I Love You, Beth Cooper : Paul Rust Interview


Talented newcomer Paul Rust stars opposite Hayden Panettiere in I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER, the latest comedy from director Chris Columbus. He plays Denis Cooverman, a clever, bookish but uncool student who shocks everyone at his high school graduation by announcing his undying love for Beth Cooper, the girl of his dreams, who happens to be the most beautiful, popular girl in class. He doesn’t stand a chance with her. Yet his daring declaration sets off a shocking, crazy and wildly funny chain of events.

Paul Rust gets battered and beaten up by a romantic rival who wants to kill him in this wildly funny teen comedy but the actor didn’t mind at all.

Rust has been dreaming of a career in comedy since he was a child and this is his most exciting role so far. The bruises and cuts are part of the job as far as he is concerned and simply add to the hilarity. Rust plays the brilliant but nerdy and studious Denis Cooverman in the hilarious new film I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER. For years this bookish boy has sat behind the prettiest, most popular girl in his high school, Beth Cooper, knowing full well that dating her would be an impossibility. He’s not a heartthrob and he’s never been part of the ‘in crowd’.

On the set of the upbeat movie, Rust is on stage delivering his auspicious speech at graduation, a momentous event in the life of every American high school student. In fact filming is taking place at a real high school in Vancouver and the scene is entirely convincing, with crowds of teenagers and well dressed parents gathered to watch their children reach this important milestone in their lives. Rust is perfect as the slightly eccentric Cooverman, lanky and with compelling features, it is clear that he would not be the type of guy who would instantly appeal to the blonde and lovely girl who has long been the object of his affection. Indeed, Beth’s cool, older boyfriend is the macho, muscular Kevin (Shawn Roberts).

I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009)Everyone is expecting a rather dull or at least predictably appropriate speech from Cooverman, the Valedictorian (brightest star in his class). What happens though sends shock waves through the campus. Instead of droning on about school achievements and goals, he decides he will say what is really on his mind. ‘I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER,’ he tells the astonished Beth Cooper and the rest of the crowd. And it is that unexpected proclamation that sets in motion a chain of crazy events and an evening of unprecedented hilarity, hijinx and emotion.

“Denis is telling everyone what he’s thinking about them when he’s on stage, and he specifically cites Beth’s older boyfriend when he says, ‘Let us all admit that when we graduate we won’t come back to our high school and try to pick up an underage girlfriend like some creepy loser,’ comments director Chris Columbus. “Kevin takes that to heart, and wants to kill Denis throughout the film.”

The talented young cast includes Jack T. Carpenter as Denis’s pal Rich. Lauren London and Lauren Storm play Cammy and Treece, Beth’s best friends. The film is based on the best selling book by Larry Doyle.

Paul Rust began writing and performing comedy at the University of Iowa. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career in acting and appeared in the experimental comedy EXQUISITE CORPSE as well as PSYCHO SLEEPOVER. I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER is his first film role. He appears in Quentin Tarantino’s INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, along with Brad Pitt and Samuel L. Jackson. His writing credits include MTV’s HUMAN GIANT and the Fox TV pilot THE RIGHT NOW SHOW.

Rust, 28, in costume in his blue graduation gown, sat down for the following interview in Vancouver.

Q: What kind of guy is Denis?
A:
“He is an indoors type of guy, sort of nerdy and dorky. Denis is also very clever and he is the type of guy who’s a little too open with his heart and emotions. He tends to talk too much and embarrass himself. He speaks too freely from the heart and doesn’t really censor himself; he just has a direct pipeline from his heart to his mouth. So in his graduation speech, he professes his love for Beth Cooper, the most popular girl in school, who he’s had a crush on for years now. He actually says ‘I love you Beth Cooper’ during the speech and through that simple phrase he kicks off a series of really unfortunate events that happen to him. There is a series of mishaps throughout the night. On a whim, Beth decides to take him and his friend Rich out with her two friends, Cammy and Treece, for a wild night. Denis has never experienced anything like this before. He goes to his first party, and he rides around in fast cars and gets chased. He gets his eyes opened up to the world. It’s a bit like the 80s movies AFTER HOURS and SOMETHING WILD. It is about the nerdy guy who goes on an escapade with the crazy girl. He opens up and learns to be looser.”

Q: Can you explain his relationship to Beth?
A:
“He has been madly in love with Beth Cooper since he was 12 years old. Because his last name is Cooverman and her name is Cooper, he was always behind her in alphabetical order, so he always sat behind her in class.”

Q: Have you ever idolized a girl from afar?
A:
“My problem wasn’t so much that I loved somebody from afar, it was that I loved someone and then made it very obvious in the same way that Denis does. It just didn’t take me six years to profess my love, It only took three minutes. I told her and then regretted it instantly. The experience really helped me to form this character. There are moments during filming when I find myself thinking back, ‘let me just remember how much I humiliated myself when I was 13 and told a girl how much I liked her.’ I think everyone has had that kind of embarrassing experience at one point in their past and I think that's probably the appeal of the movie. I'm a nerdy character, it’s true, but I think everybody has nerdy moments.”

