Q&A with JAY BARUCHEL: "Because I have to look however someone wants me to look so friggin' often, I have to do these little measured acts of defiance."

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Q&A with JAY BARUCHEL: "Because I have to look however someone wants me to look so friggin' often, I have to do these little measured acts of defiance."

POSTED: Friday, March 12, 2010, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Interview | Movies

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

LEAGUE OF NATIONS: Jay Baruchel, T.J. Miller, Nate Torrence
and Mike Vogel of She's Out of My League.

Uh ... awkward.

Back story: I'm an intern and I'm sent to interview Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, Million Dollar Baby) and Nate Torrence, the stars of She's out of My League (read Shaun Brady's review). It's my first real assignment. It's a roundtable so I know I'll be interviewing with other reporters.

Problem is, I'm 15 minutes late (gimme a break! It was Snowpacalypsing outside!).

I rush into the busy hotel lobby when I spot Baruchel out of the corner of my eye. His hood is pulled over his head and his boyish face is masked with a beard. He is intensely talking to a middle-aged woman who seems to be a reporter. Thinking the interview has already started, I plop myself into the middle of their conversation, trying to be smooth, with these words: "Hey guys, I think I'm supposed to be joining this party?" (I kid you not).

The disgruntled reporter scolds me and informs me that she was conducting a lone interview, and that me and the rest of the group reporters would go next. She scurries me off into the lobby, and Jay chuckles and calls after me, telling me not worry about it.

When I see Baruchel again (this time, I when I'm supposed to), I apologize. "Don't worry, she was a bitch to me, too," he says of our banshee reporter buddy. Even if lessening my embarrassment was meant to curry my favor, it was still a nice-guy thing to do.

And that's what this movie is about: In this film, nice guys finish first. Baruchel plays Kirk, an average Joe airport attedant who can't get over his ex. Fate strikes when super hottie Molly (Alice Eve) forgets her phone at the baggage claim. When Kirk returns it, the two begin a courtship that is sweet, mired in premature ejaculation and testicle-shaving jokes.

Baruchel says that it was important to get to know Eve as a person, so that their on screen romance came off as legit: "No matter what, it was obvious that we were going to get the awkward stuff down pat but we made a conserted effort to hang out together. We ran errands together, I took her to the doctor's office, just so you could buy that we had some semblence of a connection."

Preparation aside, it was the romance between the men on that set that came more naturally. Through the film, Kirk seeks advice from his fellow airport employees: Stainer (T.J Miller), Jack (Abington-born, Warminster-bred Mike Vogel) and Devon (Torrence). "You never really know in comedy, sometimes it's like a pissing contest or a competition," says Torrence.

An excellent working relation ship paramount considering one of League's more memorable scenes: Torrence's character is tasked with assisting our hero Kirk in shaving his scrotum. "We're not misogynistic, frat boy dicks and we didn't want it to skew that way," says Baruchel. "It was more like a friend holding your hair back when you puke."

This is a big year for Baruchel. After League, he's got How to Train Your Dragon (March 26) and The Sorcerer's Apprentice (July 16) with Nicholas Cage on his slate. "I mean, I'm terrified about this year. But really I've been the 'One to watch next year' for the past 10 fucking years. When I was 18 and did Undeclared everyone was like 'Hey look out for this kid!' And then Million Dollar Baby wins Best Picture at the Oscars and everyone's like 'Whoa, check out that kid!'And Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder come out and they're like 'This kid's gonna be big!' I'm just happy to keep working, and to have cash to buy DVDs, and I hope that continues."

He's clearly psyched about the animated Dragon. "[My character] Hiccup is the closest thing I have to a son. Well, besides my cat, who is the love of my life." He proceeds to take out his iPhone and show me an oil portrait of said cat, Mary Manu. She's decked out with a moncle and is painted in the blue-and-red style of the Obama "Hope" posters.

But Hollywood ain't all bread and roses. When I ask him about the airbrushing of his infamous Candian maple leaf tattoo (as seen Knocked Up), he gleefully shows me his other tattoos (a Celtic cross and his mother's maiden name). "Because I have to look however someone wants me to look so friggin' often, I have to do these little measured acts of defiance," he says. "My little routine that I do every time I wrap up a movies is I go home, I get a wee bit inebriated, and in the wee hours of the morning I will shave my head into a Mohawk. That's my go-to. I have to remind myself that I am still my own human being."

As they get ready to leave, Baurchel and Torrence say they wished they could spend more time in Philly, and talk about the awesomeness of Pat's, where they made their own first cheesesteak with Eagles cheerleaders.

"It really is the life," says Baruchel.

She's Out of My League opens Friday at area theaters.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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