"I thought, well, maybe I could be really good at it," said Coogan about the prospect of playing a teacher who rollerblades as a means of getting to and from work. "Then rapidly that became obvious that it wasn't going to happen. I was in Venice Beach and I took some lessons. I checked into a hotel. I checked into Shutters and was there for two nights and booked, I said, 'I'd like two days, or three days, maybe three nights.' Yeah, so three days straight, I just kept going up and down. There were these two roller skating experts. I just wanted it to look like it was conceivable I could commute to work on them, but I can't."
Because Coogan didn't really get better at the sport, he and writer/director Andrew Fleming decided maybe Dana would just have to suck at rollerblading. "That's the direction we went in. Play to your strengths," laughed Coogan.
And it wasn't as though other aspects of the role were any easier. Coogan's not known for his song and dance skills, and it took lots of rehearsal time to get him to feel comfortable. "We were doing a musical show, but we were making a movie and then we were doing this musical, so you had to rehearse the musical because it's very specific moves and things," explained Coogan. "I did a little bit in it, but mostly it was the guys, the kids.
One of Coogan's young co-stars, Skylar Astin, helped him over the rough parts. "He plays naïve and vulnerable very, very convincingly. More than that, he was actually, he made suggestions to me I was a bit shocked at at first. I thought, 'Why is this 20-year-old kid trying to tell me how to do my job?' But his suggestions were smart and funny which shocked me because he'd say, 'Why don't you try this?' And I'd go, 'Oh my God, that's a really good idea.' So after that, I actually said to him, 'If you've got any ideas, throw them my way please.' I learned that you can learn something off everyone. The fact that he's young enough to be my son is probably - it just taught me to listen to people who you might not think had something useful to tell you because they do sometimes."
Coogan's character comes up with the idea of putting on an original play in order to raise funds and keep the school's principal from shutting down drama. Dana dreams up what could be the single worst idea for a sequel – Hamlet 2, a time-traveling musical. One of the featured songs in the musical is Rock Me Sexy Jesus, a tune I guarantee will be stuck in your head after watching the movie.
A song about a sexy Jesus is bound to stir up a little controversy, and Coogan's prepared to deal with it. "I've been told by people, the studio folks, that there are kind of rumblings from certain quarters about it. It doesn't worry me personally, not because I don't care, but because I think I can justify it. Also, I think it depends. I'm not into the idea of being shocking for the sake of shocking, or the idea of being tasteless in a kind of teenage contrary sort of way, an adolescent way. There are several things. It's where comedy comes from, what the intention is behind a joke, what the spirit is and the context. This movie has a kind of generosity of spirit. It's not mean spirited. Within that context, I think people will find it acceptable."
"Also, part of the joke is the inappropriateness," added Coogan. "By its very nature, it has to be credibly offensive because there are protestors within the film. So part of the joke is a slight lack of sensitivity, if you like, on his part towards those people. So it has to have credibility. The other thing is, doing comedy which is risqué is a long tradition of comedy, sometimes rubbing some people the wrong way. Monty Python's Life of Brian did it in the '70s and a lot of people thought that was terrible and sacrilegious. And then as time goes by, they realize it was quite a film fondly remembered - and it was sort of making a point as well as being funny. It wasn't just vacuous."
"And thirdly, the notion, it's only the word 'sexy' that people get all hung up about. I don't know why. There are so many issues about sex and religion and repression of basic human things. You can talk about it till the cows come home. But I think the notion of portraying Jesus in that way that looks kind of attractive was done in Jesus Christ Superstar. It was done in Godspell. And if you look at the Sistine Chapel, you'll find that Jesus Christ looks reasonably attractive. I'm sure Michelangelo and Caravaggio also got there before me when it came to portraying Jesus in that way."
Coogan could have played the drama teacher as a Brit, but instead he chose to keep Dana an American. "Because when I read the script, you got a feel that what was coming off the page to me was quite clearly someone who was American," explained Coogan. "You sometimes hear an accent when you read something and I definitely didn't hear an English accent when I read it. And I didn't hear someone who was English when I read it."
But it was also one of Dana's personality traits that made Coogan decide he was definitely American. "The fact that he was so emotionally open and demonstrative is not really a British thing," said Coogan. "People on the West Coast of America, there's a kind of…those people are very emotionally, explore themselves emotionally. You go into so many airport bookstores and there's self-help books. As a British person I think, 'God, how many books can you need on how to make yourself a better human being?' But this character, Dana, is the kind of person who I'm sure would avidly consume all those kinds of books. And also, his accent, I thought if he'd been British, it would start to become a defining thing. He'd have to start talking about English stuff and it's not about that. It's about someone who's creative and loves the arts."