Q: What was it like working with Hayden?
A:
“Hayden's awesome; she’s really the consummate professional. She has been doing this I think for her whole life and it shows. Hayden comes in prepared, brings a lot of interesting choices to the scenes, and she's really great to work with. This is my first movie and perhaps her 10th and she’s done a lot of TV too. So she helped me and guided me and was very supportive. She always makes really fresh choices in everything she does. Her acting seems original and it doesn’t seem practiced or rehearsed. It’s really impressive.”

Q: What was it like working with such a talented young cast?
A:
“It was great. Chris Columbus, the director, decided that we would all just hang out for the first two weeks and get to know each other. There were some rehearsals here and there but I think he mainly wanted us to get acquainted. And so on the first day of shooting we were more like buddies than we would’ve been if we had just met each other that day, I think that really showed when we started shooting the film.”

Q: You get injured a lot throughout the film and are progressively battered and bruised. That doesn’t sound like much fun.
A:
“Basically, throughout the whole movie Denis gets beaten up and kicked around more and more (laughs). It was actually one of my favorite things in the screenplay, the fact that he was getting more and more beaten up as the film progresses. In the book they actually they have illustrations. You see him get more and more bruised in each chapter. I think it's a really funny joke; it means I spend a lot of time in the makeup chair. They gave me scratches and bruises, a cut lip and a bleeding nose; bug bites too, everything.”

Q: Were you familiar with the book?
A:
“I wasn’t familiar with the book before reading the screenplay. But I was familiar with the writer, Larry Doyle, because he was a writer on THE SIMPSONS and I am a big fan of THE SIMPSONS. I think it is pretty cool that Larry wrote the book and the screenplay because I think the screenplay retains the voice of the book. I eventually read the book and thought it was really funny. It is interesting; Larry sometimes just took a page of dialogue that was in the book and put it right into the screenplay. He could do that because he wrote it in the first place. I think a lot of times when screenwriters adapt books they can’t do that. In this case, it means the dialogue is just as funny as it is in the book.”

Q: Why do you think audiences will like the movie?
A:
“If you're a teenager, it’s fun seeing other teenagers on screen doing the things that you do. But then at the same time it’s made and shaped like a lot of the classic high school movies from the ‘80s and specifically references those films, like the John Hughes movies. So I think people who are older can enjoy this film too because it is a tribute to those earlier movies as well as bringing back teenage memories. Also, in terms of the story, I think everybody has had that experience of being scared after graduating because everything is new but it’s also the most exciting time too. I think that’s why a lot of movies are made about those time periods: they're terrifying and exciting. Denis is excited by Beth but terrified of her too.”

Q: How exciting was it for you working with Chris Columbus?
A:
“Well, the first movie I ever saw in a theater was GREMLINS, which Chris wrote and my first date movie was NINE MONTHS, which Chris directed. And the first time I remember really laughing hard at the movies was at HOME ALONE, which he also directed. So in a way, Chris Columbus’ movies have been following me throughout my whole life. To actually get be a part of his body of work is just so exciting for me. I’m a huge movie fan and to get to say ‘I am in a Chris Columbus film’ is really great. To begin with, it’s an honor to work with him and then secondly, he’s an awesome dude (laughs). Chris is really cool; he’s really enthusiastic. I’ve never seen him get upset or bad tempered or angry. There are some people who work well under stress with tension but I don‘t; I hate it. Chris keeps a really happy set going, where everybody’s positive and supportive of each other. It was just amazing getting to work with him. He is also very funny and he’d come up with scene ideas that are so inspired and original and funny. And we have the same sense of humor. The second night we were shooting, Phil Abraham, the director of photography, was trying to figure out how to move the camera from first position to second position. And he said: ‘So how am I going to make number 2?’ And then at exactly the same time, Chris and I both said, ‘Eat more fiber.’ After that I thought, ‘That’s cool; Chris and I made the same poop joke.’”

Q: Did you enjoy working in Vancouver?
A:
“It was my first time in Vancouver and in Canada but it was cool. People complain about the weather but I really like the rain; you don’t get it in Los Angeles. It was also nice getting to stay in a hotel. You can put your towel on the floor and then it’s picked up magically the next day. I really enjoy that (laughs). It was like all my 10-year-old fantasies; I got to regress back into that behavior so it was nice. I enjoyed the whole experience.”

Q: Can you discuss the friendship between Denis and Rich (Jack T. Carpenter)?
A:
“I really like the relationship between Denis and Rich because it is authentic. There are many friendships like that in high school. You'll see like the nerdy ‘quiz kid’ hanging out with the ‘Goth kid’. These two don’t seem like they match but what they share in common is that they're both outcasts or they are marginalized, so they find each other and that is how they become friends. Denis and Rich are different types of personalities. They think, ‘Hey, nobody likes us so let’s be friends with each other.’ Then in terms of working with Jack, he is a really funny guy.”

