Photos from Screen Gems Characters in "Slackers," (left
to right) James King, Devon Sawa, Michael Maronna, Laura
Prepon and Jason Segel, celebrate their
college graduation.
By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
There are places where more time is spent in bars than in
libraries, more time in bedrooms than taking midterms. Places where
dreamy guys spend their time cheating on tests and scamming their
way through four years of classes, and then at the end of the day
get to hookup with the local supermodel. Places like college.
Or at least, that’s how everyone would like it to be,
right?
That is the idea behind the upcoming Screen Gems film
“Slackers,” anyway. The movie, which will be widely
released on Friday and screened at Ackerman Grand Ballroom on
Thursday, belongs to the recent tradition of racy comedies
featuring young buddies getting themselves involved in crazy
antics.
“Slackers” sees the world of three outstanding
Holden University seniors come to a sudden standstill when their
cheating ways are discovered by the super-nerd of the school. The
three strike a deal with the loser, the self-dubbed “Cool
Ethan,” and he promises not to use his incriminating evidence
as long as they help him attain the object of his affection.
Unfortunately, fate steps in along the way, and the head of the
three falls in love with the super-nerd’s secret crush.
The farcical comedy’s cast includes a promising list of
young upstarts. The three friends include Jason Segel
(“Freaks and Geeks”) as Sam, Michael C.
“Pete” Maronna as Jeff, and Devon Sawa (“Final
Destination,” “Casper”) as the trio’s
leader Dave. The female lead honors are taken by model James King
(“Pearl Harbor”) as Angela. Laura Prepon plays her
horny and sexy roommate, and then there is a special appearance by
Mamie Van Doren. Last but not least, Jason Schwartzman of
“Rushmore” and drummer for Phantom Planet, tackles the
socially unstable role of Cool Ethan.
 Ethan (Jason Schwartzman, bottom left)
tries out his skills as a charmer on Angela (James
King, bottom center) and her roomate Reanna (Laura
Prepon, bottom right) in "Slackers." The film was directed
by first-timer Dewey Nicks, whose previous credits include
award-winning commercials.
“I was really confident, I don’t know why,” he
said. “We felt like we were doing something right.”
Nicks and the gang really went for the comedic throat with this
film, holding no prisoners in the war of laughs.
“I was kind of surprised they shot half the stuff that was
in the script,” said David H. Steinberg, the film’s
writer.
For at least one of the cast members it was the willingness to
go for the gusto that separated this movie from regular teenage
fare.
“It’s what attracted me to the movie,” Sawa
said. “We are pushing the envelope and we are going to get
some reactions to it. But at the same time I didn’t want to
do any fluffy comedies, where they’re trying to hold back and
be PG-13. I wanted to do the movie with the dancing penis.
It’s just different, it’s out there.”
On the day of shooting of one of the movie’s most
out-there scenes, between Jason Schwartzman and Mamie Van Doren,
Nicks wanted to get some extremely outrageous takes. This ended up
showing Schwartzman a little more of Mamie than he’d
bargained for.
“She was super cool, and super nice, and she just wanted
to have a good time with me. There’s actually an outtake
where I was touching her legs and stuff, because in the original
take I go below the waist. And she goes,
 Screen Gems (Left to right) Michael Maronna,
Devon Sawa and Jason Segel star in
"Slackers," a comic teen flick that opens this Friday.
“˜Oh, Jason, that feels so good.’ And I’m like,
“˜Unnh I don’t know who Jason is, but I’m
Ethan.’ She forgot about the cameras, which is pretty funny.
She was a blast to work with,” Schwartzman said.
Though situations in “Slackers” are, to say the
least, extreme, the cast and filmmakers felt a connection to how
they portrayed the college lifestyle. Nicks wanted the pace of the
comedy to be as fast as a freight train, because that’s how
he remembers college.
And in the grand tradition of college, the young cast of the
film treated their time together like a party.
“We were up in Redlands at a hotel, and there was a grand
piano in the lobby of the hotel, which I don’t think was
allowed to be played. But, Schwartzman of course being Schwartzman
played it, and he was quite good. So we’d sit there and all
hang out and play the piano. And we really all clicked, which came
out on screen I think. We did a lot of hanging out with the girls
too,” Sawa said.
Not only was the movie a positive bonding experience for the
cast but, as with college, for some it proved an expansive learning
experience too.
Prepon’s character inspired her to do a sexy cover photo
shoot for Maxim. Segel now feels he has entered his
“almost-man stage.”
But is there anything Cool Ethan could teach the notoriously
smooth Schwartzman? Has it inspired him to make a doll out of his
crush’s hair, as Cool Ethan does?
“To get a girl, I haven’t really done anything too
crazy, they usually just come to me,” Schwartzman said.
“Slackers” is an extreme comedic experience that the
filmmakers feel glad to have been a part of, but the moral of the
story may be questionable at best.
“I hope that kids aren’t going to go out and start
cheating,” Sawa said.
He’d rather they come to see the movie and leave
laughing.
FILM: “Slackers” opens nationwide
Friday. Campus Events is holding an on-campus advance screening on
Thursday. Tickets are available today in Kerckhoff 319.