INTERVIEW: Drew and Justin "Go the Distance"

Are you hot for someone who doesn't live anywhere near you? Could a long distance romance really work?  On again, off again, real life couple Drew Barrymore and Justin Long star in the new, modern, R-rated relationship film Going the Distance and we are with them getting their takes on first kisses, love from afar, how awkward it was to pretend they are having a phone hook up and Drew's bizarre encounter with Mark Wahlberg (it ties in... we promise).

Picture Drew looking glam/grunge in sheer, long-sleeved plaid shirt with gray sweater vest over it and accessorizing with two amazing, studded leather belts, a big costume jewel necklace and giant turquoise ring which she keeps playing with during the interview.. black jeans and very red nails finish off the look and, yes, Justin looks very cute/casual as well. Let's dish....
 
TeenHollywood:  Drew, your character Erin is more of a modern, sassy outspoken woman than some of the rom-com characters you’ve played. Did the fact that she is more of a modern young woman attract you to the part?
 
Drew: Yeah, I definitely was excited to play her. I just wasn’t in that place in my life where I wanted to play a cuckoo, wacky role-reversal sort of scenario. We're all travelers and you try to make distance work with relationships, and [I like] someone who can hang out with guys and loves women but has a spine and is funny. I just feel like I relate to that kind of person right now in my life, so it was a pleasure for me to get to improv and just work in a much more free-flowing way where you could play around and you didn’t have to be censored because you have an R rating, and that to me was just an absolute pleasure.
 
TeenHollywood: What would you say was the scene that was the biggest challenge for you?
 
Drew: One of the challenges that I was most excited about was doing the drunk scene. Me and Nanette [the director] really focused on what type of drunk she was and what can we adlib and what would be spontaneous. If you were really angry how would you just let loose? It was the most fun day at work ever, because I really just let loose.

TeenHollywood: It was very real and funny. What about you, Justin?
 
Justin: I would say some of the naked stuff was a little uncomfortable, but I think the most challenging was to try to keep a straight face around those two clowns [ He's speaking of co-stars Charlie and Jason who played his buddies]. But, I think a lot of the really intimate, sexual stuff around a room full of thirty, forty grown men [crew members], that was a challenge.
 
TeenHollywood: I think our visitors might want to know what your top three albums and movies are.
 
Justin: Albums? Okay.  I would say Joni Mitchell’s "Blue", and [The Beatles] "Rubber Soul" my top ones.  
 
TeenHollywood: What about the new Justin Bieber?
 
Justin: Oh, yeah. The Bieb's greatest hits, "Leave it to Bieber".
 
Drew: I’m going to go with Annie Hall, Lost in America and Sullivan’s Travels, those are some of my favorite movies.
 
TeenHollywood: And albums?
 
Drew: Okay, I’m on it. Spank me! No, I’m just kidding. Like a Radiohead album [she's thinking] Humm, and I’m such a music nut too, this is really sad. It’s like sometimes when someone says 'Where do we go for breakfast?' and it’s like you’ve never eaten before, and your brain just goes blank. I’m going to call a brain blank on this one.
 
Justin: For movies, I’m going to go with Annie Hall, Back to the Future and Way Out West, that’s a Laurel and Hardy movie.

TeenHollywood: Those are great. Drew, I thought it was genius to cast you and Christina Applegate as sisters.  Both of you started out acting as kids and have lived your whole lives growing up in the public eye. Can you comment on that casting?  
 
Drew: I thought it was interesting, I felt like we started to really look alike, which I thought was cool. I loved when people cast siblings where it's actually feasible could have come from the same womb, so I felt like we started to morph. And we used to be in a dance class together when we were kids, but she looked really good in spandex and I did not. I’ve known her forever. We have a lot of parallels. It worked for us.
 
TeenHollywood: The key moment in a romantic comedy is the first kiss to see whether we’re going to buy that these people are really connected. When you see the first kiss in a script, is that something that you think about or is it just part of the role?
 
