Actor Justin Long played supporting roles in films like Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Herbie Fully Loaded, and most recently in The Break-Up, and he's the star of those Mac vs. PC commercials that run constantly. Now the rising star is taking the lead for the first time in Universal Pictures' Accepted with a great supporting cast that includes Lewis Black, Jonah Hill and Blake Lively.
Long plays Bartley Gaines, a high school grad who creates his own college along with his best friend (Hill) when he's not able to get into a reputable university, and they convince Lewis Black's Uncle Ben to pretend he's the Dean to make it more realistic. Blake Lively (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) plays the girl of Bartleby's dreams who is also going to the more reputable nearby school.
ComingSoon.net caught up with Long, Black, Hill and Lively while they were hanging out for Comic-Con in San Diego.
ComingSoon.net: Justin, what are the pros and cons of you doing a lead versus a supportive character?
Justin Long: There are more cons I would say because obviously there is a lot more work. I got not a lot of sleep and I was there the whole time. I never had an experience where I was always kinda on set and no days off or anything. It was sort of a burden to have to get out that kind of information and pushing the story along as opposed to coming in for a couple of scenes and doing the funny and then running away. You know, I think it was just a lot more work and for me it wasn't as much fun as it was doing "The Break-Up" or one of those things where you just come in for a couple of days.
Jonah Hill: But, he pulled it off.
CS: So will you pass up more starring leads and roles?
Long: My favorite actors are the ones like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Sam Rockwell. Guys that will kind of do small character parts and then balance it with the neurotic every man guy. I don't know.
Hill: Tom Sizemore.
Long: Forest Whitaker.
Lewis Black: It's funny because you think this for me is the biggest role I've had and you think I want a lot of lines. And then after two days after a lot of lines you go, "What the f**k. Have the other f**kers sit there and talk and you go yeah."
Hill: I will say this. I've always done really small parts in movies before this and thank God they were really brilliant. I will say this, thank God Justin was the star because you know playing one of the leads in a movie is crazy after only doing little parts and someone who has done a bunch of movies was there to help out. For example, I wouldn't memorize my lines. I would just come in and improvise the whole thing and then Steve (Pink the director) one day said, "just say the lines." Usually they love the improvisation and he had a time thing so I had to just say the lines. I was like, "dude why he is saying that?" Then I'd go to Justin complaining after work and I'm like, "what's Steve's problem. I just do my thing. Like let me do my thing. He's saying I'm not unprofessional for not memorizing my lines." He's like, "dude you should memorize your lines the night before." I never knew that. I've never had to memorize my lines the night before. I'm used to going in and improvising. For real most of my stuff in the movie and Justin's stuff is just stuff that we did in a scene together, it was to take the idea of the scene and then make it your own. That's the way I like to do it and that's the best way I work. I just never realized that it was unprofessional to not memorize the lines. Justin would be like, "dude you should memorize your lines before you come to work." I was like, "man Steve doesn't get me." I'm just really lucky for this movie I got to be with Justin. To work with people that helped me realize how to be part of a movie. It's nerve-wracking and I've never done it before.
Long: We just kind of threw you into the fire.
Hill: Yeah man. Now it's like this huge massive stardom.
Long: You earned it.
Hill: It's like I'm in a dream bubble. It's never going to burst.
Black: Oh God. Oh man, I wish we could play this s**t back.
CS: Lewis, are you the next break out star from "The Daily Show"?
Black: No. I have no clue. I'll tell you what I am. They say people who ask me that question and nobody has seen the movie. And people have said to me, people have said this is going be...
CS: Accepted?
Black: Nobody has seen the movie a**hole.
CS: The Daily Show has produced many stars.
Black: Steve Carell was a very good actor before "The Daily Show." The thing is is that they were good before they even went in. I was the only one that was really mediocre and the other guys were all really solid. It's like this whole thing about drama school. "Boy I'm amazed that these people came out of Yale." No f**king monkey is going to apply to Yale. I know that you did, but it's true. So I think that's the reason. Rob was really funny.
Long: Yeah he was great. What was amazing about Lewis that really surprised me was that I was a huge fan. Not to embarrass you, but was a big fan of his comedy. Doing these scenes with him, he has a lot of scenes where he has moments. Like high stakes acting where he's got to be sort of honest and emotional. He was so good. So that was the thing that surprised me the most about it. It wasn't just how he was in his stand up, he really brought a lot of heart and I was very surprised.
