
Hi Josh!
Hi everyone! What’s—wait ‘til I say “What’s the dilly?” Then you guys are gonna be—
I use that all the time.
No you don’t!
Yeah I do. [everyone laughs] But I put an O on the end.
Dillio? You know, that didn’t make it into the movie but it almost did.
[we laugh] Sometimes I even break out “What’s the scenario?” and that’s just wrong.
Respect.
[we laugh] Well—my god. There’s so much to say about this film. But I have to ask the obvious question. Where are the similarities between Luke and Josh.
Oh man. Similar interests. I feel like it was one of these divine gifts that I was granted that I feel so many similarities with Luke, and you know I feel like he’s going through a time that I was just at the tail end of. It’s very difficult at eighteen years old to sort of figure out what constitutes being a man because for all intensive purposes you are a man—I mean, you can vote and go to war, but is it experience, is it relationships? And I think Luke describes it best, that we were the most popular of the unpopular. I mean, this is like my tribute to the mensches!
[everyone laughs] I always say ‘mensch’ when I do [a particular hand move].
Respect! I could do like the lowercase M. [we laugh] You know, it’s like the cats that weren’t exactly nerds in school but they definitely didn’t peak or weren’t that cool, and they grow up to be interesting adults that are continuing the maturation process well out of high school.
But did you go through any—because you have pretty much grown up on TV. So I recognize that going to school and that experience is a little different, isn’t it?
Yeah. I mean, like Luke I did get ostracized a lot in high school—and I went to homeschool, which was awful. No, I’m kidding. [we laugh] No, I went to a performing arts school right here on 48th Street and then I finished up in homeschool but—it is a different upbringing but some things are just universal. You know, heartbreak is universal, even if you do have your own Nickelodeon show.
[we laugh] Aww!
And unfortunately there’s no good way around it. And I think for the most part I was so focused on my work while doing it but then I would have long, long times of time off where I would be just living my life and I never was out rocking it at the clubs and whatnot, living that Hollywood life—I don’t think I was even invited to live that Hollywood life! But I was kickin’ it North Hollywood with my boys, you know what I’m sayin’? But, yeah, I did feel like I had a plethora of things to pull from.
And how much did Jonathan let you sort of go with the character? One of the things I read in the notes which was very interesting was the evolution of Stephanie, who was initially an “f-you” to every girl who dumped him. Did Luke evolve in that way also?
I think so. I mean, it was a total gift that I—you know, when you’re an actor or any kind of person who’s dealing with a creative entity, any kind of artist, you use your life as something to draw from in every experience. So it was really fresh to me, my first heartbreak, and a girl that I was really in love with and—god! Your first heartbreak’s tough, man! You don’t know whether you’re gonna live or die! [we laugh] Or if you’re gonna breathe—I just ate a lot of rice krispy treats. Slept on my mom’s couch—so in that way acting’s not therapy but it’s therapeutic, and when I met Olivia she didn’t have a fucking chance because I was like, “I know who you are. I’ve got you pegged.” But it was beautiful and our relationship was so close and we were friends and, I mean, she’s a month older than me and we both grew up in the city, but there was always a small sense of [discomfort] because our characters are in this new relationship. You know? And that’s when the person sees the best part of you, you know, and you’re afraid to pass gas in front of them, you know what I’m sayin’? You’re on your best behavior.
But you’re not afraid to do whatever you—Luke opens himself up so much so early, and you see girls doing that more in movies but guys do it just as much. Was it tough to get in that place where you’re, like, telling a girl you love her after three weeks, or did it just feel real enough?
I think I told my girlfriend that I was in love with her after three weeks! [we laugh] And it’s really—don’t trust a guy in a post-coital moment. [we laugh] It’s like—oh man. But it’s just true. Real shit comes out—I’m guilty of that. But what can I say? Guys my age, a lot of us were a generation raised by females. I was raised by a single mother. I’m very in touch, man! My femininity is bursting out of me. [we laugh] I can’t help it! I’m falling in love with you guys as I speak! I mean come on!
[we laugh] So did you—I mean, you were growing up in the nineties, but you were also younger than your character then. And in a way New York is another character in the film. So how were you able to draw from your experiences and incorporate that in relation to the fact that the setting was very important to the film?
