Sitting down with Seann William Scott never having seen an “American Pie” flick is like chatting with Leonard Nimoy never having boarded the Enterprise.
Perhaps a security guard put it best after the 32-year-old actor left the Denver Newspaper Agency building recently: Hey, wasn’t that Stifler?
The answer:
Why, yes, yes, it was.
And, thankfully, no, no it wasn’t.
The guy who became a pop culture icon as Steve Stifler, the smirking jerk of a franchise that prefigured Judd Apatow’s rise, seems genuinely pleased at this blind spot.
“That’s a good thing,” he said. “I love those films because they gave me a career, but it’s nice you’ve seen films I’ve done since.”
Scott was in Denver to promote the guy comedy “Role Models,” opening today. He plays Wheeler, one half — the fun half — of an energy-drink sales team that travels to schools to peddle the noxious, caffeinated brew.
Wheeler may put the “id” in idiot, but it’s not his fault that he and Danny (played by likable Paul Rudd) must do community service in a mentorship program, run by a manically blunt, ex-addict (Jane Lynch).
If Scott is so closely identified with Stifler, it may be because he tweaked the character.
When he got the gig, he thought “OK, I don’t really know how to be funny. But I’m going to rewrite this to what my friends will laugh at and how they would talk.”
Earlier in the summer, the actor appeared in two films he hoped would broaden his resume: Richard Kelly’s “Southland Tales” and writer Steve Conrad’s “The Promotion.”
Both came with the anticipation that buzzes around idiosyncratic filmmakers. Both got a decidedly mixed critical reaction and did zip at the box office.
“I’m so glad I didn’t go to the Cannes Film Festival,” where “Southland Tales” screened he said. “Dwayne (Johnson) said, ‘Dude, we got booed.'”
This has led Scott to refocus on what audiences know him best for. Hence “Role Models.”
Scott came to love movies working in a movie theater during high school in Cottage Grove, Minn. It didn’t hurt that an older brother (he is the youngest sibling of seven) was a film-theory major.
Growing up, playing baseball and football, Scott didn’t have a driving passion to act, he said. Instead, he found it a good substitute after he decided not to pursue professional sports.
“I’d love movies so much for what they made me feel that being in them was a way for me to feel like I was not quitting sports. I knew if I quit, I’d always regret it. I don’t think there’s a thing in my life that I have regretted. At least I like to think that.” Being in film was another way to entertain folks for a couple of hours.
An elaborate tattoo inked on his wrist peeks out beneath the sleeve of his leather jacket.
He got it after his father, William, a factory worker, died. Its tribal elegance resembles the rich Polynesian patterns that friend and “Rundown” co-star Dwayne Johnson wears.
Which brings us to a fave Scott big-screen moment.
In the action-comedy, a heavy enlists Johnson’s character, a former bounty hunter turned restaurateur, to track down son Travis (Scott).
The two butt heads in the Brazilian jungle.
“Big Boy, you like thunderstorms?” Travis asks. He begins lifting his leg in some sort of karate-kid nonsense. He’s already been decked once. “Bet you do, right? Little thunder. Little lightning.” He waggles his leg martial-arts style some more.
“I just made it up,” Scott says of the goofball riff.
“It was the first day of filming. I felt like Travis should have a multizone attack system where I can hit Dwayne’s character 15 different ways and confuse his brain.
“Pberg said just do it. That’s awesome.” (Pberg is Peter Berg, director of “Friday Night Lights” and “Hancock.”) He did it. It is kinda awesome.
Early in the interview, we’re interrupted.
“May I take a picture of you?” a woman asked.
“Oh, sure,” Scott said, standing. “Can you be in it with me?” he asked. “I don’t like to take pictures by myself. I never look as good on my own.”
When he sits back down, he grins. “It’s a nice thing,” he agrees when asked about the attention. “It’s awesome. It’s a dream, especially with the movies I’ve done. It’s not Scorsese.”
He laughs. But somehow we know it would be no laughing matter if Scott doesn’t get his opportunity to stretch.
