Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Ken Jeong Interviews - Role Models
Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Ken Jeong are bitter foes on the medieval battlefield in the comedy movie "Role Models." In the live-action role play world in the film, Jeong's a king while Mintz-Plasse's just a peon who wants to dethrone him.
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Transcript: Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Ken Jeong Interviews - Role Models
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of Role Models.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse – 'Augie' in Role Models
So tell me how did you research this? There's a whole world out there.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: "There is. It was incredible. But the director, David Wain, sent me two documentaries on the film so I just watched those and got into the role."
You know, people are still calling you McLovin. I've even seen reviews of this movie calling you McLovin. How are you taking that?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: "Well that's a little hurtful. If they've seen the movie then they know my name and they're still reviewing me as McLovin. No, but I take it as a compliment."
So why should people see Role Models?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: "Because it's hilarious and I'm in it. It's got a lot of heart."
Ken Jeong – 'King Argotron'
Tell me about your role in this and playing fantasy games. Is that you?
Ken Jeong: "I don't think it's me. It's really the most research I've ever done for a role. I mean, yeah, I didn't really know anything about LARPing…"
Wait, explain what LARPing is.
Ken Jeong: "LARPing is live-action role play. So you're going into the medieval times. People actually sign up and do this on weekends. They'll go to parks and act out like they're back in medieval times battling for their country. Imagine like Braveheart but everyone dressed up in foam swords and foam shields, and they're in character. So it's like imagining themselves in Gladiator or Braveheart and going up and acting it out. But what I realized is, it's acting. What they're doing, what these guys will do who really love to do it is totally acting. They're immersing themselves in character much like I'm immersing. Once I got that, 'Oh, okay, they're the ultimate Method actors, right?' They're in character the whole time in the park, never breaking character, killing each other. But it's all play – no one gets killed. Oh my god, that sounds just like a movie, you know? So they're doing exactly what I was attempting to do in this movie."
"I saw this great documentary called Darkon which I absolutely loved. I saw it a dozen times and I modeled my character after a couple of those guys. Once I started doing the research, I really got into it and I really was fascinated by it. And then the excellent technical advisor on the set, her name is Adrienne Brady, I followed her. I went to some live events in Malibu just to watch them and just to ask people questions. I was really picking everybody's brain and trying to learn. I would go on message boards and just kind of viewing what people would write on this LARP boards. I really did…"
It was a tremendous amount of work.
Ken Jeong: "It was a lot of work, right? You'd think I'd just come in there and do that a lot, but I was… It wasn't work though, I was getting so into it. I was loving it. It's like, 'Oh my god, it sounds like kind of fun to do.' It was actually a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it."
Did you take it so far that you actually developed your own costume or did they do that for you?
Ken Jeong: "They did that for me. It could have gone that far. If it didn't have the budget that it did, I probably would have made my own. I probably had the know-how at that point. It took a while to shake it off. I was really into it because I would improvise in character."
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