Cast returns for another slice of “˜Pie’

Universal Studios Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth)
pays Jim (Jason Biggs) a visit at the guys’ beach
house in the comedy "American Pie 2."

By Suneal Kolluri
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Most people opted not to hump a pastry or use the phrase
“Suck me, beautiful” as a pickup line at any point
during their high school career. Yet, as foreign as these wild
antics may have seemed, in the summer of 1999 millions of young
viewers were able to identify with the zany characters of the hit
comedy “American Pie.”

And now, in “American Pie 2,” the same lovable cast
is back home from college and hoping to repeat the huge success of
the original film ““ and hey, maybe they’ll even get
laid in the process.

When constructing this sequel to the wildly successful teen
comedy about the young and the sexless, the writers and cast hoped
not only to make the film as funny as the original, but they also
strove to keep the realistic element that made the characters ring
so true for so many.

“I think there’s a touch of realness in the
film,” said actor Thomas Ian Nicholas, who played the
charismatic Kevin, at a Los Angeles press junket.
“There’s someone in there that everyone can relate to,
or maybe is like. And that’s what I think sets this movie
apart.”

This time around, screenwriter Adam Herz hoped to write a script
that was as successful as that of the first “American
Pie.”

“The only concern was living up to (the original) and
making it feel like a natural progression of these kids’
lives,” Herz said. “We didn’t want some
artificial reason for them to get back together.”

Thus, having gone through a year of college, each character
returns to Michigan a little different, and a little more grown up
than they were a year ago.

Jim (Jason Biggs) has made the realization that he’s
horrible at sex and desperately hopes to gain some sexual prowess
before Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) comes back to Michigan. And the
lovely band geek, Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), is there to help him
out.

Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), despite numerous other sexual
encounters, is still infatuated with Stifler’s mom. Oz (Chris
Klein) and Heather (Mena Suvari) have endured a long-distance
relationship, and Kevin (Nicholas) and Vickie (Tara Reid) make an
attempt at becoming friends after a year apart.

Despite their individual endeavors, the guys want to stick
together and make this summer the best one ever. So Jim, Kevin, Oz
and Finch all rent a house together by the lake and get a job
painting houses.

But even with the summer job, they still might not have enough
money to make their dream a reality. They just need somebody else
to help share the expenses.

Did somebody say … Stifler?

Much like two summers ago, audiences will watch as the same
beloved characters unleash their wild antics and aim to recreate
the same on-screen chemistry they had in the original.

“I don’t know where we had the confidence to come in
and try things out,” said, Seann William Scott, who plays
Stifler. “We all get along so well, and there’s such a
weird atmosphere to be so comfortable with taking risks.”

It may help that off screen the actors are good friends.

“We act like a bunch of early twenties guys,” Klein
said. “Debauchery, charlie horses, hitting each other,
laughing, telling dirty jokes, you name it.”

The script called for two of the actors, Biggs and Scott, to
take their relationship even further. In one scene, viewers can see
the two pucker up for a not-so-steamy make-out session.

Biggs said that he factored their on-screen kiss into his
decision on whether to do the movie.

“”˜I don’t know about the offer, umm … not
enough money … oh wait, I’m kissing who? I’ll take
it!” Biggs said jokingly. “It was great actually. Seann
and I are very close now. We have a very special
relationship.”

Much like the younger characters are friends in real life as
well as on-screen, Eugene Levy, who plays Jim’s embarrassing
father, can also easily relate to his character. His role as
Jim’s dad even helped him learn about how to raise his own
two teenage children.

“I think I’ve actually picked up a few things from
my character in the movie,” Levy said. “I try not to
get too excited over things that you really don’t have to get
that excited over. And I try and be there for support. I think
those are really good things.”

Levy, however, wasn’t the only parent that the cast
members had to deal with when making this movie. Most of the actors
said they had a tough time explaining “American Pie” to
their real parents.

“I didn’t actually talk to my dad about it,”
Hannigan said. “I just hoped that he would just sort of miss
it. But my mom, I had to prepare for.”

Both the writers and the actors know very well how to portray
teenage life in such a way that it is both humorous and accurate.
Young people see the awkwardness of their own lives reenacted while
older generations will remember their own wild days at college.

“This really isn’t just a movie,” Suvari said.
“This film is so realistic in so many ways. I think that was
part of the success of the first one; people could really identify
with it.”