INT: Jon Heder

Jon
Heder has become synonymous with the character he brought to life in
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Much to
everyone’s surprise, soon, the whole country was proudly wearing
“Vote for Pedro” and other clever bits of dialogue on their
t-shirts. Although fads tend
to die, Jon is back opposite Billy Bob Thornton in SCHOOL
FOR SCOUNDRELS as a man trying to find his identity in an unconventional
course for losers.

I
had a chance to meet up with Jon and although shades of Napoleon
seem to creep in every so often, he is an actor with a flair for
comedy. He stopped by The Four
Seasons in Beverly Hills to chat about Billy Bob Thornton, tennis and what it’s like to be
a cheetah (and of course “tater tots”).
Jon is friendly, funny and it’s nice to see a slightly
different side of him in Scoundrels.

Jon
Heder

Jacinda
[Barrett] just told us about you and Billy Bob doing the tater tots
and fried potatoes number.

She
wasn’t there, was she? Oh yeah, she was. She came in late. She was
like, “Do it again.” I was like, “Sorry.”

Was
it filmed?

No.
But we said we wanted to. We joked… We still talk about it
(it) would be great to shoot a little short film. So, you guys get
the resources together…

Is
it easy for you to play the loser?

Yes
it is because it’s not being comedic; it’s just acting like me.
No, especially this character was fun. It was kind of more like I
looked at it as like, “Okay, here’s my chance to kind of play
more of the natural me, kind of the straight guy.”
But I was reminded yesterday when I saw the film for the
first time that he really is a pathetic, sad person at the
beginning. I forgot about that, so I’m not that sad and pathetic
in real life. But yeah, a lot of Roger is kind of how I was in high
school. I had no
confidence with women. But I wasn’t too… that much of a pushover
in my work. But I don’t know, I mean I was very similar. I started
to get more backbone as I got older but not when I was younger.

Did
you ever read a self-help book?

I
never read a self-help book except for the Bible. The Scriptures is
maybe the closest thing. But
I never owned a self-help book. I’m not that into reading. If
I’m gonna read, I’m gonna read some cool sci-fi book or
something, not some stupid self-help book.
Although I did pick up The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People. I tried it
because it (it) was such a popular book. I read it for two seconds
and I just didn’t get into it. I was like, “I’m highly
effective.”

How
is it being on set with Billy who’s completely the opposite? You
are more… you don’t do coffee, or don’t swear; he’s the
opposite.

It’s
a real thing just as in the movie. They’re polar opposite. It was
kind of like that. But, obviously, the cool thing about acting and
just like the business world is, like he is very different but he
was nice. Very… he’d get right into character but in between
we’d sit down, we’d talk, he’d tell stories. The three of us
had a lot of fun. We’d
all joke around. He was very cool, very nice. It was really cool, he
was very nice to all of the crew, everybody really liked being
around him.

You
didn’t find his behavior shocking?

No,
it wasn’t shocking. Shocking is if I didn’t expect it.

Was
there any improv with him?

There
wasn’t a ton. I mean, we both liked the script and when the
script’s pretty good, you don’t really go off the page that
much. Every now and then we’d do alternate takes, but not a lot.

This
is really your first romantic lead and you get the girl…

I
get the girl in Napoleon Dynamite. I
do, I’ll tell you [laughing]. I mean true, I don’t kiss her… I
don’t know how he could ever kiss her.

Okay,
I mean mainstream romantic movie. Was that cool when you read it?

Yeah,
you root for the character. You want him to get the girl. I mean
like any other romantic comedy, you want the guy to get the girl. I
mean, yeah, it was like, it was weird, I had a complex shooting the
film like, “Am I really…” Like the wardrobe people would
always be telling me, “Don’t worry, you look handsome in this
outfit. Don’t worry, when you kiss a girl it will be all worth
it.” You know, like, “People will love it.” And I’m like,
“Okay.” I will never know because I can’t watch it.
I can’t watch it. I can watch the whole film, but I can’t
watch romantic stuff. It’s
awkward.

Do
you find people who are offering you things working around what you
will do? Who you are
morality wise…when
people offer roles do they cater to how you feel?

