Have you ever read Jason Biggs' Twitter feed? For someone in the public eye -- you know, someone who has a publicist -- it's kind of insane.
In other words: Yep, that's Jason Bigs unfiltered. He may type out the "c-word" while watching an episode of "The Bachelor," or may start a Twitter feud with, well, just about anyone. Put it this way: you're not going to read any tweets from Biggs about what he ate for breakfast. Because people who do tweet about that can, as Biggs puts it, "Go f--- yourself. That's so boring." Yes, Jason Biggs likes to say what's on his mind, which makes my job as someone interviewing Biggs about his new movie, "American Reunion," that much easier. (Also, Jason Biggs likes to cuss.)
In "American Reunion," Biggs returns as the erstwhile Jim Levenstein. Thirteen years after the first film, Jim is married with a child, but finds himself back in the teenage mindset after reuniting with his old high school friends -- which sees the entire cast return -- for a 13 year reunion. Here, Biggs discusses revealing his male genitalia to the world, his favorite adult masturbation scene in a movie, and working with Neil Diamond and Dabney Coleman.
Is it weird that I liked the more poignant parts than the comedy? Am I just getting old?
It's actually funny that you say that. Someone was asking me yesterday, "What are your favorite moments in the movie?" And they are all the more sweet moments. The moment where Michelle and I reconnect at the reunion. And there's a great moment with Jim's dad. I feel like these movies have always had a tender side and sweet emotional core to them -- and that's why we've been able to go to this extreme emotional core, comedically. But I feel like, especially with some of the other sequels, it might have been slanted in one direction more than the other. Which is to say that we got a little more outrageous. But I feel that this movie, more than the other movies, gets back to this sort of showcasing the characters' sweet sides.
There's a scene in which you're looking at a photo of how everyone looked in the first movie. It doesn't really hit home how much time has passed until that scene.
No, it's true. Everyone is like, "Wow, you guys haven't changed. You guys look the same." And I'm like, "Thank you?" But then you see the pictures at the end and you're like, "Oh, wait, yeah, actually you have changed." Well, yeah, it's been thirteen years. And even those first three movies, we turned them out in pretty quick succession. This time around, it was a good eight years.
I do think that high school kids who see this will be shocked to learn the sad secret that married adults still masturbate.
[Laughs] That's actually very true. Yeah, I know. Actually, one of my favorite adult masturbation scenes was "American Beauty" with Kevin Spacey. He's like doing it in the bed next to her. Then he's doing it in the shower. I remember thinking, Oh my God, they're married! And he's masturbating!
Annette Bening is right there!
She's sitting right there! And now I'm like, "Well, I get it. OK, yeah. All right, fair enough." Of course, we do it in "American Pie" fashion. But, listen, it's good to know that these things are real and still happen into adulthood, otherwise we wouldn't be able to make another "American Pie" movie.
You do full male nudity in this film. Was that a prosthetic or the real deal?
Well, that depends. What did you think?
I'm not going to pass judgement.
Fair enough. That was me. That was all me. It's funny, I guess I understand because there's all kinds of movie magic, but we made sure that there's a close up shot -- and then we go to a wide shot. So that my face is in it with the penis. You see a full shot so that it's clear, or more obvious, that it's my penis. I remember in early cuts I kept telling the directors, "I have one note. You have to hold on to that shot longer so that people will know that's my penis. Otherwise, what's the point of me doing this?" The plain truth is, that's my penis.
How many more years do we have of the penis being funny or shocking? It still gets the same reaction that it did in "There's Something About Mary."
That's a great question. You know, between "There's Something About Mary" and then Jason Segel -- and, apparently, he's doing it again; he just loves flumping his [penis], apparently -- and now me and Michael Fassbender last year, yeah, I don't know. Pretty soon people will become desensitized to it. But I'm glad I'm catching it on the early side, so people still have a little bit of shock. The other thing is, even if people were like, "Eh, penis, whatever," I think they'd still be shocked because it's Jim's penis. There's something about doing it with a character that people have sort of come to know and love over the years. And they've come so close -- his penis has gotten lots of play over the years -- but they've never actually seen it.
