Jay Baruchel Interview – TROPIC THUNDER

As most of you know, opening this week is the new Ben Stiller directed comedy “Tropic Thunder.” Since we’ve already run a bunch of reviews (here, here and here) and I’ve already written how much I loved the movie…let me keep the intro brief.

For those that haven’t yet heard of the film….

Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. lead an ensemble cast in “Tropic Thunder,” an action comedy about a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to make the biggest war film ever. After ballooning costs (and the out of control egos of the pampered cast) threaten to shut down the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast deep into the jungles of Southeast Asia for “increased realism,” where they inadvertently encounter real bad guys.

Trust me…that synopsis doesn’t do the film justice. There are many, many scenes that had the entire theater laughing out loud and parts of the film are so filthy that you won’t believe what is said. Again, I loved the movie and completely recommend it.

Anyway, I recently sat down with most of the cast…and below is the roundtable interview Jay Baruchel. During our time he talked about making “Tropic” and we of course cover all his upcoming projects. As always, you can either read the transcript or listen to the audio by clicking here. Finally, if you’d like to watch some movie clips from “Tropic Thunder,” click here.

Jay: Yeah, it’s so strange. As a fan of all of them, it made that job so much easier. Some difficult parts were ruining hours of usable film because I was laughing at what they were saying. I basically had to be the audience essentially and the voice of reason. I just tired my best to just not step on them and maybe, if there was a moment, try to be a bit funny myself.

Jay. Yeah, a little and they were real ‘16’s’. It wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. I was a little boy once so I played cops and robbers and G.I. Joe.

Jay: Oh yeah. It literally was like I could pay my rent by playing cops and robbers. That stuff was the easiest. The weapons stuff was the most fun.

Q: Are you like your character Sandusky? When you go into a film project, you are the most prepared guy around?

Jay: [laughs] Not even close. The similarity, for me, is I am a wealth of useless information like the Blu-Ray riff. There is a scene where I just talk about the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. That’s literally in there because Ben heard me talking about that one day. There’s other versions of that scene where I went on a riff about how underrated Renny Harlan is and stuff like that. That’s the stuff that’s me. I am just a film nerd. That’s all I do with my time.

Q: You have a line where you say, your character is still a virgin so do you think your character gets in this movie then goes to some club in L.A. and gets laid?

Jay: No one knows who the hell he is. I don’t imagine he does. I don’t imagine anyone gives a shit. He waits in line and doesn’t get in then goes to Carl’s Junior.

Q: How much stuff do you have in the fake mockumentary that will be online and on the DVD?

Jay: A fair bit. It’s not like I even shot a whole lot. In one of the scenes that didn’t make it into the cut there’s a big old party scene where I tell Coogan how grateful I am that he hired me. I’m still living off the residuals from an anti-herpes medication commercial I did years ago. So, the documentary contains said commercial, my herpes commercial and shows a bit of Sandusky’s boot camp experiences, getting beaten in the face with a bamboo stick and being tied up in the bushes. So, yes. I’ll be in there.

Jay: No matter what, I’ll sound like a cliché but I did make so many good friends. It was weird. There were days on end where I’d spend countless hours in Jack’s trailer watching TV with him or playing video games or just chillin’ or go over to his house and watch “Road Warrior” or something. Then Brandon Jackson, his trailer was literally right next to mine and we spent the bulk of our free time together. Then, I became pretty close with Ben as well. He knew, clearly, what a film nerd I was so when he was setting up shots, he would constantly bring me over to video village or on the little mini-monitor he had so he could set up shots that he was in, he would let me stand over his shoulder and show me, just because he knew how cool I thought everything was. So, he would constantly let me know what the shots were and show me stuff that had nothing to do with my job just because he knew that I got a kick out of it. So, I got along with all of them really well.

Jay: The water buffalo figures prominently in the movie. She’s a great animal, Bertha, her name was. Somehow the trainers didn’t know that Bertha was nine months pregnant and she gave birth during the filming and they named it Baby Jack. There is a scene, I imagine it was before she gave birth, that would explain why she was in a bad mood, but they had Jack tied to her and one of the rules was just ‘don’t run behind her. She’ll get scared and start running’. And I had to walk her. I’m pulling her on the rope there and someone ran behind her real quick. She got spooked and threw Jack off her shoulders. Jack went flying into a generator. His stunt double went and threw himself in between Jack and the generator and, in the same split second, she wheels over and just head butts me with her horns [he says antlers but folks.. it’s horns on a buffalo] and I end up in the bushes.

Q: You did “Undeclared” and “Freaks and Geeks” and both have a big cult following. Since they never really had any resolutions, is there any chance in the future Judd [Apatow] film to have a couple of cameos of any of the characters?

Jay: Nothing would make me happier. Personally, I’ve been wanting to do the “Undeclared” movie since it ended. Clearly we’re too old to be in university anymore but I think it could be interesting to see what we’re all up to in our 20-somethings. But that’s a Judd question. I would assume that, no matter what, the same people keep appearing in all of his stuff so I think inevitably, that will happen. But, he’ll have to answer that. Nothing would make me happier.

Jay: I went to a fine arts school so there are neither freaks nor geeks there. Everybody is both. The things I liked I excelled at. I was real good at English and Drama and everything else I was terrible at. I had barely 60 percent in everything just so I wouldn’t fail. I did the old sailing through Math and Science and all that. I was kind of a big mouth so I guess I was something of the clown or whatever. This was in Montreal.

Jay: Yeah and people seemed to like it. Wow! I’m going to get myself in trouble. Look, it’s been almost three years and a myriad of directors and versions. I’m not the authority on it. I’ve been saying it’s like the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head for the better part of three years.