Ken Kwapis compared you to Jimmy Stewart or a young Gary Cooper.  How do you stay grounded with all the hype?

John:  I hadn’t heard the Gary Cooper thing so I’m not grounded now. I feel pretty good.  That’s incredibly nice.  When I met Robin at the read-through, I remember when he came in, I was so nervous meeting him for the first time is incredible because I did actually write him a letter when I was a kid, and told him he was my favorite actor.  The first time I ever cried in a movie was in “Dead Poet’s Society” and I had my fingers like this, like windshield wipers and I was like ‘what is going on’?  And he wrote back and he was “it” for me.  So getting to meet him and hearing that he liked my work is totally unbelievable.  That’s just something that I can’t compute.  You can’t take a compliment like that.  It doesn’t make any sense.  As far as Ken Kwapis saying all those things, I think he just really wanted me in the movie so he probably told Warner Brothers, ‘don’t worry, Jimmy Stewart? Gary Cooper?  Who else do you like?’  If they’d said they were huge Chris Farley fans, he’s like ‘he can do that too.  He’s a huge physical comedian’.  But no, that’s really nice to hear.  As for staying grounded, I’ve got a great family and honestly I attribute a lot of it to that.  Really, what makes this fun, because it’s always surreal and exciting, but what makes it really fun is having special people to share it with and my family’s the best so to call and say ‘I’m in a movie with Robin Williams’ and they’re like ‘that’s ridiculous’. And I’m like ‘good, as long as you think that too’ because as soon as you say ‘I deserve this’, it’s over.

Aren’t they on the East Coast?

John:  They are on the East Coast, another reason why I stay grounded.  When you’re from the East Coast, they tend to keep you grounded. Boston is one of those places as I’m sure you know.

Can you talk about upcoming projects?  In particular I’m interested in ‘Brief Interviews with Hideous Men’.  Are you a huge David Foster Wallace fan?

John: I am in that everything he writes is pretty much the best stuff I’ve read so that makes me a fan I guess.  I don’t understand all of it.  I try. I got through [can’t make this out] with three bottles of Advil.  I mean I was extremely lucky to get this project.  It was one of those things that I worked on in college.  A friend of mine asked me to do a stage reading of that book and I was just completely blown away because, at that point, I was like ‘acting’s having fun with your friends and making people laugh’.  Not the case then you do something that makes you actually feel important and that’s a big moment.  It’s a big thing to feel like you’re doing something that’s actually effecting people so I fell in love with the book and always wanted to do something with and fought to get the rights which was pretty fun and an incredible experience in itself and then writing and directing just

Sort of fell into my lap. We were looking to collaborate with someone on both those fronts and it ended up just being me so, at this point, it’s the epitome of a passion project and I just hope people like it and you being a fan terrifies me because I’m sure you know the book so well.  I hope I did a good enough job. I’ll finish editing this summer so [can’t make it out] first they tell me and then, I don’t know, some festivals.

Sundance?

John: Sure, that would be great.  Are you saying that I’m in?  Oh my God!  That’s huge.

Are you still doing ‘Leatherheads’?

John: We just finished like three weeks ago.

Working with George Clooney?

John:  That was okay.  One of these days I’ll work with a good director.. No, it was incredible.  You can make jokes but he’s everything that anyone’s ever said about him.  To be that big of a star and that grounded and that classy, I’m mean he was a true mentor for me and, as a director, he’s incredible.  He knows exactly what he wants and so he knows that you’re done a good job before you do so after three takes, he’s like ‘we got it’ and I’m still thinking ‘I’m just getting used to this.  I shouldn’t have done it in a Russian accent’.  No he’s great.  He’s a good guy.

Mandy what’s in your future?

Mandy:  I have a record coming out on Tuesday.

John:  In the business we say it’s ‘dropping’ on Tuesday.

You wrote more of the songs on this than you usually do?

Mandy:  Yeah, I co-wrote it.

Is there a theme?