You’re right. I mean, I was eight in 1994 so I was still watching Power Rangers and rocking shoes with lights in ‘em, and Bugle Boy jeans, and Spice Girls and—
Spice Girls was later though.
No way. Really?
Yeah, ’97. I was eight then—not even!
All right, I was listening to Joey Lawrence’s first album. How about that?
[we laugh] Yeah. That was the MC Hammer time.
Yeah. Flannel shirts, ripped jeans—respect. You know, I got to reinvestigate parts of my brain that would otherwise have gone dormant, and I tried to think about things adults were talking about in ’94. You know, my mom was talking about Pulp Fiction and the Clinton administration and Giuliani’s anti-fun laws. And, you know, there’s a vernacular—people say things now like “Wha’s good?” and “That’s tight!” Back then we’d say ridiculous things like, “Yo, that’s mad crazy, son!” [we laugh] “What’s the dillio?” So there are these small peccadilloes you can pick from and it can really be a beautiful thing so you hinge your character on them and inevitably you just want things that are going to revert you back to the truth and the honesty of that time.
Tell us about Sir Ben.
Sir Ben. You know, he had a tough time getting used to calling me Commodore Peck. [everyone laughs] But I insist on a preface. I mean, what do you say when you’re a basketball player and Michael Jordan says “Nice jump shot”? You know what I’m saying? It was a gift and a privilege. He’s my favorite actor. I’ve peaked. It’s downhill from here. [we laugh] No, be careful what you pray for, because I was buggin’ out when I found out it came true. I think the thing about him is that in his acting the stakes are very high no matter what, whether it’s a line that would normally be discarded, he makes it life or death. And that’s why you’re so invested in who his character is, and the stakes. I was in awe being around him and I tried to grab any pearls of wisdom that he might have discarded, and I think he knew that we would instantly be intimidated by him. I mean, for all intents and purposes, Olivia and Jon and I were just taking our first steps into what would hopefully be a career, and he’s the Academy Award winner, the professional. He’s Gandhi, dude! [we laugh] He allowed for us to feel comfortable. And especially me: on the first day of shooting he said “This part shows you,” and he gave me a hug, and he knew that there needed to be that sense of vulnerability between us, otherwise it would have been disingenuous. So much of our relationship in the movie is thanks to him.
Did he offer you advice in any way? Did you ask him?
I did. The last day I said “I’ll never have the chance again”—although during the shoot he let me quote lines from Searching for Bobby Fischer. His lines. [we laugh] Which is a rarity. Most actors don’t ever allow that. But the advice—he was more interested in giving me advice on who I was as a human being than as an actor and how I carried myself. Because your artist and your actor is a very personal, private journey and you do it alone because you’re investigating the inner workings of your soul, and where certain things live inside of you, and certain blocks that you have built that we all do as human beings because you naturally want to protect yourself. But we all have these human instincts for sex and security and society and sometimes these instincts go astray. And so I think he was most interested in helping to stabilize me through this period of my life that I could be instantly influenced or instantly thrown off-course and it can be so new and jarring and scary and yet he was most interested in how I conducted myself on-set and as a person.
You and Olivia have a great chemistry on-screen. How did you like the collaboration working with her on the set?
Oh man. I’m in love with her! [we laugh] She’s dreamy, man!
And you’re also in another movie with her. Safety Glass.
Yes. We did a movie in Vancouver called Safety Glass about the 1986 space challenger shuttle crash with Steve Coogan and Hilary Duff and in that movie we kind of play kindred spirits, although we hate each other, and I think we have like one line in the whole movie towards each other, but I think we both agree that inevitably we would have ended up together ten years down the road. And then we got offered to play twin brother and sister in a movie—
Ew! [we laugh]
—that we’re not doing, but it would’ve definitely brought the professional relationship full circle from lovers to brother and sister. So really, for the most part, it was so much about her and I becoming comfortable, and I really just allowed her to take the lead because she was the experienced one in that relationship, and she’s got this beautiful talent for infusing her characters with so much of her beautiful attributes as a human being and her confidence and the small edge about her which I think is developed by being a New Yorker and by being a strong female.