Q: How hard was the physical comedy?
A:
“There was a lot of physical comedy. I was jumping off roofs and getting champagne corks shot in my eye and it was pretty great. For me, physical comedy is the same as any type of comedy in that the more honest you try to make it, the funnier it is. So when he’s hitting me, I think it’s funnier the more real it looks. When Kevin hit me, I might cross my eyes a bit, do something a little more comical, but at the same time, I tried to make it look like a real punch.”

Q: Did it hurt?
A:
“Yeah, I was sore for the past few weeks. But I’m not jumping off airplanes and grabbing onto cables and swinging in between buildings.”

Q: “Were there particularly hilarious or interesting moments on the film?
A:
“Well, the first week we were here, they ushered us into a room for lunch. They had snacks set up for us to eat and then right next to the food was a bowl full of condoms and I thought, ‘I guess they think we’re all young actors so they're leaving out condoms for us.’ I thought, ‘That’s weird but I guess that’s how Hollywood works.’ Then a props guy walked in and I realized that the bowl of condoms was just a prop for the film and had nothing to do with us personally.”

Q: What do the characters learn in this movie?
A:
“On an emotional level, Denis learns that being scared and being fearful of new experiences can keep you from having a more satisfying life. He has always been scared and he grows up because of this one night. Then as far as Beth’s character is concerned, Denis gets her to see herself as a more worthy person than she was giving herself credit for. I think she has a low opinion of herself and Denis lets her recognize that she is a beautiful person who should be respected. The characters influence each other that way.”

Q: Do you identify with Denis at all? Were you ever nerdy?
A:
“Well it’s weird because I was valedictorian of my class, like Denis Cooverman is, which I think is a typically nerdy thing. I don’t think there are many cool people who are valedictorians ( top of their class at school). At the same time I was Homecoming King of my class.” (Homecoming is an American tradition in which you nominate the two people you like the most and make them King and Queen of Homecoming.)”

Q: Were you popular with girls as well?
A:
“No, I had one girlfriend in high school and she broke my heart. And then in my senior (final) year during my valedictorian address, I used it as an opportunity to get mad at her and put her down in a veiled way, in the same way Denis uses his speech to attack his high school. I’d gone to so many valedictorian speeches to hear students say: ‘Cherish what you just experienced because high school years were the best years of your life.’ And I said ‘That is B.S. That’s not true. High School was awful, right?’ I was sarcastic and I listed all the awful things about high school, like breakups and acne, (laughs) it was a stupid thing to do. It wasn’t a time to be inappropriate but I felt it should be. Six months later, my friend had a tape of the speech and sent it off to a radio station so it was on the radio and we listened to it. I was incredibly embarrassed and regretted everything I said.”

Q: Did you ever imagine you’d end up as a leading man?
A:
“Never. I had no expectations of having a lead role in a movie. And that’s been something that I had to deal with in a way, making this film. When I moved out to Los Angeles, my hope was just to get to do my comedy, to be the funny guy in an ensemble. This is new and it’s weird because it wasn’t anything I had planned. But it is great.”

Q: Do you think the traditional leading man image is changing?
A:
“Well I think there is a changing trend – Non leading men are becoming leading men, even if they are not classically handsome. I think it’s all about whether you can relate to someone; that’s what comedy is all about. I laugh the most when I see a comedy and have had a similar experience to the actor, and I think people do relate more to somebody who looks like them. Laurel and Hardy weren’t the best looking guys in the world but they were fantastic.”

Q: Do girls go for funny guys?
A:
“If it’s true, I’d like to meet those girls. I guess it’s true. I think people in general like funny guys but there are also those girls who like hunky guys too.”

Q: Did you dream of being in movies as a kid? You wrote a screenplay at 11. A: “I did. When I was a kid, I loved movies and I wanted to be a filmmaker really more than an actor. The screenplay I wrote was called The Five Dumb Men. I sent it in to the head of Warner Brothers at the time and he did a really cool thing. He wrote me a letter back and said ‘I was very impressed with your treatment for The Five Dumb Men.’ Then at the end, he said, ‘I want to encourage you to keep working and I’m sure some day you're going to be a big success.’ It was a really awesome thing for him to do. Writing is a goal of mine and a passion but I’m enjoying acting a lot. It is really cool just to be on a movie set and watch how people work and do things. I guess my goal after this movie is just to continue to have fun and do comedy and make people happy. “

Q: Is comedy natural for you?
A:
“Yes I have just always been an irritating class clown so in a way this was kind of the job that I’ve been working for. I guess for the last 26 years I’ve been doing nothing but training to do this so I’m ready for it. “

Q: Finally Paul, how realistic is this movie in your opinion?
A:
“I think it’s realistic in its emotions, what it’s saying about high school, that people are unhappy and are longing for other people to make them happy, that’s at the core of it. And I think it’s a really honest movie. On the surface, I think it’s a really fun, heightened comedy with people falling over, doing things that you don’t usually do in high school. But it all comes from truthful center.”

“If you’ve got something to confess, then go to www.iloveyoubethcoopermovie.co.uk