Like an old friend that we've heard many things about, but we've never had the please of meeting before.
Exactly! He's put it in a pie, he's crazy glued his hands to it -- all kinds of things. But we've never seen it.
How many calls do you get a week from your publicist concerning your Twitter account?
[Laughing] That's very funny. You know, it's my manager, actually, who's the paranoid one. If he could, he'd call me every day and tell me to chill out. But he knows that it's going to be a losing battle for him. Let's put it this way: He sweats a lot of bullets with my Twitter account.
What are his biggest complaints? Is it, "I know you like 'The Bachelor,' but maybe don't use the 'c-word'"?
No, I haven't gotten that one. It's more when I, sort of, go after celebs, or something. And he'll be like, "Um, you may not want to burn that bridge, dude." And I'm like, "OK. fair enough." I mean, "You're right, but I don't mean it." It's all a joke, you know?
And to be fair, it makes your Twitter account actually entertaining. It's not 100 percent, "Come see my movie."
I know, that's just boring. And, listen, I'll do that as well. I'll put that stuff up. But that [stuff] is boring. And people are like, "Had Urth Cafe for breakfast! Yeah! Got my favorite! Blueberry muffin tops!" Oh, go f--- yourself. That's so boring. Yeah, I hate that. And, you know what? Part of it, too, I feel like people have a certain impression of me. It's funny because I have a very [messed] up sense of humor -- pretty dark, always have. But people just don't think that of me -- even though I'm known for f---ing a pie. But, still, something about Jim and the other characters that I've played, they just don't expect it from me. And I've never really had an outlet like this where I can kind of surprise people on a daily basis. So, it's kind of a fun thing to do. I get a kick out of it -- I like pushing buttons and having people write back. I especially like it when people write back and are like, "You're an asshole!" Or they get really pissed at me and I'll retweet those people because I think that's funny.
Did you enjoy having Neil Diamond on set during "Saving Silverman"? I've heard different things.
Well, for us, on set, he was a sweetheart. And "Saving Silverman" was apparently the first film that he had done since "The Jazz Singer." So it was a super huge deal and he couldn't have been nicer. He gave 110 percent -- he was in it to win it. He gave all all these sweet signed guitars.
Well, that's a nice gift.
Oh, yeah, he was great. He actually have me my very first guitar lesson. He taught me my first like little... chords is it? Obviously I haven't kept up with it.
Neil Diamond is going to be very disappointed in you.
Yeah, he would be disappointed.
In 1991 you were on "Drexell's Class" with Dabney Coleman. I have to know, what is he like?
Ha! That's an awesome question. I haven't gotten that question ever.
I love the concept of that show: stockbroker becomes elementary school teacher.
I know, I know. It was weird, I was really young. I was 13 years old and I had just finished working on a play on Broadway with Judd Hirsch -- another sort of older, legendary television comedy guy -- who was one of the most amazing, nicest guys. Just took me and the other young kid in the play under his wings and just kind of helped us out. He was so sweet. And then I went right into "Drexell's Class" and I was like, "Oh, Dabney will do the same!" Listen, he was nice, but he was just kind of doing his own thing. He would come into set and you could just tell he was, "Jesus Christ, I'm doing a show with a bunch of kids? What the hell?" He was nice, but it wasn't Judd. You could tell he was like, "Uh, I'm getting paid well for this, at least."
Would "gruff" be a good word?
Gruff! He was kind of a gruff guy, yeah.
You know, for some reason I like hearing that.
I think it's perfect for him, right?
Mike Ryan is senior entertainment writer for The Huffington Post. He has written for Wired Magazine, VanityFair.com and GQ.com. He likes Star Wars a lot. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter
PHOTOS: Jason Biggs' Not Boring Twitter Account (WARNING: LANGUAGE)