How much has your and Olivia’s coming from New York affected this? Because it’s about Luke’s relationship and him growing into a man, but it’s also about this sort of circle for the city, because ’94 started a lot of big changes here. And you grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. That changed a lot during that time and now it’s coming back again. Did you sort of address that?
Yes, I mean, it was a gift that we were all from the city and that it played such a role in the movie, because it was one less thing we had to worry about with how genuine these characters were and the mannerisms and just how they held themselves. It was a small movie shot in 28 days and we just wanted to focus on making it look right and making sure the performances were the best that they could be. So as far as that goes, it’s also a story of the loss of innocence. And, you know, when you see that scene with the towers—that day [in 2001] was a real loss of innocence for the city and—you know, Giuliani has done a lot of positive things for the city and I can’t—hate… on him… THAT… much, but there’s also a lot of flavor that’s been lost, and it’s touch for people my age, or any age, to live in this city any more. You know? It’s rather expensive, and it’s too bad because I feel like people like us are the ones that are the soul of the city and maybe not the suit and ties. So I hope that it reverts back to its old ways. Or hopefully it changes into some beautiful, bohemian, everyone-driving-hybrids-type city.
[we laugh] As you move from this childhood spent on television doing a pretty different sort of acting, how does that transition to work like The Wackness, which is really different, work?
I think Drake and Josh was something that kind of spoke to me when I was fifteen and now I’m twenty-one and my tastes have matured. It was never really a conscious decision. As I said, I’m forever in debt to Nickelodeon; they made me who I am today. But in the end this isn’t exactly a movie for kids. And, you know, I was fifteen when the show started and the people who were watching it were twelve and now I’m twenty-one and they’re eighteen so hopefully they can see this, but for the kids that are too young and don’t want to see my naked ass onscreen—
[everyone laughs] Who wouldn’t!?
I hope they check it out on DVD in a couple years! With parental discretion! [we laugh] It is a leap of faith, though, that I’m taking with my audience that I hope they take with me because it is uncharted territory and I don’t know what the trajectory’s gonna be.
Why should we like Josh?
Like me?
Yeah.
Oh god. Wrong person to ask. [we laugh] Self-deprecating Jew? Are you kidding me?
[we laugh] Your character! Your character! I’m sorry.
Oh. Luke! Why should we like him? Because he lives in a real world, and we all have a wackness about us, and we’re all struggling somehow or another. You know? There’s this great philosophical question I think we’re all asking to life which is “What is happiness to us and how do we find it?” And I think we find out very quickly that it doesn’t really lie in material things and it definitely doesn’t lie in the superficial, that it’s this inner battle. But, I don’t know, I think it’s a Chinese proverb that says that once you realize things are difficult, everything’s downhill from there. But I’m just trying to get into that mindset that either things are great or they’re not so great, and there’s a chance that it could go either way. But I’m not that enlightened yet. [we laugh] I’m really not. You know what I’m saying? I’m going to need a lot more therapy.
[we laugh] Wait. One more question. A small one. In the movie Luke has a vendetta against New Jersey. Did that come—which I related to, being a New Yorker.
Respect.
Did you draw from your personal opinions for that?
All right, check it, I’m going to be really honest. I will preface with this: I have talked too much shit about New Jersey. [we laugh] I’ve gotten into trouble about it; the Garden State is beautiful; I’ve spent many a time at the Jersey shore... [everyone laughs] I’ve got family that lives in Jersey that—you know, whatever. And it was in print that I talked shit about Jersey. That said, I went to the audition and Jon asked me where I’m from and I said “I’m from New York City, I’m from Hell’s Kitchen, a lot of my family lives in Jersey, but I fucking hate Jersey.” [we laugh] So in hindsight, maybe that was a little bit overboard, but I find it funny that Luke doesn’t like Jersey either. But, yo, I’m sorry, Garden Staters!
Hi everyone! What’s—wait ‘til I say “What’s the dilly?” Then you guys are gonna be—
I use that all the time.
No you don’t!
Yeah I do. [everyone laughs] But I put an O on the end.
Dillio? You know, that didn’t make it into the movie but it almost did.
[we laugh] Sometimes I even break out “What’s the scenario?” and that’s just wrong.
Respect.
[we laugh] Well—my god. There’s so much to say about this film. But I have to ask the obvious question. Where are the similarities between Luke and Josh.
