Interview: She’s Out of My League star Jay Baruchel!

Jay Baruchel has stolen plenty a scene in his career. From his work in KNOCKED UP, to MILLION DOLLAR BABY and of course TROPIC THUNDER, he is constantly looked upon as a major talent. But it has taken way too long for Jay to get a leading man role, but now it is here. In SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE, Jay plays a “5” who is dating a “10” which leads to an assortment of troubles. And luckily for audiences, it is a sweet little romantic comedy that has just enough crude humor to keep the guys happy.

While I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jay before, I had a really great time talking with the man this time around. He is smart, he is talented and he has a strong sense of humor, which I’m sure is no real newsflash for anybody that knows him or his work. Jay and I spoke about the advertising for his latest and we also chatted about his thoughts on getting a role that everyone in the script refers to as ugly. Not surprisingly, Jay is one of the nicest guys around and of course he‘ll make you laugh. So check out his latest this weekend when SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE hits a theatre near you this coming Friday, March 12th.

Jay Baruchel

How you doing man, you seem to be getting a lot of attention for this movie here?

Seems to be. Seems to be. It’s good news if kids dig the movie, that’s all I care about.

I hate to use this term, but in the last ten years of so in comedy, there really seems to be an “ugly duckling” trend going on.

Yeah, well, who roots for the 6’4”, 200 lbs. blonde guy? [Laughing] The world loves an underdog.

I agree. Now how did you hook up with this character and did you have any fears going in?

Oh, well my fears would just usually stem from my vanity and narcissism. [Laughing] Can I play a character that everyone is constantly referencing how ugly he is. [Laughing] Once I was able to eschew that stuff and throw it by the way side, I was able to move on. And I saw the opportunity for a lot of funny stuff and hopefully, if I could, make him somewhat compelling and make it so people can actually care what happened to him, so that they’d have an vested interest to see what happens at the end. That’s like the main guy shuffle, you gotta try and be compelling, you’ve gotta try and be sympathetic. And at the end of the day, if there is still time, make a few jokes.

Well you know what surprised me about the film is, from the trailers I expected a much cruder R-rated comedy…

I know, I know.

It’s not that at all…

It’s not that at all! I know, I know. That’s… well listen, I didn’t cut the trailer. [Laughing] You know, that’s the thing, it’s a bit of a cliché, but the heart thing is actually just like… the difference between this and maybe the movies that it seems that it might be is the boys. I think we’re all normal guys and we’re all kind of decent human beings. We’re not sort of frat boy, alpha male douche bags. And we desperately didn’t want that to be the movie we were making so, I think that the heart of it kind of comes through.

Well, I honestly think it is kind of a perfect date movie…

Thank you for saying that, I like that!

No problem man. Well, you know, it won’t be an embarrassment for the guy to take his girl to this romantic comedy. It’s not your basic Sandra Bullock movie you know…?

No… [Laughing] not at all. Or its not a typical Matthew McConaughey movie.

Exactly! [Laughing] Although we all love those don’t we?

Of course. Well, you gotta take your girl somewhere.

I prefer a horror film… that would be much easier…

That would be what I’d do as well.

You’ve got good taste man. Now let’s talk about working with Alice [Eve]. You two had some nice chemistry going on.

We got along real well. Before we started shooting, you know, we had a week or two of rehearsals. And I knew going in, just by virtue of the fact that its me standing next to her that we’d nail the awkward stuff, but would anybody buy it if we had any kind of real relationship. So her and I spent a lot of time just running errands and stuff together, just trying to get to know each other so that when we were together on camera you could believe that there was something between us.

It’s a weird world we live in though, society just loves to label everybody and it isn’t helped by all the tabloids and bullshit.

That’s exactly it, and at the end of the day there is no, kind of, one set rule. And each relationship is its own different thing and it just comes down to two people digging each other. What I like about this movie is that it’s a bit of a metaphor for life, because more often than not, if you are unhappy you are the cause of your unhappiness. Not someone else, or something else.

I agree with you totally on that.

That’s what this movie is about to me.

Absolutely, if you don’t respect yourself you are not going to be happy.

That’s the thing, its that Deepak Chopra thing, you’ve gotta be happy regardless of other factors like who you are with and what your job is. True happiness has nothing to do with any of those things.

Now, I have to say that this looks to be a big year for you. You have four films coming out, including this and you have… THE TROTSKY which looks really interesting to me.

Its one of my favorites of anything I’ve ever been a part of. It’s an amazing, amazing movie.

Could you talk a little bit about that, it sounds really interesting.

It’s really, really cool. I don’t know what will happen in the States, I know that it comes out wide release in Canada in May, in the second weekend of May. I don’t know what’ll happen with it down here, but I’m real, real proud of it. And everybody that has watched it, really, really responded to it pretty favorably. And the critics in Toronto, they’re pretty harsh people and everybody seemed to write nice things about us. Its one of the shining moments for me. It’s one of the things I’m proudest of.

Have things changed for you recently? I mean, you’ve been in this business since you were what, twelve?

Yeah, twelve.

And you are continually on the cusp…

That’s been kind of the joke, the gist of my career. I’ve been in a bunch of movies that have kind of hit, and had as good of a reaction as you could possibly want. Like I was in a movie that won Best Picture at the Oscars for God’s sake [MILLION DOLLAR BABY]. After then I did, KNOCKED UP and after TROPIC THUNDER… after each of those things I was on these lists of potential break-out performers, and watch this kid, he’s gonna be hot next year. And then a decade went by. [Laughing] So everybody keeps asking me, does stuff change, does stuff change? Nothing’s changed, I live on the cusp. [Laughing] I just bought a condo on the cusp.

Nice… [Laughing] But is that a good place for you to be though, because you can kind of do what ever you want in a way?

Well yeah. I mean, I’ve been doing that long before I had any business being discerning. I guess just because I… the first six years of my career I was a child actor in Canada. And there is no semblance of choice in that job. You just audition first off, and you just work and you are happy to have work. So for me, it was important that once I started in America, to have a resume that reflected my tastes and the movies I dig and I wanted to leave something behind like that. But long before I had any business being able to pick and choose movies that I was gonna do and where I wanted to live, I always did. I was always stubborn and so if I was less stubborn, I could probably be way richer and more famous than I am now. But at least I’m very proud of the stuff I have. And since I’ve been working in the States, almost everything that I have on my resume is something that I’m proud of and that I feel reflects me.

Seriously, to work with directors like Judd Apatow to Clint Eastwood for God’s sake.

Yeah. Pretty cool. The Eastwood thing was a big one because I was like, so far, still at this point in my career, the only person that I’ve ever worked for that my Granddad, were he still alive, would have been impressed by. And so that is like a huge thing for me.