By Terry Tang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Although her 14-year-old daughter is just starting to deal with
adolescence and all its concomitant anxiety, Amy Heckerling has
already become a sharp navigator of the teenage mindset.
As the scribe and auteur behind comedic high school flicks such
as “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and
“Clueless,” Heckerling has entertained generations of
teens.
So it seems almost natural that the director would put her own
spin on the unpredictable transition between high school and
college. In “Loser,” Heckerling taps into the feeling
of alienation that inevitably plagues most unsure college
freshmen.
Her mouthpiece comes in the form of Paul (Jason Biggs), a small
town guy adjusting to university life in the Big Apple. With the
ethics of a Boy Scout and a hunter’s cap reminiscent of Elmer
Fudd, Paul seems to emit an aura of dorkiness to his stoner
roommates.
Paul also appears to be a loser in love when he falls for a
charming student, Dora (Mena Suvari). Though Dora is enamored with
her manipulative boyfriend, (who is also their English professor),
Paul can’t keep from pursuing her.
A lover of most romantic movies, Heckerling talked about her
revisit to the world of adolescent angst at a Los Angeles press
junket for “Loser.”
“That’s the first time that you really go through
that whole love thing,” Heckerling said. “And
that’s when it’s at its most intense. But I
wouldn’t say I’m only interested in young
people.”
As for Paul’s feelings of social ostracism, the director
drew from her own experiences of feeling like a misfit. Heckerling,
who grew up in the Bronx, exchanged the typical high school for the
High School of Art and Design in New York. The three-hour commute
impacted her chances of making friends.
“I was very, very quiet, very depressed,” Heckerling
said. “You didn’t really get to socialize because
everybody came from different places. So all the kids in your
neighborhood were hanging with the people they knew from school,
and I wasn’t in that school.”
Even Suvari can sympathize with the character of Paul. Unlike
her bewitching role as the seductive Angela in “American
Beauty,” Suvari plays a nice, albeit eccentric, girl in
“Loser.”
“I moved out to L.A. when I was 15. You usually form those
relationships in high school that you have in middle school. You
kind of know everybody. I really didn’t have that,”
said Suvari, whose family moved with her from Charleston, N.C.
“I went two years to one high school and then I graduated
from another,” Suvari continued. “It was more about
academics for me and graduating. I was never very much into the
whole social thing. I never went to prom.”
Biggs, on the other hand, seems to be on a trend of playing the
socially inept Romeo. The actor, however, doesn’t see this
typecasting as a drawback. Not many actors could get laughs and
sympathy while humping a pie in “American Pie.”
“I like to think that what I bring to the table is a kind
of sympathetic and endearing quality, that the audience will root
for me, even while playing kind of outcast characters or characters
that are put in outlandish situations,” Biggs said. “In
order for “˜Loser’ to work, you have to have a guy who,
even while he’s the biggest outcast, is still sympathetic and
endearing and the audience roots for him.”
Another reason Biggs didn’t mind playing the nerd was the
opportunity to work with the film’s director. As Biggs puts
it, Amy Heckerling were the two words that lured the actors to
“Loser.” Though already self-proclaimed fans, Suvari
and Biggs were amazed at how collaborative their director was.
“They say the vibe on the set stems directly from the
director. And it’s very true,” Biggs said. “Amy
is so laid-back and so cool. She treats everyone equally with the
utmost respect “¦ We clicked immediately.”
Although Suvari has no complaints about how filming went on her
other flicks, she also felt at home with the crew of
“Loser.” Besides going out to concerts and hockey games
with colleagues, she also picked up technical knowledge.
“Usually I go to work and do my thing and then go home.
You don’t have time to do too much but sleep. On
“˜Loser,’ “¦ we were all just so unified, it was
great. This is how things should be and I just want to work on
things like this.”
From a female perspective, Suvari delighted in seeing Heckerling
at the helm as director, writer and producer.
“She’s come so far, being a woman in this business.
She really knows what she wants. I loved how she’d just get
it across,” Suvari said. “I felt like I just got her. I
love her to death. She’s a great mom, great
everything.”
With all these praises of her talent, it’s hard to believe
that Heckerling could be bad at anything, let alone a
“loser.” However, there is one thing the director, who
lives in L.A., cannot do too well.
“I failed the driver’s test five times. That scene
in “˜Clueless,’ where they end up on the freeway,
that’s me.”
FILM: “Loser” is now playing in theaters
nationwide.