I had the opportunity to talk to Justin Long, aka the Mac Guy, about his role in Drag Me To Hell during the cast's press day and I learned a few things about the man. First of all, he's a super nice guy and talking to him was a pleasure. Secondly, he doesn't really know crap about Macs, PCs or anything else with a power switch. Still, we love the guy and he seems to know when a good time is to be had at the movies, so we'll stand behind him. Read on for the full interview, but be warned. We get into the nitty gritty of the film and there are spoilers all over the place. That is your first and final warning, so tread with caution!
Rene: Hello Justin. So, how has your craziness been today?
Justin Long: Not so crazy. Everyone I actually know. Horror movie internet reporters are the best. They are purely just interested in the movie. I love the genre and I enjoy talking to these guys. I actually know most of their websites.
R: I saw Drag Me to Hell last week. It was a bit different than I expected, even though I've seen every Sam Raimi film ever made. The trailer makes it sound really serious and it turned out like a Warner Brothers cartoon.
J.L.: That's so funny you say that. I've heard that, it's such a perfect description.
R: As soon as you see an anvil fall on someone's head you think Looney Tunes.
J.L.: You can't not think Looney Tunes. I'm surprised they didn't have Acme on the side of it. Like, the eyeballs going forward. Really Sam? That's insane. It's so awesome. Like the way he plays and the light he takes in, like, freaking people out. It's so twisted and fun.
R: So how do you approach these films? In a lot of the horror films that might have comedic elements you're usually the straight guy, but in comedies you're the funny guy.
J.L.: Yeah, I've done three now - two that have come out - like true horror movies. I don't know why Sam wanted me to be the strict straight guy. I don't think he saw Jeepers Creepers. Maybe if he had he would have changed his mind (laughs). I don't know, I hope he hasn't seen it. Anyhow, I welcome the opportunity to do it. As much fun as it is to do comedies, there's something about stretching and delving into different genres that is very appealing. The goal is to last as long as I can as an actor and you keep doing the same stuff and it gets tired and people get tired of it.
R: Well, the other question I have for you is specifically regarding Drag Me to Hell. Everyone knows that there are Macs in this film and you're sitting down using one, but then you can't fix the printer.
J.L.: Oh yeah! I, you know, that didn't even occur to me. You know that's very much like my own life. That was a very easy scene to play; I'm terrible with technology and gadgets and stuff like that. It didn't occur to me that it was a Mac.
R: Almost every computer you see is a Mac. I wasn't sure if it was an in-joke.
J.L.: No, in fact I think the prop people mentioned it at one point, and I'm just so oblivious to that stuff. It's not like I forget that I'm on the Mac commercials, I'm not that oblivious, but I'm just not that hyper-aware of it all the time. I do remember in Zach and Miri having a moment and Kevin pointed it out and he was laughing about whether or not Apple would have a problem with me as a gay porn star. Like there's like a shot, like a very tight close shot of me being like, "check this out on my iPhone." Like, now I'm worried like I hadn't thought about it, Kevin, until you started joking about whether or not I was going to get fired from my day job.
R: So with how hilarious Drag Me to Hell really is, I mean I think a lot of people are going to be surprised. At least, from the theater that I saw it in it was packed and everyone was laughing throughout the whole film, including at stuff that wasn't even funny, which made me want to laugh at them.
J.L.: There were a few moments like there's this shot I was just talking about where in the moment it's not; like, somebody asked me "do you know this stuff is going to be funny when you're shooting it." Like, with a typical comedy, like you do a comedic movie, usually after certain takes you run back to the monitor like narcissistic little kids like "oh look what I did, I think that's funny," but with Sam's stuff it's so much more tied in to his camera work and how he edits and how it's all put together. Like for example, there's a scene where Allison is being followed up the stairs by this shadowy thing and she locks the door and it's banging on the door.
R: Oh, the poster.
J.L.: The poster, like something like that. It's so tense but it comes on the heels of this shocking intense, very scary situation and then he pulls back and all of a sudden you see that poster "Hang in there," which on its own is not funny. I mean like it's cheesy and weird and if you went to a friend's house and you saw it on their wall you may consider not being friends with them. But like in this case it's funny just because of the situation.
R: And the fact that she killed the cat, too.
J.L.: And the fact that she killed the cat, exactly. So, in the moment it truly is hard to tell and that's what makes Sam so patient. Like for me, I'm a ham, I'm a clown, I need a reaction but Sam, his sense of humor, you know he's very patient with it. And he knows how to manipulate an audience better than anyone. So, I did not know it was going to be that funny.
R: Now, with the script itself, was there any indication to how funny these shots were going to be or did you think it was going to be straight up serious?
J.L.: No, I thought it would be a lot more. And I'm glad I did, you don't want to be aware of the genre. That's the director's job. You don't to be aware of what he was hoping to elicit from an audience. How I actually looked at it was more of like a love story, like my function was to create/be a part of a likable relationship. A relationship you wanted to see work. So I never was like "Oh god, I hope I'm adding to the horror of this scene." I kind of tried to play it as real and straightforward as possible and I really didn't want to push any things too much because I knew sort of what was going on around me. I was just a sort of a pawn. My role was to be real and create this relationship and be likeable hopefully and so it was just a piece of the puzzle - a kind of boring piece of the puzzle (laughs), but a necessary one to Allison's character, you know.
R: I think there was a few good reactions from the crowd with your reaction shots being the straight guy in the situation where there's like this ludicrous, cartoony violence happening and you're in the middle of it and you seem kind of, not necessarily not phased by it, but have a natural reaction as if something normal was going on.
J.L.: Sort of oblivious
R: Right, and I think that kind of makes the situation even, you know a little bit funnier.
J.L.: Ya, seeing the movie and again, shooting it I didn't know I would feel this way, but after she goes through that whole séance thing there's a scene where I'm driving back with her and we almost hit the old man, who she thinks is the old woman, and its just really scary but for me, the audience started laughing and I was like "I don't know why they're laughing at my reaction" cause I'm just like "Oh man, I can't believe that (phew) that was crazy" after she has gone through this insane [situation] and like what the audience has gone through up to this point is like beyond anything and I'm just like "Whew Nelly! That was a close call." (laughs) Such an idiot!
R: That's pretty funny. It's a very funny movie, more than anything else. I was with my wife and she was like, "I didn't know this was going to be such a comedy."
J.L.: Well you know what's nice about those laughs is you can only be scared long enough and feel that tension and it's not as much fun and when he does those little things like that, like the "Hang in There" poster, it's almost like he's giving the audience permission to breath. It's not just laughter, like laughter is just an exertion of breath so its like he's just cutting up the tension with a moment where you can breath but, you know it still is breathing. Like when you're laughing it's just like an aggressive form of breathing.
R: One last question on another thing I had in my mind outside of Drag Me to Hell was similarities in Battle for Terra and Planet 51.
J.L.: Yeah, you know that just occurred to me the other day. Somebody brought that up.
R: It's just a little strange because I saw Battle for Terra, which was pretty good, and then I see Planet 51, I just saw the trailer the other day. And I was like "wait a second, this is kind of like a similar story" and then I found out you're in both movies.
J.L.: Yeah, I did Battle for Terra so long ago that I almost feel like it was like 5 years ago. Maybe not, maybe I'm just exaggerating. They are similar premises; they're such different executions though. I mean like, when you see Planet 51 you will, even though yes like on paper if you had to describe it in a sentence it would be similar but the way they're both done is so incredibly different.