Mandy:  It’s just sort of what my life has been for the last two, two and a half years.  I was adamant about writing and being a part of the creative process and I kind of stood my ground and left two record labels to make this record exactly what I wanted it to be and working with the caliber of people that I got to.  I’m a huge singer/songwriter fan and a fan of independent music and I got to collaborate with a lot of my favorite artists and a fantastic producer and so it’s something personally that is really exciting for me and that I feel invested in and I’m excited that people can finally hear it. It’s called ‘Wild Hope’.

John:  And my blog had the exclusive.  I got to break it.

Any embarrassing moments during shooting?

John:  It wasn’t my first kiss but when you have to kiss someone… I think doing a movie about getting married, for me I was extremely nervous because, for me, you need a partner that’s really willing to go there and be silly.  It was also fun because we were really getting to know each other as our characters.  I think that’s the real premise of the movie.  You never really know someone until things go badly for you.  So it was fun to get to know Mandy in all these tests and I can say that working with someone that has so much more experience than you do and yet is still extremely invigorated and youthful and fun.  I just took her lead as far as what I needed to do on set and just tried to make it okay.  The kiss I tried to not make look terrible.

Mandy:  I think when you get along with someone, it’s just natural and it comes across on screen and I think we had good chemistry.  We appreciate each other and respect each other.

John: It would have been bad to hate each other. Put it that way.  That would have been upsetting.

What was your favorite scene to shoot?

John: I don’t know about my favorite scene but the first scene that we shot was us breaking up, her leaving the church which I thought was pretty insane.  From an acting perspective and the movie perspective, that was really exciting to shoot this scene where all this stuff happens.

Mandy:  Before you’ve established anything.

John:  Yeah.  ‘Hi, Mandy.  I’m John and you’re about to break up with me’. That was really exciting and a fun way to go about it.

Mandy:  I liked all the stuff we shot in Jamaica. It was fun to travel.

John:  You’re spoiled [she laughs].

Mandy:  It was fun.  The experience making this movie was such a blast, like a little family, a summer camp experience.  Being able to go away was an exciting thing. “The Office” has a really big following and I wanted to know more on the relationship between Pam and Jim.  You have such a big following on the internet.  How do you feel about that?

John:  It’s incredible.  It’s slightly overwhelming because you don’t think that anything you do….having anybody enjoy what you do is such a treat and so I know I’ve said this a hundred times but we owe it all to our writers.  We have the best writers in the business.  I love to have the people watching just because it’s fun to have people watching but our fans are so dedicated, so smart and so cool for the most part.  We don’t have these fans that overwhelm you if they see you on the street.  They’re like ‘love the show’, or ‘what an idiot.  You should have said something to her last week’.

I’m like ‘I know’.  Keeping it real in the key and I don’t know how they’ve done that week after week.  I think the key is that everybody can sort of empathize with it.  It’s that long lost love and we can all empathize.  My favorite scene on the show is on the booze cruise when I finally get to talk to her and tell her and I react exactly how I would react by saying nothing.  I would have nothing to say in that situation so like these strings, violins coming in and having some amazing speech.  It didn’t happen for me.

Have you gotten any reaction on the finale?

John: Yeah.  They’ve all been great which is really awesome.  We were really nervous about it because last year was a pretty huge moment, really fun to shoot then this year was very circumstantial.  So, if you were a fan of the show, I think this finale would make more sense to you and you would love it more because you know that that moment’s been coming for a while so the sort of anti-ending was really brave to do, for the writers, not for us.  It was pretty easy to just get the script and do it.  But, yeah it was really nice.  We’re extremely lucky.

Did you do any acting when you were in school at all?

John: The first acting thing I ever did was my senior year I decided  not to play a sport in the Spring and, in that Spring B.J. Novak who went to school with me, asked if I’d be in this show that was a parody of all the teachers in the school, ‘sure!’ That was the first acting thing I did.  He offered me the lead which I’m pretty sure he was insane for doing.  We knew each other  but not well enough for him to cast me in anything.  It was like ‘I just think you’re right for this role’.  I’m like ‘what does that mean?’ So that was my introduction to acting other than doing Daddy Warbucks in sixth grade which was smashing.

