Interviews in Adventureland

Photo courtesy of Miramax Films

Connell (Ryan Reynolds) and Em (Kristen Stewart) in the new movie Adventureland.

By Broadside Staff Writer Dylan Hares

Broadside had the chance to talk to Greg Mottola about his newest film, Adventureland.

Broadside: What do you say to people’s reactions about Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland. He just seems like a Michael Cera replacement?
Mottola: Well, I guess what I would say is that I actually knew of Jesse as an actor before I ever met Michael Cera. Jesse’s first film was called Roger Dodger, which was a small indie film with Campbell Scott, and Campbell Scott was in a small indie film that I directed and wrote. As much as I love Michael, I actually felt Jesse was more appropriate for this movie because he’s a little more neurotic, a little older, and not quite as innocent as Michael.

Broadside: Is the movie about the Adventureland theme park or more about you growing up?
Mottola: It’s quasi-autobiographical; it’s more about the love story at the center of it but it’s certainly about the park as well. I’m sort of picking and choosing people I knew from growing up on Long Island and putting them in different parts of the movie even if they weren’t necessarily part of that summer. There are a lot of people I grew up with—silly people and people I still love and care about.

Broadside: What would you say are the differences between working on a project like this, which seems more personal, than working on a film like Superbad, which you were hired for?
Mottola: There are some key differences. I actually wrote the script to Adventureland before I did Superbad. I designed it to be more of an intimate personal story, to be as much drama as comedy. And that’s a slightly different animal, even though it covers the same ground as Superbad, about the awkward attempts at first love and getting drunk and getting high and all the things you do when you’re young and you’re confused.

Broadside: Comedies in the past have handled male to male relationships relatively conservatively but new comedies like those of Judd Apatow and Superbad have ushered in the “bromance.” Why do you think moviegoers are now more comfortable with this?
Mottola: You know, I think things are cyclical. I think that there are probably older movies that had the “bromance” concept, maybe not as we have it now, but maybe something similar. Judd approaches things from a writer’s perspective and he just doesn’t want to see the same things over and over again. He wanted to find a new way to approach things. It’s okay for guys to love their friends and you shouldn’t be ashamed of that.

Broadside: Was Adventureland at all inspired by CaddyShack?
Mottola: I definitely was thinking about CaddyShack when I wrote the script; I was also thinking about Fast Times at Ridgemont High because there were really funny scenes of people working really, really crappy jobs.

Broadside: What were the biggest perks of working in Adventureland?
Mottola: I think the real Adventureland wasn’t as cheap as the one from the movie; they would actually let you eat the food there. The biggest other perk were the very attractive women that worked there, that was a nice perk.

Broadside: Have you felt that Adventureland is getting more press because of Kristen Stewart’s role in Twilight or because of the success of Superbad?
Mottola: I think that it has certainly got a higher profile because of Kristen’s fame.

Broadside: What was your favorite moment in Adventureland?
Mottola: The little sequence of events where the main characters eat some cookies that happen to have some cannabis in them and they go riding the bumper cars and get in trouble.

Broadside: What liberties did you take with the story that didn’t necessarily occur in real life?
Mottola: Well, the first answer to that question is I didn’t meet anyone quite as cool and beautiful as Kristen Stewart when I worked at the park in 1984—although she is based on a composite of some of my girlfriends from my early 20s. I definitely took a lot of the characters from the movie from people I know, and put their personalities into this world.