Miles Teller insists he’s generally game for anything once he’s signed on to a film, but as he learned on 21 & Over — the directorial debut of The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore — there were some lengths to which Teller wasn’t quite willing to go for the sake of comedy.
Diving right into the nudity issue, there are a few very bold scenes for you in this. How do you psyche yourself up for that?
Or not. I mean, I know when you read the script or agree to do a movie, you know you’re going to agree to do everything. The nudity stuff, I just made sure I worked out, you know what I mean? Because some movies you don’t have time. You can work out before a movie, but then when you’re shooting there’s really no time. I know some actors do it, and people should really give them credit because they’re working 14 hours a day, it’s exhausting, and then working out and getting like five hours of sleep. It’s pretty tough. So for this I just made sure I worked out, and the (guy-on-guy) kissing scene was something I tried to get rid of for a while. I was literally like pretty upset about that. And then we did it and it was just like CPR.
You were upset about it?
Kiss a guy? Yes. Inevitably, I did it for comedy. But they wanted me to use the tongue and I said, “Nope. It’s not that funny, man.”
These guys are known for going pretty far for a joke. Was there anything else where you had to draw the line?
No. I mean, there was a point where me and Skylar were shackled up and were getting spanked. At one point the shackle broke, so I had to bend over and fix it and s—, and there was all these girls around, and I was just like, “I’m sorry about some a—hole.” Then I just went down and fixed it. Other than that, I felt pretty safe. The humour that these guys write, they’re both extremely intelligent. And it’s funny, it’s well-written, it’s not, like, dumb comedy. I never felt like I was doing cheesy or manipulative stuff. I felt pretty comfortable with everything.
What’s your own most dramatic drinking anecdote?
I just remember the only time I had alcohol poisoning, when I was literally puking black, and I was just like, “This is bad.” Nothing black should ever come out of your body, you know what I mean? Especially out of your mouth. There’s some crazier s— I’m sure, but if you remember it then it probably wasn’t that good.
How did your own college experience compare to this?
Not at all. I mean, NYU is just, like, New York. I mean, New York is your college campus, and when I was in college I smoked a lot of weed and played a lot of FIFA. That was pretty much what I did. But I grew up in Florida. Florida State’s a pretty stereotypical party college. Anywhere in the South, anywhere in the sun with a college with a good sports team is going to be fun.