Mandy, what keeps you grounded because we hear about young celebrities getting in trouble all the time?

Mandy: I think I have a similar answer to John.  It’s a testament to my family; the way that I was raised.  I don’t like to pat myself on the back or anything but I feel like innately, it’s just who I am.  I don’t like to subscribe to the crazy party lifestyle.  It’s just not who I am.  I’m a little boring and lazy.  I take my jobs seriously but at the end of the day, I just want to go home and live a simple, quiet life I guess.

Is it hard to do that?

Mandy:  No. It’s just my choice.  It’s what I’m choosing to do.

Don’t you think that being a teen idol early on that managed not to do that party thing is remarkable?

Mandy:  No, not really. It’s not like I’m an anomaly.  I feel just like any other regular person who’s had a fantastic opportunity to do all of this.

John:  I think we all feel like you’re an anomaly.  I was shocked.

Mandy:  It’s the most asked question right now and I’m like ‘why do I feel weird about just living my life in a very normal way?’

John: Think about how I feel being a young girl in Hollywood.

Who do you go to for romantic advice?

Mandy:  I would probably go to my best girlfriend, sure.

John:  I go right to ‘The View’. They get it right.

Do you listen to your friends or give them advice?

Mandy:  Yeah, absolutely.   It’s a reciprocal relationship, sure.

What were your expectations of each other?

John:  I do think that she’s an anomaly.  I was so impressed at the way she carried herself.  Not in a bad way but I think I was expecting something totally different.  I don’t know what I was expecting but I think when you read on paper what the stats are that she’s been doing this for so long and been successful for so long and loved by everybody for so long, you sort of expect that to go to someone’s head.  I know it will mine as soon as I get reviews like that. But, the fact that she was so grounded and so intelligent. you wouldn’t know that she’s missed anything throughout her life and I’m sure she’s missed so many big moments and sacrificed for her career and you wouldn’t know it for a moment.  She was just extremely fun to have around and I loved it.  Great.

Mandy, do you feel that you’ve sacrificed things for your career?  

Mandy: Yeah, sure. I didn’t have the normal, average high school experience and the social aspect of high school or going to college but I don’t feel bad because of it.  I may have missed out on stuff but it doesn’t really bother me. I just know the life that I’ve led and I kind of believe, everything for a reason and this is just the path I’m supposed to take.

John:  We’re going to Spring weekend in Jamaica.  Let’s do it. 

Mandy:  Spring break.

John:  Catch you up. 

John, have you had a chance to check in with Jenna after her accident?

John:  I have, yeah.  I was shooting the movie when it happened so I was unfortunately busy, but we talked a little bit.  Then, when I got to New York as soon as we wrapped, I went to visit her at the hotel.  It’s kind of crazy how well she’s doing for what happened.  When I was sitting talking to her I forgot that she broke her back.  You hear those words and you’re like ‘oh, man.  She won’t walk for years’ and here she is up and walking around with a huge smile on her face. I definitely wouldn’t take it a well.

What are your feelings about the institution of marriage?

Mandy:  Wow, big question for right at the end.  Nothing fluffy?  I like the fluffy questions.  I think I’m still sort of figuring out what my definition of marriage really is.  I’m 23 years old and it’s not something that is at the forefront of my life right now.

John:  I’m 27.  I think this is a time when I’m still figuring out how to do all this myself so I’d say that what we were getting to about communication and all that, especially with all these debates on who can get married and why.  It’s just so funny to be because, at the end of the day, marriage shouldn’t be the next logical step.  It shouldn’t be something that everybody has to do.  It should be something that’s really romantic and just comes out of being happy with someone.  I feel like anybody can do that.  As the next generation I’d say it would be great if we could all find someone that actually made us happy and if marriage is the next step, that’s fine.

Are you going on tour, Mandy?

Mandy:  Yes.  I’m going on tour at the end of this summer.