people when you need to. You have more privacy. My character satisfies and fulfills whatever she needs to with different people and she's very different to all of them and she probably wouldn't be able to do that. You're one thing to everybody if you're so connected to everybody and she's able to be... you know what I'm saying...

Jesse: Yeah. It was very eloquent [when you said it] upstairs [laughter].

TeenHollywood: Jesse, your character wrecks the family car and had to spend his summer earnings to pay for it. Did either of you have some kind of minor catastrophe that had a major impact on your life?

Jesse: I've been in so many car accidents. Everybody's all right, always. It's just stupid mistakes. I'm a terrible driver. I don't own a car. I live in New York. So, for practice, in L.A., they rent me a car.

TeenHollywood: Did something ever happen to put you on a different path because it happened?

Jesse: Yeah, sure. I never fitted in well in school. I wanted to go do plays in New York and I lived in New Jersey at the time. That's exactly why I started doing plays and stuff, just to get out of school. That often happens. That's what's nice about the movie. These characters think they're going to have the worst experience and, often, those experiences, you find value because you have to commiserate with your colleagues.

TeenHollywood: And you might find somebody to fall in love with like in the movie.

Jesse: Yeah.

TeenHollywood: So, Kristen, you didn't have that kind of experience?

Kristen: I'm sure I have but...

TeenHollywood: Can't think of one right now?

Kristen: Yeah.

TeenHollywood: Organically, you work really well together. Did that happen instantly in rehearsal or while you were working together?

Kristen: We're really good liars [laughter].

Jesse: Yeah. This is very difficult now. We usually get put on opposite sides of the tables [laughter]. Yeah, the script was so realistically written. Kristen is such a wonderful actress and also the characters in the script were really well-defined and their relationship was well-defined, like why these two people would be together was drawn in a very honest way. Not just an obligatory love story part of the movie.

TeenHollywood: Jesse, your character was the awkward virginal guy and Kristen, you sort of knew what you wanted a little bit more. Are you like this is real life?

Jesse: We're the opposite. She's the awkward one and I'm the one who..... well, we switched it up.

Kristen: I think my character had no concept of what she wanted actually. She just feigns and puts on that she's very secure and fine and very self-sufficient but she's so not. It's like by default that she realizes too late 'oh God, why can't I just get over my hang-ups and be good to myself?' If they were both aware of how great they were then there would be no problem. They would just be happy together but she's full of self-loathing and doesn't treat herself very well.

TeenHollywood: I hope you're not like that.

Kristen: No. No. I love myself [laughs].

TeenHollywood: Kristen, a lot of girls are going to be jealous of you so do you have any crazy girl stalker stories and Jesse, do you want any? [laughter] [Silence so I chime in...] Crazy girls stalking you, would that be good or bad?

Jesse: Oh, that would be irrelevant, I'm sure [laughter].

Kristen: No. I have a very wide [fan base]. I love girls who are in love with me. That's funny because I thought it was going to be the opposite. I thought they were going to kind of hate me because I'm in the optimum position. But, it's all an illusion. It's all [shrugs shoulders and makes a sound like psh... nothing]. But, no, I can't tell you a funny story.

TeenHollywood: You shot this in a real amusement park so did anybody ride the rides off-set at all?

Jesse: I didn't realize this until today. I guess we weren't supposed to ride them because of insurance and then on the last day.....

Kristen: We went on the most dangerous, old wooden roller coaster.

Jesse: Taking revenge.

TeenHollywood: So was it running while you were shooting?

Kristen: Yeah, the whole park was with extras on the rides to make it look like [it was real].

TeenHollywood: What was your director Greg Mottola (of Superbad) like to work with?

Jesse: He was great. It was kind of semi-autobiographical [for him] so, as an actor, you feel like you emotionally invest in the story whereas a lot of the people behind the camera don't have to because they are dealing with something technical. They don't have to have any emotional connection to it. But, in this case, because the story was so personal for him, he was necessarily invested in it as much or more-so than we were. That's the best environment to work in. It makes you, I think, that much more comfortable.

TeenHollywood: You both wear these dorky t-shirts that say either "Rides, Rides, Rides" or "Games, Games, Games". Did you get to choose your clothes?

Kristen: Aside from that t-shirt?

TeenHollywood: Yeah, aside from the t-shirt.

Kristen: Yeah. For me, her whole look had to reflect what was going on. She was undefined, especially in an era that was so hokey. It looks cheesy and she rejects that completely so it's shapeless t-shirts. She was very distracted. That's not where her energy goes. So, I had less fun [with the wardrobe] than some of the other characters.