Oh man. Similar interests. I feel like it was one of these divine gifts that I was granted that I feel so many similarities with Luke, and you know I feel like he’s going through a time that I was just at the tail end of. It’s very difficult at eighteen years old to sort of figure out what constitutes being a man because for all intensive purposes you are a man—I mean, you can vote and go to war, but is it experience, is it relationships? And I think Luke describes it best, that we were the most popular of the unpopular. I mean, this is like my tribute to the mensches!
[everyone laughs] I always say ‘mensch’ when I do [a particular hand move].
Respect! I could do like the lowercase M. [we laugh] You know, it’s like the cats that weren’t exactly nerds in school but they definitely didn’t peak or weren’t that cool, and they grow up to be interesting adults that are continuing the maturation process well out of high school.
But did you go through any—because you have pretty much grown up on TV. So I recognize that going to school and that experience is a little different, isn’t it?
Yeah. I mean, like Luke I did get ostracized a lot in high school—and I went to homeschool, which was awful. No, I’m kidding. [we laugh] No, I went to a performing arts school right here on 48th Street and then I finished up in homeschool but—it is a different upbringing but some things are just universal. You know, heartbreak is universal, even if you do have your own Nickelodeon show.
[we laugh] Aww!
And unfortunately there’s no good way around it. And I think for the most part I was so focused on my work while doing it but then I would have long, long times of time off where I would be just living my life and I never was out rocking it at the clubs and whatnot, living that Hollywood life—I don’t think I was even invited to live that Hollywood life! But I was kickin’ it North Hollywood with my boys, you know what I’m sayin’? But, yeah, I did feel like I had a plethora of things to pull from.
And how much did Jonathan let you sort of go with the character? One of the things I read in the notes which was very interesting was the evolution of Stephanie, who was initially an “f-you” to every girl who dumped him. Did Luke evolve in that way also?
I think so. I mean, it was a total gift that I—you know, when you’re an actor or any kind of person who’s dealing with a creative entity, any kind of artist, you use your life as something to draw from in every experience. So it was really fresh to me, my first heartbreak, and a girl that I was really in love with and—god! Your first heartbreak’s tough, man! You don’t know whether you’re gonna live or die! [we laugh] Or if you’re gonna breathe—I just ate a lot of rice krispy treats. Slept on my mom’s couch—so in that way acting’s not therapy but it’s therapeutic, and when I met Olivia she didn’t have a fucking chance because I was like, “I know who you are. I’ve got you pegged.” But it was beautiful and our relationship was so close and we were friends and, I mean, she’s a month older than me and we both grew up in the city, but there was always a small sense of [discomfort] because our characters are in this new relationship. You know? And that’s when the person sees the best part of you, you know, and you’re afraid to pass gas in front of them, you know what I’m sayin’? You’re on your best behavior.
But you’re not afraid to do whatever you—Luke opens himself up so much so early, and you see girls doing that more in movies but guys do it just as much. Was it tough to get in that place where you’re, like, telling a girl you love her after three weeks, or did it just feel real enough?
I think I told my girlfriend that I was in love with her after three weeks! [we laugh] And it’s really—don’t trust a guy in a post-coital moment. [we laugh] It’s like—oh man. But it’s just true. Real shit comes out—I’m guilty of that. But what can I say? Guys my age, a lot of us were a generation raised by females. I was raised by a single mother. I’m very in touch, man! My femininity is bursting out of me. [we laugh] I can’t help it! I’m falling in love with you guys as I speak! I mean come on!
[we laugh] So did you—I mean, you were growing up in the nineties, but you were also younger than your character then. And in a way New York is another character in the film. So how were you able to draw from your experiences and incorporate that in relation to the fact that the setting was very important to the film?
You’re right. I mean, I was eight in 1994 so I was still watching Power Rangers and rocking shoes with lights in ‘em, and Bugle Boy jeans, and Spice Girls and—
Spice Girls was later though.
No way. Really?
Yeah, ’97. I was eight then—not even!
All right, I was listening to Joey Lawrence’s first album. How about that?
[we laugh] Yeah. That was the MC Hammer time.