Sometimes,
I mean sometimes they don’t know or sometimes they’ll send a
script or that… I mean, yeah, people are very, yeah, I do find
that actually. I don’t want to say surprisingly, but

Hollywood

’s been very good to me. They’re very considerate when it comes
to like… but it also depends on what kind of project they want to
do. Sometimes I take my notes and go, “Okay, I like this but I’m
not sure about this or that,” and if they’re up for it they’ll
change it. But most of the films I’ve worked on they’ve always
taken my notes and they’ve been very good about taking out stuff
that I’m not comfortable with.

Ever
play Paintball before?

Yeah.
Reading the script it was one of my favorite scenes because
it took me right back to in high school my friends and I would not,
you know, where you go to the park and do it but we would do it full
on guerilla-style in his backyard. I lived in Oregon so he had like
huge forests and stuff and we’d go around shooting each other so
that was very reminiscent of messing around. I remember my dad
served in Germany during the Gulf War as a doctor, and when he came
back he brought back from Germany these paint guns and we were like
the first ones in our group of friends who had them. Basically it
was the exact same thing. We just wanted to shoot each other. No one
had any protective [gear]. We were shooting each other on the leg
and really close to the crotch and I was like, “You’re crazy,
let me get away!” It was almost the same thing.

Todd
was saying you actually did get hit.

Yeah,
I did. It was my, well it was kind of my fault. We had protective
gear but it was like I felt like a robot and I could barely move so
I kept taking it off. But all they had to do was shoot me in the
crotch. And Matt Walsh, who was the main guy doing it, was right
next to me and every time he’d be like POW, right in the chest.
I’m like, “How hard is it to hit me?” And even when they had
to shoot me they’d miss and they’d hit the inside of my leg and
it would sting. So I had
a couple of good welts. But they were battle wounds and I felt like
a Klingon.

How
did your life change since Napoleon [Dynamite]?

I’m
doing this movie. I’m doing movies with Billy Bob Thornton and I
mean, it’s I mean it’s like, huge. It’s changed a ton. I’m
living in

L.A.

now making movies in

Hollywood

. That’s how it’s changed.

You
have a production company.

I
have a company. I mean it’s really; so many dreams have come true.
I’d always wanted to, my brothers and I have always wanted to make
movies. It’s what we always wanted to do. And before Napoleon I
was finishing up college. I was a poor college student and I’d
just gotten married. I didn’t quite know where I was gonna go. I
was planning on becoming an animator, hopefully. But this kind of
took off and I saw it as a chance to get into the business.

Still
want to get into animation?

Oh
yeah, I mean my brothers and I are trying to develop ideas for
feature length animations.

You
wanted to be actor as well, when you were a kid joined a theater?

Actually,
CET, Childrens Educational Theater was kind of the big… I grew up
in

Oregon

and that was the big thing around, in our city that all the kids,
when they were in during summers, it was like a summer acting camp.
I loved it. I only did it two years, I didn’t do it enough, but my
older brother, my older sister did it all the years so that was
really my only stage experience. I played an Oompa Loompa in Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory. But
I loved it and I really enjoyed it but that was my first step into
like performance and stuff.

When
you were younger did you ever have a crush on a girl that, you
didn’t pass out, but you were tongue-tied and you couldn’t talk
to her?

Tongue-tied?
Well, I mean, like I said in high school I really was like
Roger. I mean, if I liked a girl, yeah I definitely was. I
wouldn’t know what to say… But like, Roger, even Roger tries.
I don’t think I would have tried, but he makes an attempt.
Really painful, but he makes an attempt. I didn’t have the
confidence. I had the
confidence…I was confident that I had no confidence and so I’d
be like, “No, I’m not gonna go talk to her because I know I will
make a fool of myself, probably.”
But I still, yeah I get a little tongue-tied in a traditional
kind of like shy guy, and I, you know, there’s one girl I really
wish I had made the move on and never did.
Doesn’t
matt
er, I’m married now.

Congratulations…

I’m
married now so I can make the move on her whenever I want.

You’re
having a baby. When is it due?

I
think in the Spring. Not
quite sure, but I mean, you know….the time of growth and plants
coming up – sprout a baby.

How
was the tennis scene?

Watching
or making?

Both.

I
mean, it was great. It was really a cool scene because it was very
cinematic. It’s cool, I mean that was one of the experiences…
when you’re shooting it you don’t know it’s gonna be that way.
I mean the slow mo and the music building up. It was fun because
Jacinda likes to play. I mean Sarah’s [Silverman] really good too.
Sarah and Jacinda and I would actually play. Jacinda and I still
have not finished our match. We
started one and we were tied. I mean I’m better than her but she
would always luck out for some reason or I’d get too aggressive.
We haven’t finished. It was a lot of fun just playing. Anytime I
get to do the physical stuff, I love to do that. It was a lot of fun
to do because we were all there and I got to hit Billy Bob with the
racket in the back of the head. It was a fake racket, but still,
hitting him nonetheless.