Justin: It’s like a necessary evil. [Drew rolls her eyes]. The first kiss for us in the movie was kind of sloppy. We were drunk. We were stoned [the characters were]. I’m sorry, it was just so easy to do. It was so comfortable.
 
TeenHollywood: Is it something you think about long before you shoot it?
 
Justin: I like to think about my grandmother. Just because she has always been an inspiration to me in my life. [Drew laughs].  No, I think you’re invested in the scene, hopefully. Sometimes it can be a surprise when you’ve never kissed anyone before and you’ve just met recently and people have different ways of kissing and sometimes it can be very jarringly uncomfortable. There can be very little movement involved and then a quick, sudden movement from the tongue that you don’t expect.
 
Drew: [laughs] I just was lucky because he’s a good kisser. So it’s like, ‘Whew, thank God.’ The worst for me is kissing someone who is not a good kisser and you’re trying to make it look good and you feel like you’re just working on your own. At least it was a real team effort.
 
Justin: She’s a great kisser too, I just want to reiterate that.
 
Drew: Ah, thank you.

TeenHollywood: Drew, Justin's character seems fond of his Tom Cruise poster from Top Gun. Do you personally have a much-loved item in your home?

Drew: Well, any of my dogs are my most cherished things, I’d have to say.
 
TeenHollywood: Your characters are apart so much that they attempt to have a phone hook up. Erin seems to get hot by the mere mention of Marky Mark (Mark Wahlberg's alter ego when he sang with Marky Mark and the Funky bunch way back when). Was that an improv line?
 
Drew: I think the Marky Mark was written for sure, and I was like so excited to hit that. I really wanted to hit it hard.
 
Justin: You told Mark that and he got....
 
Drew: Oh my God, I did tell him that. I ran into him in an awards show and I was like, ‘I just want you to know how hot you are in your underwear and you’re cute and sexy and....
 
Justin: And it didn’t go over great. [we all laugh]
 
Drew: No. And who would not be excited about that? He’s a very nice guy, I’ve had other conversations with him that went much better than that. So nothing against him for sure. That was as great scene as written and I was really excited to go out there and try it, because I thought 'This is one of those scenes that's going to fail miserably, and be like a really gross, upsetting, moment or it could be fun and exciting'. It was just one of those scenes like you just have to kinda go for it not knowing if it’s going to work or not. But don’t compromise along the way because you’re afraid of it.
 
Justin: We were comparing who had a more awkward experience [in the phone hooking up scene]. Me as a guy in front of a room full of men simulating it or Drew. And I said, ‘All the guys in my room, all the crew guys, were like trying to make jokes to keep it light. Or they were making sex jokes.’ So it made it kind of more awkward, but, in truth, I think Drew had it more awkward, because she said everyone in the room was being stone-cold silent and respectful, and it just made it that much weirder for her. There were tips flying around, and whispering.
 
TeenHollywood: I can imagine. In this movie, you are both in careers that are in transition in real life. Erin is a newspaper reporter [as opposed to an online blogger] and there aren't too many of those left. Justin's character Garrett is an A&R man for a record company trying to sign bands. I think that will seem real and current to an audience? Is this a recession romance?
 
Drew: I just feel like, I personally want something that I can escape into and forget what’s going on around me, but I don’t want to lose sight of being able to relate to something. So for me I just want that beautiful, striking balance and I feel like this film has that. I’m laughing, but I’m crying and relating and emotional about it. I feel like it gets surprisingly real, but then it does come and save you and make you laugh.
 
Justin: I also think the [needing money] realities of the characters plays a large part, and it was nice to see that played out. A lot of people, especially now, can relate to [this] and things that you take for granted when you enter into a long distance relationship, chief among them the logistics, and just getting from point A to B.  
 
Drew: You want to see each other but you can’t because of money or schedule.
 
Justin: Or I ran out of fuel for my hot air balloon.
 
Drew: [laughs] Exactly. Or obligations. Absolutely.