Yeah. Flannel shirts, ripped jeans—respect. You know, I got to reinvestigate parts of my brain that would otherwise have gone dormant, and I tried to think about things adults were talking about in ’94. You know, my mom was talking about Pulp Fiction and the Clinton administration and Giuliani’s anti-fun laws. And, you know, there’s a vernacular—people say things now like “Wha’s good?” and “That’s tight!” Back then we’d say ridiculous things like, “Yo, that’s mad crazy, son!” [we laugh] “What’s the dillio?” So there are these small peccadilloes you can pick from and it can really be a beautiful thing so you hinge your character on them and inevitably you just want things that are going to revert you back to the truth and the honesty of that time.
Tell us about Sir Ben.
Sir Ben. You know, he had a tough time getting used to calling me Commodore Peck. [everyone laughs] But I insist on a preface. I mean, what do you say when you’re a basketball player and Michael Jordan says “Nice jump shot”? You know what I’m saying? It was a gift and a privilege. He’s my favorite actor. I’ve peaked. It’s downhill from here. [we laugh] No, be careful what you pray for, because I was buggin’ out when I found out it came true. I think the thing about him is that in his acting the stakes are very high no matter what, whether it’s a line that would normally be discarded, he makes it life or death. And that’s why you’re so invested in who his character is, and the stakes. I was in awe being around him and I tried to grab any pearls of wisdom that he might have discarded, and I think he knew that we would instantly be intimidated by him. I mean, for all intents and purposes, Olivia and Jon and I were just taking our first steps into what would hopefully be a career, and he’s the Academy Award winner, the professional. He’s Gandhi, dude! [we laugh] He allowed for us to feel comfortable. And especially me: on the first day of shooting he said “This part shows you,” and he gave me a hug, and he knew that there needed to be that sense of vulnerability between us, otherwise it would have been disingenuous. So much of our relationship in the movie is thanks to him.
Did he offer you advice in any way? Did you ask him?
I did. The last day I said “I’ll never have the chance again”—although during the shoot he let me quote lines from Searching for Bobby Fischer. His lines. [we laugh] Which is a rarity. Most actors don’t ever allow that. But the advice—he was more interested in giving me advice on who I was as a human being than as an actor and how I carried myself. Because your artist and your actor is a very personal, private journey and you do it alone because you’re investigating the inner workings of your soul, and where certain things live inside of you, and certain blocks that you have built that we all do as human beings because you naturally want to protect yourself. But we all have these human instincts for sex and security and society and sometimes these instincts go astray. And so I think he was most interested in helping to stabilize me through this period of my life that I could be instantly influenced or instantly thrown off-course and it can be so new and jarring and scary and yet he was most interested in how I conducted myself on-set and as a person.
You and Olivia have a great chemistry on-screen. How did you like the collaboration working with her on the set?
Oh man. I’m in love with her! [we laugh] She’s dreamy, man!
And you’re also in another movie with her. Safety Glass.
Yes. We did a movie in Vancouver called Safety Glass about the 1986 space challenger shuttle crash with Steve Coogan and Hilary Duff and in that movie we kind of play kindred spirits, although we hate each other, and I think we have like one line in the whole movie towards each other, but I think we both agree that inevitably we would have ended up together ten years down the road. And then we got offered to play twin brother and sister in a movie—
Ew! [we laugh]
—that we’re not doing, but it would’ve definitely brought the professional relationship full circle from lovers to brother and sister. So really, for the most part, it was so much about her and I becoming comfortable, and I really just allowed her to take the lead because she was the experienced one in that relationship, and she’s got this beautiful talent for infusing her characters with so much of her beautiful attributes as a human being and her confidence and the small edge about her which I think is developed by being a New Yorker and by being a strong female.
How much has your and Olivia’s coming from New York affected this? Because it’s about Luke’s relationship and him growing into a man, but it’s also about this sort of circle for the city, because ’94 started a lot of big changes here. And you grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. That changed a lot during that time and now it’s coming back again. Did you sort of address that?
