Seann William Scott Interview

By Thomas Chau

		Life Story
		Biography
		Film and Career

I've met Seann William Scott quite a few times and here is a guy who has definitely not let Hollywood get to his head. He always speaks to the press, and with folks off camera, with an enthusiasm and ease unmatched by most actors.

Down in Louisiana, while taking time out from filming a car chase sequence one day, Seann William Scott sat down with a group of Internet buffs to talk about filming a project he was really excited about: The "Dukes of Hazzard" movie starring himself, Johnny Knoxville, Jessica Simpson, Willie Nelson, and Burt Reynolds.

Scott, wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt and blue jeans in character, talks about the project below.

Q: We hear that you really wanted to do this movie. Was it because you were a huge fan of the show or the script itself for this one?

SEANN: It was because I was a really big fan of the show. I was. I just thought it could make a really cool movie. It's not that it's just a buddy comedy but it's all about two guys hating each other and towards the end they're good friends. I liked that these two guys were best friends from the very beginning, and they're crazy. I thought it could make a really cool movie set in the South about this family. People are really familiar with these characters. It's not tongue-in-cheek; they expressed to me that they wanted it to be in the tone of "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Blues Brothers" and stuff with more of a "southern rock cool." I though that’d be cool.

Q: And how has the experience been so far?

SEANN: This whole experience has been probably the best I've ever had, certainly the most fun I've ever had. Pretty laid back.

Q: How excited were you to see the General Lee for the first time?

SEANN: It just looked great. I had actually, at that point, been working with a guy back in L.A. just training with a car; not the General Lee, but other cars. So the first thing that I thought about was, "How is this car going to handle?" But then after I'd been driving with it and practicing with it and I accomplished that, then I just kind of sat back. I think it's amazing to see this action with a car that everybody's so familiar with, in the backwoods and on dirt roads and stuff. And getting [stunt coordinator] Dan Bradley and everybody from the whole "Bourne Supremacy" crew, I think was real cool for our film because we do a bunch of really big jumps in this movie. We don’t have any CGI with any of the car stuff. I think it’s a real experience when you see this car going through really fast really wild and you see me driving a lot of the times and also a big chase in downtown Atlanta. It's just incredible.

Q: Did you have a Catherine Bach "Daisy Duke" poster growing up?

SEANN: No I don’t think I had a Catherine Bach poster, but I know a lot of my friends desecrated those, big time. [Laughs]

Q: How good did you get with the training?

SEANN: Pretty good, [but] we got the best in every situation. We have the best driver in the world in drifting and best guy in rally racing and stuff like that. So obviously there’s a lot of stuff that I didn't do, but there's a lot of really incredible things that I don't think we've ever seen an actor do.

Q: Why did you want to play Bo Duke instead of Luke?

SEANN: [Laughs] I wanted to drive the car. At first, before Johnny came on and I agreed to do it and I was like, "I just wanted to learn how to drive the car." I thought it would be a lot of fun and I wasn't going to do the movie without Johnny. The studio suggested a couple people, and I'd never met Johnny, but I thought we'd be a perfect team for this movie because we're both a little bit unpredictable. I thought, it would just be cool if we do this right. The two of us would be a lot of fun and really crazy.

Q: Is Johnny as crazy as we think he is?

SEANN: No, no, he's a great guy. I didn't know anything about him before. I just knew the same stuff probably any other guy would. He's just a really, really good guy. Really smart and a lot of fun.

Q: You have a strong comedic background and so are we going to see a lot of that in this film?

SEANN: Yeah, I think actually different though. A lot of the stuff that I've done is just really broad [comedy] and the characters are not that bright. Obviously with the "American Pie" films and "Road Trip," my guys were kind of dicks. These guys [in "Dukes"] are good guys. I think he's much funnier in many ways than some of the things that I've done. Because it’s a little bit more layered. He's constantly trying to teach Luke what he thinks are really deep philosophical ideas, but they're really simple.

Q: You must be pretty excited about your career so far...

SEANN: I've always been. Ever since the first "American Pie," I've always been happy to just have an opportunity, I just didn't think it was going to be with comedies. Now I really like it. I don't really necessarily think I'm a funny guy, but I like the opportunity to take on something that I don't feel I'm the best at doing. This was a really big opportunity. After "The Rundown," there was just a lot of shit out there. This script was even mediocre. The idea was great, but Jay came on with his guys made it great and very specific. It all came together well.

All original content , Copyright ©2004-2006 WestLord.com , All Rights Reserved