CS: How do you keep from not cracking up when he goes off?
Hill: I think it's more keeping Lewis from freaking out about messing up a line. That was my favorite part of the movie watching Lewis get so pissed at himself when he'd screw up a line. It was so awesome. His intensity was so crazy.
Long: He was fueled by his own personal frustration about not getting the right line. He'd drive this amazing rant that would just like escalate with like spit flying and they used a lot of it. It was pretty special.
CS: What's your favorite one-liner from the film? There are so many great ones.
Hill: The cool thing about this movie, Justin and I, they would let us improvise and write a lot of the jokes that we were going to do on that day, we would improvise a lot of stuff. There was a few. For me my favorite one I think there was a shot where we're looking at the mental hospital. We did this in ADR like way later and I just wrote a joke, "Oh this is awesome, because I'm finally going to get Hepatitis" or something like that. It made me laugh. Hepatitis is pretty funny. We did this run where we're in Justin's room and we're talking about let's start a fake college and I'm like "then we'll go do something else." Then I did literally like a million different ones. Another one I did that they used is "now we can start a meth lab." But, there was a bunch of crazy ones that will probably be on the DVD. Really weird stuff.
Long: Really dark. He's worked with Judd Apatow now and that's all they do.
Hill: Yeah we just sit around and improvise.
Long: They let us to a little bit of that, but it kinda sucked for me because my job was to kind of like push the movie forward with a lot of exposition and I had to get out a lot of information. I was always so jealous of these guys, Jonah and Lewis because they got the opportunity to have these great one-liners and improv. I just had to be like, "So we gotta go start the college and you know."
Blake Lively: But, he so funny. The whole movie I don't even think I say that many lives, but I'm laughing the entire time because he was so doggone funny. I made my boyfriend come to set and told him, "You have to watch him. He's so funny." It was like out entertainment because every take was different. It was really funny.
Hill: I remember the coolest part was everyday we'd get to work and look at the sides and sit in one of our trailers and just write out a million different versions of the scene and a million different versions of each joke. It was really fun. We'd have a list of jokes lined up, which I thought was really fun. I remember one time, when you (Justin Long) were like talking to Monica (Blake Lively) and she's like, "are you good in everything?" Justin freaked out and came to me and said, "dude we need to think of a bunch of stuff. Like stuff that I'm not good at." I remember we spent so long and came up with like two pages of stuff.
Long: You came up with "I'm not good at not crying during 'My Girl.'"
Hill: Not, that was yours. That part is really fun. That's my favorite part of doing any movie.
Black: But it's also what makes the movie kind of work. I think because the stuff that's coming out is coming out. It's natural.
Hill: It's the way two friends would talk to each other.
Long: They made us do a little bit of that stuff. There was a little like, "Why don't you slam your head into the door here." There was a lot of that, but I sort of resisted that. We both kinda resisted that... Just stupid stuff like that. That's why I think [producer] Tom Shadyac is a genius because Tom and Steve [Pink] would insist that we did certain things that we thought were kind of sticky and broad and the first test we saw all of those jokes killed. All of the jokes like "I hit my head and whatever" people wereHill: I think it's more keeping Lewis from freaking out about messing up a line. That was my favorite part of the movie watching Lewis get so pissed at himself when he'd screw up a line. It was so awesome. His intensity was so crazy.
Long: He was fueled by his own personal frustration about not getting the right line. He'd drive this amazing rant that would just like escalate with like spit flying and they used a lot of it. It was pretty special.
CS: What's your favorite one-liner from the film? There are so many great ones.
Hill: The cool thing about this movie, Justin and I, they would let us improvise and write a lot of the jokes that we were going to do on that day, we would improvise a lot of stuff. There was a few. For me my favorite one I think there was a shot where we're looking at the mental hospital. We did this in ADR like way later and I just wrote a joke, "Oh this is awesome, because I'm finally going to get Hepatitis" or something like that. It made me laugh. Hepatitis is pretty funny. We did this run where we're in Justin's room and we're talking about let's start a fake college and I'm like "then we'll go do something else." Then I did literally like a million different ones. Another one I did that they used is "now we can start a meth lab." But, there was a bunch of crazy ones that will probably be on the DVD. Really weird stuff.
Long: Really dark. He's worked with Judd Apatow now and that's all they do.
Hill: Yeah we just sit around and improvise.
