American Pie, the highest-grossing teen sex comedy of the 1990s, was released in theaters 20 years ago today. That’s 20 years of sequels and easy paychecks for Eugene Levy, 20 years of Stifler’s mom, and 20 years of pie-humping. Jim having, uh, relations with a “warm apple pie” is the most famous scene in the movie, and, as actor Jason Biggs revealed in an interview with the New York Times, the reason he still gets sent free apple pies at restaurant.
The Loser star also discussed the existential crisis he had before shooting the scene. Biggs said, “I was just like, ‘I’m going to put my penis in a pie? I’m really going to do this. Could this come back and just totally haunt me? Am I about to ruin my career before it even starts?’ I called my manager, and I was like, ‘Man, I am about to go film that scene, and I’m kind of having a bit of a moment. Should I be freaked out?” He was like, Jason, you go and [have sex with] that pie with all you got, man.” Weird. My last fortune cookie read the same thing.
The pie was going to be from McDonald’s, but as producer Chris Moore put it, “That was one of the funniest phone calls I’ve ever been on, listening to the representative from McDonald’s say, ‘Wait. You want a character to put on the apple pie as if he was trying it out on his manhood.'” So that idea was scrapped. Instead, the scene involved Brando-level method acting from Biggs.
“I wasn’t aroused, obviously, so it was kind of more like [my penis] was against it. It wasn’t in it, if you will. Also, it was a fake pie. It was a real tin pie case, but then it was Styrofoam on the inside. Then we put real apple pie pieces all around it, and all around my region. I was sort of flush against the pie as opposed to being inserted into the pie, if you know what I mean.” (Via)
It was a fake pie! I don’t know what to believe in anymore, except that the Naked Mile is peak athletic achievement. That’s still true.
(Via the New York Times)
