Portraying this character Napoleon has changed your life dramatically,
I would imagine.
>> Yes, yes. >> It opened up other opportunities for
other films, Blades of Glory, Bench Warmers.
But, I want to ask, like how fun was it portraying Napoleon?
I want to talk about the dance.
How did that dance scene come about?
Because that was a thing in my high school.
Weekly announcements started out, it was a video.
You know how the daily announcements it has like videos of different students like
walking by waving to the camera, highlights of high school.
It was to the song Sugar, we're going down by Fall Out Boy, but
it ended with a group of students doing the Napoleon Dynamite dance.
And so, we saw that daily and so,
it just became such a big thing in this generation.
So, how did that come about?
>> It is so funny because when,
just speaking to that kind of social,
not social but that cultural.
At the risk of sounding like, phenomenon, which was, we hear this all the time and
I talked about with the other cast mates.
We see each other often, and
it is a weird thing because while we were at the epicenter of it, we were completely
removed from this whole world that existed that I really wish I could have seen.
Where countless stories I have heard of people telling, especially middle schools,
high schools, yes, but it seemed like middle schools but
really soaked it up where I mean so many people if you are walking around.
2004, 2005, 2006 in any middle school, it was just Napoleon this, Napoleon that.
And I never saw that I never got to see I really wish I could have been a fly
on the wall just I certainly saw and
felt the popularity because we were at the center of it.
>> Right, but
you didn't see the effect that the movie actually had on that Adrian.
>> We would just hear about it.
>> Right. >> But the dance I mean,
first of all, yeah, I absolutely loved playing the character.
I mean, when Jared came to me with the short script, I read it and
it just immediately I felt like okay, this, this is something special.
Jared is a really funny guy and I know he has a very specific point of view.
I would seen a little bit of just a little smidgen of kind of some other class
projects he done.
I was like, okay, this guy is funny.
He has a perspective that I think needs to be on film.
And I read the character and I was like,
this is kind of me growing up in many ways.
I mean, so much of just the way he speaks and that culture and
going to scout camp and making nunchucks, I was like, that is me growing up.
Like that's me in middle school, that's me in scouts.
>> Yes, because you were an Eagle scout, correct?
>> Yes, yes.
>> Yes.
>> So there was definitely a lot of that.
Then again and we had very similar backgrounds even though he grew up
in Preston, I grew up in Oregon.
And where I grew up Salem, Oregon is not as small,
nearly as small as Preston, but it is still kind of, it is not a big metropolis.
It is still close enough to.
And even most people who haven't grown up in that small of a town still know
kind of awkward weird kids like that.
>> Right.
>> Or were themselves had gone through those emotions are at least through those
motions.
>> Right.
>> This is my world and this I think is sweet and nobody else does it right here.
>> Right.
[LAUGH] >> I am going to love it.
So yes, I grabbed onto that immediately and just like, yes, I get this.
And so I absolutely love, I mean, Napoleon's still my favorite character
I have ever done and it is very special to me.
As for the dance, so, it kind of goes back to college.
And while we were in college it is kind of this own ecological
system where everybody, kind of we have similar circles of friends and
everybody kind of knows like, well, you are in that circle friends.
And anyways, Jared and I knew a lot of the same people,
we are both in the film program.
And I word got out to him.
He had a friend who had news said like John likes to Boogie and would just-
>> [LAUGH]
>> And I did, I liked to, I mean,
that is really the word they use all the time then I think was I liked the boogie.
Like sometimes I would, this is in the early 2000s, 2000,
2001, I think where I would just get up in front of people.
I mean not strangers, I was still kind of in that mode like, all right,
it has to be friends and people.
>> Right.
>> Or friends of friends.
But they put on some, and Jamiroquai was kind of my choice of jam.
>> Right.
>> And so I would put flip that on to our boombox and I'd start dancing.
And he was like John, hey.
For the short film he tried to fit that in, he had me dancing during
the credits and it didn't really match or work so he took it out.
But he was like, no, I am gonna back pocket that for now.
And then it was about a year later he came to me with the script for the feature.
He was like, hey dude, we are going to have you dance and this one and
it is going to be- >> Yes.
>> So I was like crud, shoot, I got to.
>> So did you just pull that dance out on the fly, or was that.
>> Yeah, yeah, cuz- >> Okay.
>> I was like, well, Jared and I, it is such an independent film and
as, do we have a choreographer?
Do we, should we, he was like no.
I mean, I think his attitude is just like John do your thing.
And I was, well, we are shooting a film.
Don't we have to get professional about this?
I don't know how to choreograph.
Do I plan something?
Should I plan I don't know.
And I think I think he was not worried ever.
[LAUGH] I was the one who was stressing and when the time came,
I just realized he, if he trusts me then yeah, I'll just do my thing.
It is going to be easier, just play some music and I will just, improv.
>> It is so good.
I actually, I know the dance and
I actually posted a video, that it was just for me.
>> Did you dance it?
>> 100%, and I was- >> I got to see this now.
>> Don't worry, I have it.
>> [LAUGH] >> I posted it by myself in my living
room and I was just, so I wasn't even trying to make a video of it.
My cousin Lindsay was at my house, it was Christmas time.
And I was sitting in the living room.
We were watching Napoleon Dynamite and I just started, I stood up and
I was like, Lindsey, I know the dance and I start doing the dance.
And she is recording me from afar, right?
And when I see her recording, I just bust out laughing.
And so then she posted it and then WWE got a hold of it.
And then they posted it and so I was just like my god, so the whole world.
>> Man. >> Knows that I know that
Napoleon Dynamite dance.
And when was this, was this like a couple years ago or is this recently?
>> This was like a year and a half ago.
>> Okay, okay.
>> Late 20s as in I should know better >> This is not a middle school dance.
>> Yes, no, this was as in just a year and a half ago and yeah.
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