Long: They let us to a little bit of that, but it kinda sucked for me because my job was to kind of like push the movie forward with a lot of exposition and I had to get out a lot of information. I was always so jealous of these guys, Jonah and Lewis because they got the opportunity to have these great one-liners and improv. I just had to be like, "So we gotta go start the college and you know."
Blake Lively: But, he so funny. The whole movie I don't even think I say that many lives, but I'm laughing the entire time because he was so doggone funny. I made my boyfriend come to set and told him, "You have to watch him. He's so funny." It was like out entertainment because every take was different. It was really funny.
Hill: I remember the coolest part was everyday we'd get to work and look at the sides and sit in one of our trailers and just write out a million different versions of the scene and a million different versions of each joke. It was really fun. We'd have a list of jokes lined up, which I thought was really fun. I remember one time, when you (Justin Long) were like talking to Monica (Blake Lively) and she's like, "are you good in everything?" Justin freaked out and came to me and said, "dude we need to think of a bunch of stuff. Like stuff that I'm not good at." I remember we spent so long and came up with like two pages of stuff.
Long: You came up with "I'm not good at not crying during 'My Girl.'"
Hill: Not, that was yours. That part is really fun. That's my favorite part of doing any movie.
Black: But it's also what makes the movie kind of work. I think because the stuff that's coming out is coming out. It's natural.
Hill: It's the way two friends would talk to each other.
Long: They made us do a little bit of that stuff. There was a little like, "Why don't you slam your head into the door here." There was a lot of that, but I sort of resisted that. We both kinda resisted that... Just stupid stuff like that. That's why I think [producer] Tom Shadyac is a genius because Tom and Steve [Pink] would insist that we did certain things that we thought were kind of sticky and broad and the first test we saw all of those jokes killed. All of the jokes like "I hit my head and whatever" people were laughing.
Lively: What does that say about people?
Hill: People are f**king dumb. If I see you anywhere on the street, I will f**k you up.
Long: Now go see our movie.
Hill: But, seriously it's funny as s**t.
CS: Lewis, you're used to doing comedy in front of a live audience and in a film, the laughs aren't immediate. Was that difficult for you?
Black: Well I worked for years as a comic without laughs. I'd get up in front of people and there'd be nothing, which is actually very close to the truth. I acted before so I came out of a theatre background and I'd done films. I'll tell you what gets you used to it is you do radio, which is really worse because you're there at 7 in the morning and they're going, "so what kind of pets do you have?" You're trying to make it funny. It's another required skill. I knew Justin from William Town, the theatre thing there. So I trusted his sense of it and I'd spent enough time with Steve (Pink). Part of it is you've got to trust the guys you're working with. When Steve approached me with the film he said, "this is what we're going to do with it." Then he went through what he planned to do and I went "oh, okay. I get it." Shadyac [Tom] I trusted him just from the work he's done. I thought if they want me, this is easy. Basically you start to realize once you do a scene and people can get off and think you're funny then that's when you just trust it. And then also you guys have it, that sixth sense of like that sucked. This is the first film I had with a lot of stuff in it and even just doing others this year I'm comfortable without it. But, I gotta tell you it's a lot more fun when they're f**kers out there laughing.
CS: Is this a movie you can all relate to? Have you all had a time where you've felt unaccepted?
Long: Right now.
Hill: I think definitely. I mean like Lewis said it best in the last one. If you've never felt rejected when you were in middle school or high school then you've haven't really lived a human life.
Long: And you're a prick.
Hill: I wanted to clean it up.
Black: Oh yeah, all of a sudden.
Hill: I think everyone had felt rejected around Lewis Black. He gives you that feeling.
Long: I don't want to speak for everyone and I can't speak for Blake because I don't know if it's true, but I think we were all kind of not socially cool. I was a nerd in school.
Black: A good friend of mine when in the 7th grade [told me] I was always raising my hand in class answering any f**king question and always had my f**king hands up in the air. I was just a f**king douche bag. He came up to me and at one point said, "you gotta calm down." He said, "first off you've got to stop raising your hand." Then he said, "second of all you don't button your top button a**hole." I would walk around with the top button buttoned and I was choking to death. It really did change my life. All of a sudden, blood went to my head. All of a sudden it was like, "oh really. I'm supposed to do that."
Long: It opened up everything for you.
Black: Well it did, but my mother was still putting me in jeans that would be described now as gangster pants. The crotch was so low and to do that in the earlier 60's it looked like you were sh**ting yourself. And on that note, I'm leaving.