Yes, I mean, it was a gift that we were all from the city and that it played such a role in the movie, because it was one less thing we had to worry about with how genuine these characters were and the mannerisms and just how they held themselves. It was a small movie shot in 28 days and we just wanted to focus on making it look right and making sure the performances were the best that they could be. So as far as that goes, it’s also a story of the loss of innocence. And, you know, when you see that scene with the towers—that day [in 2001] was a real loss of innocence for the city and—you know, Giuliani has done a lot of positive things for the city and I can’t—hate… on him… THAT… much, but there’s also a lot of flavor that’s been lost, and it’s touch for people my age, or any age, to live in this city any more. You know? It’s rather expensive, and it’s too bad because I feel like people like us are the ones that are the soul of the city and maybe not the suit and ties. So I hope that it reverts back to its old ways. Or hopefully it changes into some beautiful, bohemian, everyone-driving-hybrids-type city.
[we laugh] As you move from this childhood spent on television doing a pretty different sort of acting, how does that transition to work like The Wackness, which is really different, work?
I think Drake and Josh was something that kind of spoke to me when I was fifteen and now I’m twenty-one and my tastes have matured. It was never really a conscious decision. As I said, I’m forever in debt to Nickelodeon; they made me who I am today. But in the end this isn’t exactly a movie for kids. And, you know, I was fifteen when the show started and the people who were watching it were twelve and now I’m twenty-one and they’re eighteen so hopefully they can see this, but for the kids that are too young and don’t want to see my naked ass onscreen—
[everyone laughs] Who wouldn’t!?
I hope they check it out on DVD in a couple years! With parental discretion! [we laugh] It is a leap of faith, though, that I’m taking with my audience that I hope they take with me because it is uncharted territory and I don’t know what the trajectory’s gonna be.
Why should we like Josh?
Like me?
Yeah.
Oh god. Wrong person to ask. [we laugh] Self-deprecating Jew? Are you kidding me?
[we laugh] Your character! Your character! I’m sorry.
Oh. Luke! Why should we like him? Because he lives in a real world, and we all have a wackness about us, and we’re all struggling somehow or another. You know? There’s this great philosophical question I think we’re all asking to life which is “What is happiness to us and how do we find it?” And I think we find out very quickly that it doesn’t really lie in material things and it definitely doesn’t lie in the superficial, that it’s this inner battle. But, I don’t know, I think it’s a Chinese proverb that says that once you realize things are difficult, everything’s downhill from there. But I’m just trying to get into that mindset that either things are great or they’re not so great, and there’s a chance that it could go either way. But I’m not that enlightened yet. [we laugh] I’m really not. You know what I’m saying? I’m going to need a lot more therapy.
[we laugh] Wait. One more question. A small one. In the movie Luke has a vendetta against New Jersey. Did that come—which I related to, being a New Yorker.
Respect.
Did you draw from your personal opinions for that?
All right, check it, I’m going to be really honest. I will preface with this: I have talked too much shit about New Jersey. [we laugh] I’ve gotten into trouble about it; the Garden State is beautiful; I’ve spent many a time at the Jersey shore... [everyone laughs] I’ve got family that lives in Jersey that—you know, whatever. And it was in print that I talked shit about Jersey. That said, I went to the audition and Jon asked me where I’m from and I said “I’m from New York City, I’m from Hell’s Kitchen, a lot of my family lives in Jersey, but I fucking hate Jersey.” [we laugh] So in hindsight, maybe that was a little bit overboard, but I find it funny that Luke doesn’t like Jersey either. But, yo, I’m sorry, Garden Staters!
[we laugh] What about future projects? What’s next for you?
Drake and Josh. Christmas movie? TV movie? Yeah. This way I don’t have to be a waiter, you know what I’m sayin’? [we laugh] And, you know, I’m trying to look for good projects but this movie’s so good it makes it tough. I want to find something that complements it.
Drake and Josh. Christmas movie? TV movie? Yeah. This way I don’t have to be a waiter, you know what I’m sayin’? [we laugh] And, you know, I’m trying to look for good projects but this movie’s so good it makes it tough. I want to find something that complements it.
Find out more about the movie by visiting the official website. And please, for the love of god, stay tuned because next week we will have a new interview from the press day!
2 comments:
I remember Josh Peck from Drake and Josh! Wasn't he on All That as well?
yep.. he WAS on all that.. i was still - what? 8 or 10 by then - and i could still remember him.. he was young and still chubby.. but he was funny! :D
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