High school is its own very particular trauma — at least according to Patton Oswalt.
“In high school, you’re not straight, you’re not gay, you’re not black, you’re not white. You’re a high schooler. That’s what’s wrong with high school,” Oswalt explained in his recent interview with HitFix. “You’re all hormones, everything’s in the red.”
In forthcoming flick “Young Adult,” Oswalt plays Matt, who underwent actual trauma while in high school; he remained in his tiny Minnesotan hometown and acts as the cynical conscience of Charlize Theron’s mean girl Mavis when she returns home from the big city (Minneapolis, that is) in order to win back her happily married ex-boyfriend Buddy. Matt darkly reminds Mavis that he essentially looks on the outside what she feels on the inside; to go toe-to-toe with Theron, Oswalt worked with an acting coach and dredged up some of those heightened high school feelings to fill those clumsy shoes.
Clumsier still: the unattainable Mavis is Matt’s object of both disdain and desire. A somewhat easy emotional state to be around Theron as an actress, particularly when she spends a large percentage of the film looking like hell.
“Love immediately turns to intimidation around [Theron],” Oswalt laughed. “It upped my discomfort.”
Check out what Patton Oswalt had to say about discomfort turning to comfortabilty on the set of “Young Adult,” out next week.
Here’s HitFix’s interview with Charlize Theron.