How are you, I gather you've had a very busy week?
Yeah, I did that show with that MTV guy, Russell Brand, the other night. That's the strangest human being I've ever met. I couldn't believe what he was saying; I couldn't believe he could say that on television.
Now, we've heard you're leaving 'Scrubs' at the end of the sixth series - is that right?
No, that's a rumour. Nothing's decided yet. What I said was, everything is up in the air, and instantly I got loads of shit for saying that. I won't decide until March. They've made it very clear to me that the show will go on with or without me so I just have to decide if I'm gonna go back or not.
If you did leave, how would you like to be written out? Would you like to be killed off spectacularly or would you prefer to go out in a nice, neat, tying-up-of-ends way?
Killed off would be cool but I don't think they'd go for that because at its heart it's a comedy. But I'd want it to be interesting.
It must be a great job working on 'Scrubs' - what's it like?
It's awesome – going to work and acting like a goofball with all your friends and getting paid for it is the best job ever. It's a lot of work, the hours are crazy and for seven months of the year you don't have much of a life other than the show but it is a lot of fun.
That must make it very difficult for you to work on the writing and directing side of your career...
Yeah, but I have a whole lifetime to do that, and that's one of the pros to staying with 'Scrubs' – being on a series that goes six or seven years is such a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing that there's a lot to be said for continuing.
You're writing a screenplay with your brother Adam at the moment - is that correct?
Yeah, we optioned a children's book that we really love called 'Andrew Henry's Meadow' and Adam wrote the screenplay. We wanted to do a big fun movie like 'The Goonies' for kids, so that's what it is. We love really surreal production design so when we pitched it to Fox we said it would be as if Terry Gilliam had directed 'The Goonies', and they bought it! I'm not going to direct it, I'm going to produce it but we're hoping to be in production next year.
And your new movie, 'The Last Kiss', is out next week – what do you make of all the comparisons that have been made between that and your last big-screen adventure, 'Garden State'?
Unfortunately I think it's very misleading to the audience. There was a lot of talk like that in the States and I think it hurt the movie because people shouldn't go into this movie expecting 'Garden State'. 'The Last Kiss' is a much darker movie, it doesn't have nearly as much light-heartedness - not that 'Garden State' didn't have its own sombre moments but for the most part it was pretty funny. People shouldn't go into this looking for a light romantic comedy – this is a dark, gritty, realistic movie about the tough side of commitment and relationships. It does have me in it, and it does have a killer soundtrack with some cool British bands, and obviously it does have some introspection but I don't think it has that much more in common.
And you didn't write and direct this one of course! We heard you might have contributed a little to the script here and there though?
A little bit. Paul Haggis wrote the script so it's not like his scriptwriting needs any improvement. But I felt like because I was 30 at the time and I had a bunch of friends in this situation and I could just relate to the story so much that there were things that I felt I could bring to the table. I also like to write dialogue a lot and I feel like I write for myself well, so they allowed me to do a little meddling and play with some things.
Was there any pressure from the studio to make the movie more upbeat?
I was shocked that an American studio was going to release this movie. When I read the script and saw the original Italian movie, it's pretty courageous in where it goes and how it follows through… Like the fact that my character Michael actually sleeps with another woman - I couldn't believe that DreamWorks would release a movie like that, because in the States, it's pretty taboo for the protagonist to do something so horrible. So I was concerned. When I met with them I made them promise me they weren't going to wimp out and change it or I wasn't going to do the movie.
Was that part of the appeal of the movie for you, that your character wasn't 100% likeable?
Yeah, that's what's interesting about the movie. You know, when you read scripts, so many of them are like, this is 'Die Hard' but now it's in a boat, or this is 'Harry Met Sally' but now it's in the '50s and they're younger – everything is something else. So to read something and go, wow, that's pretty ballsy to have that happen, and, wow, a protagonist who doesn't make all the right decisions and who a chunk of the audience will hate for the middle third of the movie… There were a lot of refreshing things that drew me to it.
Did you find it difficult from an acting point of view to keep your character likeable enough so that people weren't repelled by him?
I think what happens is when audience members are honest with themselves they might get really mad at me but when they sit back a little they think, 'All right, I've been there', or maybe they haven't gone as far as this character's gone but, put it this way, there's someone in the movie that you can identify with as someone who's like you - both men and women. I've had many women say to me after they saw the movie, 'I hated it so much, it made me so angry but when I was honest with myself I realised I'd been that character in my life.' It upsets people a lot but in a good way because it starts a conversation, and that's my favourite kind of movie.
I can understand how it might upset some people though because it's one of the more honest looks at human relationships that we've seen in a long time…
That's why I wanted to do it. It's funny because you know how they do exit polls in the States to see how people like the movie when it first comes out? Well, they pretty much just had to throw them out because people were so f***ing mad when they came out. They were asking stuff like, 'Did you like the movie?' and they would reply, 'It f***ing made me so mad!' 'Yeah, but did you like it?' and then after a five-minute interval they were like, 'I really liked it a lot'. You can't be an adult and not have some deep reaction to the subject matter, whether it be love or lust or betrayal, and we all bring our baggage to this movie and it ignites something in you.
