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Posted April 4, 2012 by Betsy Cizek in Interviews
 
 

Interview with Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, writers/directors of American Reunion

On March 22, 2012, I, along with other members of the press, had the opportunity to interview the writers/directors of the upcoming movie American Reunion, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Scholssberg. The two are best known for their work with the Harold and Kumar series. This was both a lively conversation, and candid in regard to the nature of the American Pie franchise. Both Jon and Hayden proved to be surprisingly regular guys, each with a great sense of humor, which was evident in how the interview started – a perfect fit for Universal’s new comedy American Reunion.

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HAYDEN: Jon writes all the romantic stuff, he writes the male nudity, and I write the female nudity. (Laughs)

PRESS: So now I understand how the partnership works. How did you guys get to this, how did you end up with an American Pie sequel?

Jason Biggs, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg on the set of “American Reunion.” © 2012 – Universal Pictures.

HAYDEN: Jon and I, we were actually about ready to direct the third Harold and Kumar, A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas, which was shot here in Detroit. A couple months before pre-production we were hanging out with John Cho, and he told us that he had heard from the Weitz brothers that Universal was thinking of bringing the whole cast back for a high school reunion movie, not just a straight to DVD movie, but a theatrical American Pie and as fans at the time we were just excited to hear that they were thinking of doing that. We had no clue that they would approach us in any sort of way, we were just thinking that would be huge, that would be great and we can’t wait to see it, and then a couple weeks later our agents told us that Universal was interested in if we had a take, and we thought, this would be a great idea for us because we’re huge fans of the original, we go back a long ways in terms of knowing some of the actors involved, obviously John Cho, Eddie Kaye Thomas, we worked with before.

JON: Yeah everything we have ever done has had both John Cho and Eddie Kaye Thomas, and nudity. We were used to writing sequels; our last two movies that have been produced were sequels and in both of those cases were well received in that they were movies in and of themselves. The fans liked them and so we thought this would be a great opportunity, you know, we wanted to direct every Harold and Kumar, it would be impossible to do both at the same time and we told the studio it was important for us, to do something different and we had a real love for this franchise, you know we wouldn’t have left Harold and Kumar three, as directors if it weren’t for the fact that this was a unique experience. This was something that we were actually psyched about. We’ve been approached over the years to do a variety of different projects that we’ve eventually seen on the big screen, but they were never things that we could get excited about and have a fun time [doing]. Just the ability to figure out, okay what happened to Jim, what happened to Finch, what happened to Stiffler, the MILF guys, the Sherminator, it was too tempting to pass up. It’s been a dream come true frankly.

CinemaNerdz: American Pie is an American classic. Having both written and directed American Reunion, what were your challenges in keeping the already successful tone in the series?

JON: The biggest thing for us was making sure the characters felt like the characters. We fell in love with the franchise, we love the jokes, we love the raunch, we love all the craziness, but at its core we felt we were seeing people like us and our friends on the big screen, and we think a lot of people felt that way. From the core guys, to the core girls, everybody in the movie felt like people that we knew. We wanted to keep the integrity of who the characters were, but now they are in their thirties, so it’s somebody that you know and you don’t suddenly become somebody different ten years later. You become an older version of yourself, the world around you changes. Making sure that these characters that you knew well in situations and an overall environment through comedy set pieces that audiences are just going to love and audiences that don’t know these characters would be able to connect with as well. I think that was the biggest challenge. But, I think the fact that we wanted the whole ensemble back provides a whole other challenge. For us, as the franchise moved on over the years and the third movie happened and Oz is no longer in the movie and Kevin is in the movie, but not with a lot to do…it was really important to us…the big challenge was taking it were it needed to go so it was worth the actor’s time to come back.

The theatrical poster for “American Reunion.”

PRESS: With the actual reunion part of things, did you take any of your experiences or your friends experiences with class reunions?

HAYDEN: Jon and I went to high school together and our ten year reunion didn’t come together. So it would have been nice clean and easy for this to come together in 2009 and to say yes this is their ten year reunion, but we knew that this doesn’t always happen. It’s not always that simple. Beyond that, being around the same age as the characters, we were able to draw on our life experiences, our friend’s experiences; you know Jon’s married, he has a kid, and I’m not married. We’re successful at what we do, we have friends back home that maybe not in the place that they wanted to be and you have all these different moments, experiences, you know, life experiences that you can draw upon.

