Fact: Miles Teller and his male co-star Skylar Austin have a naked kissing scene in “21 & Over.” Interested? Read on.
“It’s so funny, everybody loves bringing that up,” squirmed Teller (hear him talk about winning the Sundance Special Jury prize for “The Spectacular Now” in the video below) when I asked him about the smooch during the film’s recent junket, held at the famed Saddle Ranch Chop House on L.A.’s Sunset Strip. “There’s a lot of other cool shit in this movie too.”
And he’s right, there is a lot of other cool shit in this movie. No joke, “21 & Over” is one of the best college comedies to come down the pike in years, with a winning main trio (Teller, Austin and Justin Chon), hilarious dialogue, inspired set-pieces and a genuine sweetness running through it all. In conclusion, please go and see it, because movies like this deserve our support.
Now back to the kissing.
“From the moment I got this script, that was like the one moment…I was like, ‘I don’t know man, can we switch it to something else?'” admitted Teller. “I was like, ‘It’s been done before, it’s really not that funny, and I don’t wanna kiss Skylar. Don’t make me kiss him.’ And yeah, I just like paid the camera guys $100 to make sure it’s in focus. And two takes, bro, it’s CPR. There’s no tongue…I mean, it’s not meant to like…I think it’s pretty gross. …It’s funny, it’s hilarious, but I don’t know anyone watching that [who’s] gonna be like, ‘yo, those dudes are hot,’ you know what I mean?”
Right, of course not.
In a nutshell, “21 & Over” follows three best friends – Miller (Teller), Jeff (Chon) and Casey (Austin) – as they head out on the town for Jeff’s 21st birthday. As predicted, the night goes wrong in all the right ways, resulting in lots of on-screen nudity (guys only!), a substantial amount of puking and one disgustingly inspired bit involving a tampon.
Did I mention this movie is actually being released in China? Well ok, not exactly this movie. As described by Chon and Teller (and as reported earlier in the Los Angeles Times), co-writers/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore were actually required to shoot extra scenes in the Asian country so as to tie up Jeff Chang’s story in a fashion more palatable to the Communist government – though fortunately for Teller, there wasn’t much actual work required from him during the trip.
“[Miles] wanted to go to China, so they wrote him like one line,” said Chon, to which Teller interjected: “I swear to god dude, I was there for a week, I shot one day, and I took the translator, like this 28 year old dude, I took him to Shangai and Beijing, and we just [partied]. Yeah, [Justin] was actually filming a movie, I was partying in China. It was one of the best trips of my life. Ting Ting, I love you.”
You can check out the rest of the interview in the video above.
“21 & Over” hits theaters this Friday. Please go and support it – it’s a hundred times funnier than that Melissa McCarthy movie.
Miles Teller on winning the Special Jury Award at Sundance: