Uncovering Seann William Scott

You know what he, as Stifler, did in American Pie 1 and 2, and in the third (and final?) installment of the franchise, American Pie: The Wedding.

He has become so associated with that Stifler guy that when you meet Seann William Scott for the first time, you expect him to talk like Stifler, act like Stifler, behave like Stifler and do all those weird things Stifler has been doing in those American Pie flicks.

In person, Seann is funny, all right, but he’s not very much like Stifler.

"Actually," Seann tells a dozen entertainment journalists from around the world during the 12-on-one session for his latest movie, Columbia Pictures’ The Rundown (Welcome to the Jungle) in which he co-stars with The Rock (champion wrestler Dwayne Douglas), "I’m a serious guy." And then he breaks into a hearty laughter.

The interview/Conversation is, in fact, punctuated by that laughter with which Seann ends almost every sentence.

Born on Oct. 3, 1976 in Cottage Groove, Minnesota, the six-footer Seann landed his first major movie as wild man Steve Stifler (the party-throwing horny high-school jock/jerk in, yes of course, the first American Pie which was followed by Road Trip; Dude, Where’s My Car? (with Ashton Kutcher); the thriller Final Destination; two more American Pies; Bulletproof Monk (with Chow Yun-Fat); Old School (only a cameo role) and now The Rundown.

He did audition for Baywatch, the TV show, but he didn’t make it. To add insult to injury, he recalls, "I was robbed of my South Central gangbangers on my way to the audition. They took my shirt, my shoes and my one-dollar bill."

They won’t dare do that to Seann now. He has become so big that even gangsters, I’m sure, will rather get his autograph than his shirt or his shoes or his money.

In The Rundown, Seann plays Travis, a fast-talking double dealer whose father has commissioned The Rock (as Beck) to retrieve him from a lingering adventure in Brazil. Most of the movie’s action-comic scenes take place, supposedly, in the rainforest of Brazil (but actually shot on an island in Hawaii).

Let’s peel off the layers of Seann’s complex personality and "uncover" what he really is.

From Jason Biggs to The Rock. I knew you had fun working with Jason. How was it with The Rock?

"Oh, fantastic! He’s a great guy. The biggest challenge, I guess, was not to laugh in front of the camera because we were laughing and laughing all the time off the camera. We had a great time; I had the most fun I ever had in a film."

Like with Jason, you blend beautifully with The Rock. How were you able to jibe with him comedy-wise?

"You know, The Rock is really funny. I think he’s much funnier than I am. His instincts for comedy are sharp. His timing is great; he actually made things easy for me. More than anything, I told him, ‘You’re funny, you can do drama, you can do action. What am I here for?’ So we had a great time."

So what else did you discover about The Rock?

"He’s really a good guy. I can’t say that he’s a normal guy, but in a sense he is because he’s so humble and appreciative for the opportunities he has had, just like myself. He’s very driven as well. He knows what he wants to do. He’s focused."

Compared to those in the American Pie flicks, your role in Rundown is very physical. I bet you didn’t get hurt doing those sexy scenes in American Pie. Were you hurt while doing Rundown, especially in those scenes where you and The Rock were running in the jungle and rolling down the slopes of a mountain right smack into a waterfall below?

"Luckily, I wasn’t. I thought that I was gonna throw up a couple of times, especially in that scene where The Rock and I are hanging upside-down. The only time that I got hurt, but not so badly, was the first time I fought The Rock in the jungle. I went to the ground probably 40 times. But I never got hurt, not so badly anyway. It was our first shooting day and I had so much energy and adrenaline. Had I done that at the end of the shoot, maybe I might have been hurt badly. We were totally protected during the shoot. The crew was great."

What sort of "physical" preparation did you do for the movie?

"I worked out – a lot! I was in pretty good condition, maybe not as good as The Rock, but good enough. I knew that I would be standing next to him, so I thought I better shape up."

Your scenes with the monkeys are funny. You don’t have any phobia for monkeys, do you?

"No, I don’t. But I do have a fear of spiders. Yes, arachnophobia! I don’t like spiders. During the first days of shooting, a spider flew out of nowhere and landed on The Rock’s leg. I was frozen! I didn’t know what to do. I was in shock!"

It doesn’t come out in the movie, does it?

"No, it happened behind the scenes."

What did you learn from The Rock during the shooting of the movie?