When
you saw it on screen what did you think?

It
was great. It was just very, it really pulled you in.
You forget what it was like shooting it. It pulls you into
the moment. I mean, when you hit someone with that final swoosh,
that was really good. Except I was like, “Wow, Roger’s a really
good aim.” I was trying to hit real balls in the beginning when he
was standing up front. It’s hard. I pegged him in the back for
real quite a couple of times. But
he was cool about it.

You
are athletic?

Wait
till you see the figure skating movie. I [fantasize] myself a
natural athlete with a lot of klutz tendencies because I broke… I
don’t always, I never did because I never got hard core into doing
the physical stuff until I was older. I played all the sports when I
was growing up but I really took to figure skating. I love that. I
broke my ankle on that. But
yeah, I mean, I always look like a goof doing it but I really enjoy
it, and I take to it pretty quickly.

You
are good at sports?

The
ones I’ve tried so far, I think. I don’t know if I’d ever be
great at football. I could run fast, but I don’t know if I could
take down the big dudes.

Figure
skating movie – that’s you and the two Wills [Will Ferrell and
Will Arnet]?

Yeah.

What’s
it called?

Blades
of Glory

.

What’s
your part?

I
play opposite Will Ferrell and we are both Olympian figure skaters
who have to skate together because they’re kicked out. They get in
a fight, because they’re competing, they get in a fight; they get
kicked and get banned from men’s singles. So the only way they get
back in is through pair skating and nobody else will take them so
they pair skate together.

Girl
or two guys?

Well,
they don’t pretend, no. they just like. I mean I’m going to be
more the girl character because I’m lighter. He does the lifting.
They skate together.

Do
you spin?

Yeah,
I think so. We have some
pretty spectacular moments.

You
actually did a lot of the skating?

Yeah,
I did. I mean, we knew that all the fancy stuff was gonna be, like,
doubled, but I mean we tried to get as good as we could and I love
it. It’s a really fun thing to do. So I mean, each day on set I
just got gradually better and better so by the end of shooting I was
like, “Can we go back and re-shoot my skating, because I can do it
better now?”

Is
your big rivalry with Amy Poehler and Will Arnett?

Yeah,
they’re the skating duo who are the bad guys.

How
about the Ben Stiller sequence?
How much of that was improv?

He
would stick to the script but he would add a few little things every
now and then and [he] was very funny. It was hard. I mean, my
favorite part was just the end when we have that awkward moment
together, just kind of looking at each other. And
just dealing with all those cats. You never notice in the movies,
but…

How
many cats?

They
had a lot. I can’t remember… there were like 30, at least. It
was dirty. It was just a gross set. I mean I love cats, but these
were dirty cats. They
were everywhere.

You’re not allergic
to cats….

I
am. But I have two of them, so
I can hold up if I don’t touch them too much.

You
said last night you saw the movie. What was something that you saw
that you can’t remember shooting?

What
I don’t remember is how pathetic he is. I mean it really did catch
me when I was watching the first third of the movie.
I was like, “Gosh, I hope he redeems himself because it’s
so sad. I just can’t
see why the girl would ever hook up with him or why anybody would
take him seriously.” But I mean, yeah, the traditional moments
when like, “Oh, why did they cut that out?” Or you remember
something that was supposed to be there for like timing reasons or
whatever reasons. But really, yeah, the tennis scene was great.

How
do you unleash your “inner lion”?

Through
my pores.

What
makes you want to unleash your “inner lion”?

When
you see something you want, you want to go after it, I guess.
I’m more of a cheetah because it’s more graceful.

You
can run really fast?

He
can run after prey, it’s just more graceful.
And I used to be a lamb.
Now I’m a cheetah.

Any
talk about Napoleon Dynamite II?

Everybody
talks about it; nobody ever shuts up about it.
But, yeah, we’ve talked about it but nothing’s really
happening. Honestly like, I wouldn’t be opposed to doing it if you
had all the same people working on it.
But I think it’s just, we’re so busy doing other things
its like, haven’t gotten around to it.

Let
me know what you think. Send
questions and comments to [email protected].