Like you said, you’re playing off of your own personas, but it’s not just who you are, it’s how people perceive you. Do you have to be hyper-conscious of that all the time? Did you have to look into blogs and things, to see how people look at “Jay Baruchel”?
I had to do what I try to do with every gig, which is as hokey as it sounds, but take my cue from the text and the director. They point those things. If you can’t find your bearings or what you’re supposed to do from those two things, then you’re probably in trouble. And I kind of got fairly early on that I was meant to be you know, we were poking fun at and exacerbating all our respective failings. It just so happens to be that I don’t see my failings as failings, but I acknowledge that they’re there as phenomena. There is a degree of “Holier Than Thou” in me and all this different shit and so I saw why that was funny. But I also knew that as the sort of straight man, if there is one to everyone else, I gotta make sure I get the puck deep to them, and it was just like play-making. And again, that’s mostly on Seth and Evan directing the whole thing, but my goal in each scene was to… If I think there’s a spot for me to be funny, great, but stay on message. Stay on story and let the other boys be as funny as they can.
Talking about your failings, there’s a lot of jokes in this movie about various people. Like, you know, Your Highness and other movies that maybe didn’t do too well, but everyone’s really kind to you.
[Laughs]
It’s like, you’re just untouchable, man! Are there like, a lot of like…? It’s a good movie, but are there like, a lot of Cosmopolis jokes on the cutting room floor?
No. Here’s the difference. No one sees the movies I’m in. [Laughs] I’m familiar with my resume and I’m very proud of my resume and I think my resume goes toe-to-toe with any of those fucking guys. But, 90% of it is independent movies in Canada.
So were they not making the jokes or did they just cut them out? Like, Danny had like, a two-page monologue about Good Neighbors, and he just…?
They don’t know it exists, man! That’s what I’m saying, they don’t know about… As far as they’re concerned, I did “Undeclared,” I did Knocked Up, I did How To Train Your Dragon, and I did This Is The End. And there’s…
They couldn’t get one Sorcerer’s Apprentice joke? Come on!
I know. I know. There might’ve been a Dragon joke. There’s no fuckin’, Million Dollar Baby jokes.
There’s a compliment to Million Dollar Baby, actually.
There’s like… Really? Wait, really?
Yeah, I saw it last night! Someone like, said, “Hey, man. I loved you in Million Dollar Baby,” and you were like, “Thanks!”
Oh, that’s right! That’s right!
And there’s a moment where like, I think like, everyone who sat around me was like, “That’s right, he was in Million Dollar Baby!”
Yeah! [Laughs]
“That’s right.”
No, and it’s funny because when Danny shit-talks everyone and gives everyone shit, he just says, “Jay. I didn’t know you were back in town. Nice to see you.” No, I get off easy in a lot of respects.
Yeah. Yeah. Was there ever like, awkwardness on there? Where someone was just like, “You know, Your Highness was pretty good! Stop being mean!”
No. If there was, I wasn’t privy to it. I can speak to like, you know everyone’s got shit that they’re uncomfortable about and so, if someone… But again, rule number one of comedy that I learned from watching Rowan Atkinson, since I was a kid is in the very first time Mr. Bean takes his shirt off to go swimming. You know, he’s built like I am, but way hairier. He just looks like shit. But, he’s almost naked, a lot. And the minute he would just show up with his shirt off, you would hear all the audience laughing because that’s the joke! So, I was just like, “Number One is, the key is you have to be fucking selfless and you can’t give a shit about that stuff.” And it’s hard, because that’s like, human nature to be self-conscious about anything! Me, it’s a constant battle to sort of leave those morays hanging outside the door, because I’ve got buttons that are very easily pushed, and just know that as long as it serves the movie and makes the movie better, funnier, more interesting, that’s all that matters.
Do you think it’s part of why everyone says, like, “Comedy is harder than drama,” because in drama, you can at least have some of that self-consciousness because you’re playing a real person?
Yes and no. People say that thing about comedy and there’s something to it, but it’s, you know…. I think that there’s a bit more wiggle room in comedy to mess up, because it’s just like with punk rock. The guitar’s not supposed to sound completely in tune. And so with comedy, the rough-around-the-edges, the sort of talking-over-each-other…
That can end up on a movie, but in a drama, you have to leave it. That’s the thing, it’s gotta go.
No, that’s the thing. You have to stay on point a bit more. But at the end of the day, they’re just different roads to the same place, which is communicating some sort of truth to the audience that elicits an emotional response. And so, it’s all the same shit.
Do you have a preference?
That’s a good question…. It depends what day it is. It’s more the overarching work itself. I get the same rush of endorphins out of doing both, but I think in terms of the movie or the play. I just wanna do stuff that I dig. People consider Goon a comedy, and I get that, but to me it isn’t a comedy.
Yeah, I’d say that’s fair. It’s a character piece that happens to be funny.
I think so. So, that to me is as close to a tone that I feel in my heart. To me, it’s like the Peter Sellers thing of being tragically depressing and hilarious all in the same beat. I just find that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. So, if you’re accessible and someone’s having fun, you can fucking sneak something in there that’s gonna make ’em, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second.” Surprisingly moved, right? You know, that kind of thing.