"I won’t say I learned it from him because I’ve watched his movies and I could never hope to do the action that he does. Nobody else can do what he does best, I guess. He’s such a disciplined person and that’s one thing I guess I learned from him – discipline."

Do you have any favorite comedians?

"Peter Sellers is one of them, and Cary Grant. These guys are so goodlooking but it’s okay if they made a fool of themselves."

What about doing drama for a change?

"I would love to do drama. That’s why I decided to move to Los Angeles. But so far, I’ve been blessed with the opportunities that I’ve had. I think I’ll have to make that transition – from comedy to drama – very slowly."

Is there going to be an American Pie 4?

"I don’t think so. Everything that we wanted to do and to show has been done and shown in the three American Pie movies which have just been released as a trilogy-package on DVD. We’ve talked about everything; we’ve revealed the whole process, so I doubt if there’s any need for a fourth American Pie."

After American Pie: The Wedding, not even perhaps American Pie: The Honeymoon? And maybe much later, American Pie: The Divorce?

"I don’t know. I think people are sick of these characters."

That scene in Rundown where you’re shown trying desperately to pee while handcuffed, was it an American Pie spin-off?

"Oh, I don’t know. I never thought about it. You know, what happened is that we just did two or three takes of it, but I don’t think it’s a spin-off or something. I was always thinking that Rundown is a different movie from American Pie. What I don’t mind is doing a movie with comedy in it. You know, instead of doing American Pie 4, I’d rather do something else, something different. "

Have you always been a funny person?

"Actually, I wasn’t. I was always jealous of the funny guys. When I was a kid, I was a joker, just for my family. In school, I was really quiet and had great friends, two of them very funny. Secretly, I was jealous of them because, you know, the girls liked those funny guys. I was the quiet kid who couldn’t come up with a joke, who couldn’t remember a joke. All I did was my homework, you know. That’s why when I did American Pie, I kept saying, ‘I hope it does well! If it made a hundred million dollars, maybe I can do American Beauty.’ I never thought I could be funny."

Did you start being funny only with American Pie?

"Yeah. I thought I was gonna get fired from that movie. I kept telling myself, ‘Better be good. You might use this as a way to get another movie.’ I kept reminding myself, ‘Don’t get fired. They’re not gonna realize that you’re not funny.’ So I never try to make my character (Stifler) funny. So what I’d do was react to what the other characters were saying, so I think that’s how that character started getting kind of cartoonish. I just couldn’t believe that Stifler could become a memorable character."

Have you always wanted to be an actor?

"I guess so. Back in 1995, I worked double shifts at a local theater while completing high school in Cottage Groove, Minnesota. I watched all the free movies I could watch and they must have inspired me to aspire to become an actor. I finished high school one semester early and I left the security of my parents, my six brothers and sisters and my small-town behind to pursue my dream in Los Angeles where I still live up to now."

You are a movie addict.

"Oh, yes, I am. I’m a great fan of films. I’m much more excited about sitting down and enjoying a really good film than I am about acting, you know. And with my experiences with some films, I just can’t believe that certain things can happen. I would like to be able to find projects out there for people who have inspired me."

If you didn’t make it as an actor, what would you have done?

"I don’t know. If I didn’t make it, I’d probably move to Europe and try to get some people together and open a hotel. I don’t really know what I’d do."

Why Europe?

"I don’t know. I love Europe so much. Maybe because there’s so much to see out there, there’s so many different cultures out there. I spent six weeks in Spain and South of France and part of Germany and I enjoyed it very much. Maybe because I haven’t had a chance to go to college and all my attention has been put on just trying to make it as an actor. So when I got the chance, I went over there and it was like, ‘Wow!’ Look at all these different cultures. People can relax; there’s more to life than just working. People really have a strong sense of family and living. It’s just so amazing!"

What did you want to be before you became an actor?

"A professional pitcher in baseball. I still think I could be one. Give me time and I will be. But I love movies more than any other profession, more than anything. I just love movies. I just started watching Kurosawa films, you know, Rashomon and Ran, and I said, ‘What happened to filmmaking? Why don’t we make movies like these anymore!?!’ You know."

Who are the actors you like to work with?

"Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise are of two of them."

Off-screen, when are you funny and when are you serious?

"I’m often more serious than funny, you know."

What’s the first thing you’d do if you had the time?

"I’d travel. I’d go around the world. That’s what I would do."

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