TeenHollywood: You wore that cute rock t-shirt. Whose face was on that?

Kristen: Lou Reed.

TeenHollywood: Ah, a classic. Jesse, for research for your character, since it was kind of autobiographical, did you sit down with Greg and ask questions?

Jesse: Yeah. It was great to have him there as a resource to go to, to ask 'what was this experience like? Why did you react this way?' The character is so earnest to the point where it's not even necessary to explain yourself. So, it nice to have somebody on the set to go to. If you were going to try something different, 'would this be in line?' So he was a great resource to have on the set.

TeenHollywood: Jesse, in the movie you find out that you don't have any skills outside the area you plan to go into. Today, if you stopped acting, are you qualified to do anything else? Where do you think you would end up? Would you end up just as lost?

Jesse: Yeah. I think about this all the time. I was trying to graduate from college and my degree is Anthropology. You can't do much with that anyway, like show somebody around a museum or something. But it would be so tragic.

Kristen: Yeah. I don't know what I would do. I would have a lot of pent-up energy that I would have to throw at something and it wouldn't be this. It would be very unsatisfying because I'm not as good at writing [her second choice?]. It would be very frustrating.

Jesse: Yeah. Like in any other job, I would think I would have to work so much harder to get [anywhere].

Kristen: Exactly. I'm not good at anything else. I don't know what I'd do.

Jesse: There are very few jobs where you can be young and still work at the top level. Adults have been doing it for many years. Just by the nature of the thing, they need young people to play roles.

Kristen: What we do is so self-indulgent. We're self-reflective and we just think about people and how they deal with one another. That's what I would continue to do.

Jesse: You just can't get paid for that.

Kristen: Yeah. I'd be the annoyingly over-analytical girl who writes.

TeenHollywood: You mentioned writing so you would be trapped in that world of artistic expression?

Kristen: Yeah. I would be terrible at anything else. I'm bad with my hands. I can't make stuff. My thoughts are far from organized so I wouldn't be good at a desk job.

TeenHollywood: Well, I don't think either one of you has to worry about that. What was the most challenging thing to do for you in this film?

Jesse: I don't know. I guess the only obstacle when we were filming it was we were filming it during the Winter and it takes place in the Summer so there were a lot of scenes that were just very uncomfortable. You'd have to put ice in your mouth to make your breath not be white. That's just kind of annoying.

Kristen: It was freezing.

Jesse: Towards the end of the movie it started snowing. They filmed all the outside stuff first, knowing that they might have to contend with weather I guess.

Kristen: Actually, the toughest thing we did, the first thing we shot was our scene in the pool together and I was literally like [indicates shaking from the cold].

Jesse: I guess because that was the warmest.....

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about working with Ryan Reynolds who plays the slightly older dude Kristen's character is hooked up with? Ryan is usually very funny but this was a more dramatic role for him.

Kristen: Yeah. He did really well. He committed to playing a character that wouldn't be entirely liked. But, at the same time, it's within his character to be charming and then to other people, be totally see-through. So, I thought he did that well.

Jesse: I thought he was great. What he said was not directly comedic but I thought he was still very funny and he's also perfect for it. He's charming but has this other side of not doing the right thing.

TeenHollywood: Hilarious Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader from "Saturday Night Live" seemed to be doing more improv.

Jesse: Yeah, there were. When I was watching them film some of the scenes, I was like 'How could any of this be in the script? It's so out there and hysterical.' Then it shows up in the movie. They're so clever and smart and funny so it fits in so perfectly. And Greg was able to modulate it to the point where it doesn't feel like it's in a different movie even though it's so utterly funny.

Kristen: And they aren't just like arbitrarily funny. They made such distinct characters, those two; a really strange couple, this creepy couple that's working there.

TeenHollywood: Do you have a preference between doing indie films and blockbusters like we're sure New Moon will be?

Kristen: No. I start everything from the same place. I start everything with that sense of responsibility. Then, on a bigger movie you have to be aware that you can only control your aspect of the film. But it's nice to be on a smaller movie because you're working with your friends and it seems so close-knit. It's your guyses movie [hey, that's what she said] you can do anything you what and nobody's going to have anything to say. With a bigger movie, it concerns so many people. It's so much more of a process. But, it terms of what I do personally, it has to be the same or I'm just on some big movie being a liar and I can't do that.