Jay Baruchel is Pure "Magic"

You know that cute but shy and kinda dorky guy in class with the big brain and the empty social calendar? Canadian actor Jay Baruchel was one of those and readily admits it. "I'm a huge, huge nerd".

We know that these guys often have hearts of gold and just get cuter the more we get to know them. Eventually they are bypassing all the high school hunks to end up with the most awesome girl in class.  Jay might have first come to your attention as one of the soldier/actors in the hilarious Tropic Thunder or as the nerd after the unattainable hottie in She's Out of My League and the voice of Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon.

This month you can watch Jay Baruchel again getting the gorgeous girl (Theresa Palmer who "deflowered" Harry Potter in December Boys!). Theresa says "Jay is like his character (in this film) because he's super endearing and lovely and very funny but he's not as nerdy as his character".

As The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Baruchel gets to re-enact the classic Mickey Mouse magical mops-gone-wild sequence from Fantasia and he was super intimidated to step into the Disney icon's giant shoes.

We are chatting with Jay in Beverly Hills and are learning that he was not only intimidated by reinventing a classic Disney scene but co-starring with one of his film heroes Nicolas Cage (who plays the Sorcerer). None-the-less, Jay, a long time gamer, was so attracted to the idea of shooting huge energy bolts out of his hands, that he took the plunge and signed on. Check it out...

TeenHollywood: This is a pretty iconic Disney title. All over the world people remember Mickey in his blue, pointy hat with the moons and stars on it. In this film you are the Sorcerer's Apprentice. How did that make you feel?

Jay: Every time you are paying homage to something that has meant a lot to a lot of people for many generations, you’ve got to approach it with a degree of reverence and I like to say that we have a really great seed to start from, because the 'Sorcerer’s Apprentice' sequence in Fantasia is the seed to our oak tree, and you can pick a lot worse seeds to start from. But if we failed it would have been a big, big, big mess. Hopefully we’ve given them what they’re used to and then some.

TeenHollywood: Nic Cage can't say enough cool, flattering things about you as a costar and actor. Again, how do you react to that kind of flattery?

Jay: (Is he blushing?) Well, when you work with somebody who’s like close to hero status for you, it will either make you wilt in the presence of greatness and so you just lose it all, or it makes you think like 'Now I’m playing with the guys that I got into (films) for. The guys that made me want to become an actor, and now I have my chance. I better bring my A game as hard as I possibly can'.

And that’s what it was with (Nic). I got to show up on set every day and get to work and have conversations with this guy who I’ve watched since I was a little kid, and just been a huge fan of, and in awe of everything about him. I didn’t want to blow it, it just made me want to work as hard as I possibly could just to be as good has he is.

TeenHollywood: You are taking the place of another huge icon in the scene in which the broomsticks and mops go wild and practically drown your lab. How was filling Mickey's shoes?

Jay: Well it's not shoes, it’s gloves. There’s a gravity to it. When we were shooting the sorcerer sequence, the famous Fantasia sequence, doing our version of it when the mops come to life, I thought ‘You really can’t mess this up.’ Worst case scenario, every time someone else sees the cartoon Fantasia I will be irrevocably connected to it, like, ‘I remember that punk kid and how terrible that was.’

TeenHollywood: So you felt a huge responsibility?

Jay: Yeah. It sounds cheesy but I felt like the ghost of my grandparents kind of watching me. I tried my best to fulfill everything I had to do, do everything I had to do in terms of paying homage to the character and to the sequence while looking for moments where I could maybe do my own thing with it.  I was scared sh**less. But, I loved having all those mops and brooms kick my butt. It was just magical and hard not to be a kid in that situation. I grew up watching that scene in Fantasia.

TeenHollywood: Do you have an opinion on why your character Dave uses magic on the cleaning tools to clean up his lab?

Jay: Adam and Eve couldn't help but eat the apple, right? It's the old 'curiosity killed the cat' thing. Also, trying to find the quickest, easiest way of getting something done is an ambition that we all share, and we've all had that come back to bite us in the butt cheeks, right? That sequence is about somebody trying to cut out the middleman and paying a huge price for it.

TeenHollywood: What is your take on your character Dave?

Jay: Dave is his own worst enemy, the architect of his own misery. He spends his life trying to live down that moment in the (antique shop) Arcana Cabana when he first encountered (sorcerers) Balthazar and Horvath (and was terribly embarrassed in front of schoolmates).  

Dave gravitates towards physics, which is the discipline he gives his life to. When he meet up with Balthazar again (years later), the sorcerer tells Dave that it was no coincidence that he drifted toward physics, because although illusion and magic are different, magic and sciences are the same thing.  

TeenHollywood: There are lots of great scenes all over New York City; the Chrysler building, the parks etc. You are from Montreal but NYC is almost a character in the film. Did you feel that?

Jay: This movie is a love letter to New York City. Anyone who has spent any time in New York knows that it is truly the world's capital. In the film when we're driving in Times Square or on Sixth Avenue in the car chase, we're actually doing it. Everybody, including my mother, has been blown away, gobsmacked and awestruck by the size, grandeur and detail. People are going to see our movie and get taken away into a New York that they recognize, but have never really seen before.  

(The NYU stuff) was amazing for me because I'd always dreamt of going to NYU Film School and could never float the bill. So many great movies have come as a result of that institution and it's so seared into the collective consciousness.

TeenHollywood: Other than worshiping Nic Cage and Mickey, what else drew you to this film? Some of the cool things the apprentice gets to do?

Jay: I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t practiced shooting energy out of my hands my entire life (laughs). It’s all "Akira" or "Street Fighter 2", or the end of Return of the Jedi. I’ve been groomed for this.

TeenHollywood: If you had the ability to do magic one time, what would you do?

Jay: I’d blow something up with my hands!  I'm a huge, huge nerd.  I love any movies where guys shoot energy out of their hands, but I'm not usually the go-to guy for stuff like that. Then I read the script and I was like 'wait a second! A guy like me gets to shoot energy out of his hands and stuff? Done, I'm here for the plasma bolts!'