Paul Rust
will soon win over moviegoers as the nerdy and lovestruck Dennis Cooverman,
opposite Hayden Panettiere in the upcoming movie I Love You Beth Cooper.
This teen comedy starts out with a
very pivotal and riveting scene with Dennis Cooverman (Rust) delivering his
valedictory address that ends in utter chaos. Dennis has been harboring a secret for six years, a
chronic case of l'amour fou for Beth (Panettiere), one of the most
popular girls in school, who sat in the desk just in front of him in multiple
classes. The
nerd's shocking confession enrages Beth's boyfriend Kevin (Shawn Roberts). Seething
with fury and indignation, Kevin tells Dennis to stay away from
the lovely Beth Cooper or he will be sorry.
Paul Rust, the writer, improvisational artist and first-time lead actor, shares in the following Q&A what it's like filming I Love You Beth Cooper.
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 Dennis 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."
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, supportive and she's really great to work with."
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."
Q: What do the characters learn in this movie?
A: "On an emotional level, Dennis 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, Dennis gets her to
see herself as a more worthy person than she was giving herself credit
for. The characters influence each
other that way."
Q: Do you identify with Dennis at all? Were you ever nerdy?
A: "Well it's weird because I was valedictorian of my class, like Dennis 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).
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 year during my valedictorian address, I used it as an
opportunity put her down in a veiled way, in the same way Dennis uses his
speech. 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.' I was
sarcastic and I listed all the awful things about high school. Six months later, my friend had a tape of
the speech and sent it off to a radio station. 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. 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: 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
Bros. 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. "