I get a lot of dark scripts now. I don't wanna be stuck doing movies like American Pie. For someone my age, once you get started doing them, it's hard to get out.
I definitely had to be talked into 'American Pie: Reunion.' I was hesitant because I'm on a show, and I felt, 'I'm happy. I've got my family.' But then I met the directors, who also wrote it, and once I read the script, I was like, 'OK, sign me up.'
Eugene Levy is such an incredible legend. He's truly Jim's dad from 'American Pie.' He's the kindest, most fatherly man, who is just concerned about everyone and making sure they're comfortable on set.
Basically, in 'American Pie,' things are heading in the wrong direction. It is becoming less ideal, less idyllic. I don't know whether you consider that wrong or right, but it is a morality song in a sense.
American Pie speaks to the loss that we feel. That's why that song has found the niche that it has.
All roads lead to 'American Pie.' 'As American as apple pie' was the saying. It was some kind of a big American song that I wanted to write, which would be a conclusion for my show and bring all the songs home, which it still does. I can go anywhere I want with American music and come home to that. And it all makes sense.
I was around in 1970, and now I am around in 2015 ... there is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of 'American Pie.'
I've never done anything but what I wanted to do with my life. I don't think too many people can say that. I wrote the songs I wanted to write, for me. I had no idea that 'American Pie' would relate to anybody.
In a sense, 'American Pie' was a very despairing song but it can also be seen as very hopeful.
That song didn't just happen. It grew out of my experiences. 'American Pie' was part of my process of self-awakening: a mystical trip into my past.
