"I had friends who had worked with him and knew he had a reputation for being very nice," said Long at the LA press day for Universal Pictures' Drag Me to Hell. "But he’s exceeded any expectations in that regard. He’s just the kindest man. When I met with him I said, ‘I would do anything in your movie – literally, I would do anything.’ I hadn’t read the script or anything and knew very little about it, but just the fact he was entertaining the idea was very flattering. I had never worked with anybody of his stature. And the fact that it was a horror movie, and a return to those movies that I grew up loving, was just icing on the cake."
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, Long didn't get to go through hell like his onscreen girlfriend, Alison Lohman, did in Drag Me to Hell. Long sort of wanted to be the one who was cursed by a gypsy, but instead he plays Lohman's boyfriend who can only stand back and watch the torture.
"While we were shooting it I was torn, because I was like as much as I want the blood and the prosthetics, because I love that because it’s the coolest and I regress right back to being a kid and playing in the yard. But the tired, lazy 30 year old in me was like, ‘Wow, thank God I get to go home and I have some days off.’ In fact, I shot a small part in another movie sandwiched between book-ending this movie. And I got to sleep and I got to take off myself and spend time with friends and girlfriends. So at the time I was not all that upset, but now seeing the movie I’m like super jealous and wish to God I had been part of more of it."
Long added, "But oftentimes I see something that I was cut out of... I remember being cut out of Anchorman and just being devastated. I had like two little scenes and I didn’t know until the premiere and it was heartbreaking. Obviously there’s a vanity – I’m an actor, I’m vain and there’s a level of narcissism, and you see work of yours [cut] and you’re like, ‘Oh man! I can’t believe that was all for naught!’ And I worked with a psychology professor, I audited classes – I spent several days with this woman, and writing stuff with my dad, who’s a philosophy professor, trying to get into knowing what I’m talking about, and all of it gone! There’s a quick passing mention of, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m a psychology professor,’ and that was it."
"But when I watched it as an audience member – like I said, normally, certainly the first viewing is like, ‘Oh God, I wish certain things hadn’t been cut out,’ but I was so excited I was in it in a limited way, because I got it. I was along for the ride and I don't want them cutting to me lecturing the class on some Freudian problem. I want to stay with Alison. That’s where the fun Sam Raimi stuff is. I was lucky I got to go home and sleep, but she’s going to have this forever and it’s such a great journey to capture on film. And with such a great guide. I’m lucky to be involved at all."
Long's known for his comedic performances, and he does add a little humor to tense situations in Drag Me to Hell. But for the most part, Long's playing it serious as his character tries to be as supportive as possible while his girlfriend is under attack by a vengeful spirit. "I thought Sam when he asked to meet with me – first of all, I was obviously incredibly excited and grew up watching his movies, but I thought it might have something to do with some kind of clown that comes in intermittently and kind of throws up and juggles something and does bad pratfalls. But I think he had seen Die Hard’, I think, and that’s where it came from. In Die Hard I’m hopefully not a goofy and comedic as I’ve been. I’m glad he didn’t see certain movies," said Long, laughing. "Or he wouldn’t have thought of me, I guess."
Long's used to being allowed freedom to improvise in comedy situations, but he was actually surprised how collaborative and open Raimi was when it came to tossing out lines. "Sam was the most collaborative director I’ve ever worked with, which is strange because he’s so meticulous with his storyboards and everything’s so thought out, and he’s very stylized and prepared. But he allowed a lot of room on the day, and before [filming] I did a lot of work with him and his brother Ivan on the script and on the character, a lot of which didn’t end up in the film. Beforehand, I had started writing myself, and I kind of wanted to use whatever improv skills and ad-libbing abilities that I had, kind of wanted to use it in the planning process and the planning stage. So we did some work on the script, but for the most part I tried to kind of hold back that impulse."
"I had just done He’s Just Not That Into You and the director of that kind of broke me of that instinct a little bit. It’s sort of a safety net for me, to go to that improv place, and a lot of the people I worked with – I’ve worked with a lot of the Judd Apatow guys, and even on a script like Die Hard it’s not there, so they rely on you to do it. A lot of the films that I’ve done are like that, where the script isn’t necessarily fleshed out and they invite that - they welcome it. But for this I knew my role, my function, was supposed to be just a supporting character to Alison [Lohman] and I was to stay away from the goofy stuff and the overly comedic stuff. So I did kind of hold back a little bit, and Sam was a good barometer. I certainly wanted to impress him and to do justice to the part he wrote, so there was a lot of holding back," said Long.
Page 2: Justin Long's Other Upcoming Movies