PRESS: Since you got all these archetypes together now, which of the actors is most like its archetype and which one has to work the hardest to get out of who they really are?

HAYDEN: I would say Eddie Kaye Thomas is a lot like Finch in terms that he has a certain way about him, a certain tone. He’s very alike, personality wise; mature for his years – a certain sophistication. It’s funny, Seann William Scott is not like Stiffler; he’s like the guy who is so afraid to offend anybody.

JON: He’s polite; he apologizes if he thinks he’s offended you, He’s also, in a lot of ways, there is shyness about him. Just a good guy and all he does is offend people and doesn’t care about what anyone thinks. And Jason is like the moral center in the movie; not like he’s puritanical, but he’s the guy who’s constantly trying to do the right thing, while having all the immoral urges that a human being has. Off camera, Jason Biggs is more like Stiffler than Seann is.

HAYDEN: He’s the filthiest guy, he’d be the one on set that would whip his dick out and would like put it in your food or something (laughter) we’d ask, “Why are you doing this?” it’s because he’s just amusing himself.

JON: He’s the biggest prankster of the lot, the most outrageous.

CinemaNerdz: So, speaking of dicks, whose idea was the clear lid in the kitchen scene? (Laughter)

Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz on the set of “American Reunion.” © 2012 – Universal Pictures.

HAYDEN: Jason is the one who came to us after reading the script and said he loved the script, loved the character work, loved the story line, really felt like the original American Pie, he just wanted one more thing that was outrageous like the pie scene in the movie, and he threw the challenge on us to come up with something.

JON: He said I’ll do anything as long as it’s funny, I’ll do anything.

HAYDEN: So we said, ok well he is clearly showing his dick in this movie. (Laughter)

JON: Jason wanted us to spend a little more time on the wide shots. (More laughter) It’s funny, we’ve made four movies, and we’ve had four penises in our movies and this is the first real penis that we’ve used.

PRESS: Whose idea was it to bring in Neil Patrick Harris?

JON: Neil Patrick Harris is one of our favorite people in the whole entire world. We needed someone like a Ryan Seacrest, and we said, hey we know someone like that. So he did us the favor, he flew to Atlanta, its sorta top secret that he’s in the movie. It’s a fun surprise for the audience.

PRESS: Do you guys have a different set of influences when you sit down to write than when you start to direct?

HAYDEN: I think it’s just a compiled sensibility over the years. When we were growing up we loved all types of comedy we loved the Zucker brothers’ movies which were like parody, the Farrelly brothers movies which were a little more grounded but with outrageous characters, but we also loved Mel Brooks, and Woody Allen, Seinfeld, Howard Stern. I think what really connects with us is wanting to put people that really felt like us on the screen.

JON: It’s like we’re constantly writing on set. When we’re working on making something funnier on set, it’s the writer in us working with the actor. Where it’s the director finding that, it’s funny, but that’s taking us off on a tangent.

Jason Biggs, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Chris Klein, and Eddie Kaye Thomas in “American Reunion.” © 2012 – Universal Pictures.

CinemaNerdz: It’s known that you both have been friends a long time and have worked with each other on several occasions. When you have differences in how to execute something, who usually wins, or how is it determined?

JON: (Laughs) its arm wrestling. The truth of the matter is that we both want the same things; we are never really entering a project or entering a situation where we want something different.

HAYDEN: Times are few and far between, when they do happen, you know Jon and I come from a debating background. We met in debate in high school and so, we’ll debate. We basically have to convince each other. It’s never like, we can’t see eye to eye with this, so I have the deciding vote.

JON: There has never been a moment like, fine, do it your way.

HAYDEN: I’m usually concerned if there’s something that I think should be a certain way and he doesn’t feel that way. I know what I feel to be right but clearly it’s not a universal thing. You explore why there’s a difference. Sometimes you move on to a greater truth. It’s all about truth, we’re philosophers.

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See Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Scholssberg’s new film
American Reunion beginning April 6th, 2012!

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Check out our interview with American Reunion stars
Jason Biggs and Eddie Kaye Thomas!

Betsy Cizek

Betsy Cizek

Betsy resides in Michigan. She is presently writing a novel and pursuing a Freelance writing career. It’s important to her that her writing combines sensitivity, honesty and a hint of sarcasm to create a relatable experience with the reader. Having a passion for film and an all around American pie opinion, she aspires to have the sensibility for what the average Joe might enjoy.