Kick-Ass Interview: Christopher Mintz-Plasse And The Desire To Shoot People In The Neck

By  · Published on April 14th, 2010

Christopher Mintz-Plasse is a funny guy, but no matter what he does with the rest of his life he will eternally be known as McLovin’. Superbad was his arrival on the movie scene, and even after Role Models, How To Train Your Dragon, and the upcoming sure to be classic Marmaduke it will continue to be his calling card for some time to come… but his latest role and film has a better shot at changing that status quo than any other. Kick-Ass sees him as a the son of the film’s main villain, a son who over the course of the story moves from comic relief to something darker and more Harry Osborn-ish. Will the image of an angry and possibly murderous Mintz-Plasse replace the one on McLovin’s fake ID? Only time will tell…

FSR: Good morning, how’s the press tour treating you so far?

Christopher Mintz-PLasse: I landed yesterday around 5am and just slept from 1130 to 930, so I’m feeling good.

Well I don’t feel bad for you at all then.

[Laughs] How are you doing is the question?

Well, thanks for asking. So, what was it about Kick-Ass that drew you in first?

My dad’s a massive comic book fan so he had issue one of the comic, and when I got the script I thought it’d be much easier to read a 13 page comic then a 120 page script. I know that’s really lazy. So I read the comic and it was bloody and violent and funny, and I was like okay if this is what it’s about I’ll read the script. And that’s what I would want to see in a movie, the bloody and violent comedic superhero, so I went in and said god I gotta nail this audition. Some auditions I just don’t care about, I get lazy, I kind of hope I don’t get it.

I’ve got Superbad residual checks, I don’t need this!

[Laughs] Exactly, but I did really want this one so I went in and read for [the character of] Kick-Ass in front of Matthew Vaughn and he said my audition was too charismatic and loud and energetic… so he gave me the part of Red-Mist right there, which is amazing because he told me about the sequel possibilities and how the character turns in the script and blah blah blah so I was just happy he cast me as that.

Red-Mist is a great character too and actually a better one then Kick-Ass since he has a dramatic arc. Were you excited or worried about playing dark?

Yeah it was fun, and first I have to say thank you to Matthew for casting me in an action movie. You’d never look at me and think this guy’s gonna be in an action movie, but yeah, I’ve done the Role Models and Superbad, the comedy stuff, and I like being funny and I like doing that, but I also wanted to kind of, you know you’ve got Kick-Ass’ friends that are hilarious and my dad is hilarious and you have that comedy already. So I wanted to be funny but I wanted to be serious as well, and the script really leads that way in the 2nd and 3rd act. I’m kind of funny up until then. It was really interesting to do and fun and it makes me want to do more stuff like that. Obviously I want to keep doing comedies because I love it but I want to do more dramatic stuff as well.

Are you worried at all that possible sequels will see the character going too dark and not leave you the cushion of comedy?

It’s gonna be fun. You never know because Mark Millar already has lots of ideas for the sequel, and they’re getting started on the comic book. He wants me to be very, very, very dark, so that’s what he’s saying, but I’d like to balance the comedic and serious parts of the character. I think it would be very funny to see me murdering lots of people because you’ve never seen this face that’s only made people laugh so far do that. So it’ll be weird for people to see me just shooting people in the throat, but I want it to be funny and dramatic at the same time.

A funny and dramatic villain huh, you’re not aiming for the whole Arnold Schwarzenegger “Mr Freeze” level of bad guy are you?

No man! God, that movie is so bad how dare you reference that.

Just making sure… trying to protect the audience. So Chloe Moretz says you guys had fun onset. How was it working with an eleven year-old co-star?

If I had to say one thing, she was working out onset so she challenged me to a sit-up contest… so I said yes.

Sounds ominous. How’d that go?

I won, but she was impressive, she made it to like 50 which is ridiculous for an 11 yr old girl. She likes to pick on me because she has older brothers so she’s used to stuff like that. Her brothers weren’t there onset so I let her take it out on me.

So you now have two iconic characters known by their catchy monikers, McLovin’ and Red-Mist. Who would win if these two met in a dark alley?

Oh wow, I’d say probably McLovin’ because he’ll probably be so hammered after sex with three prostitutes so he’ll have the adrenalin to just keep going.

Interesting, and not at all the answer I was expecting… so what’s next for you? Any news on that all-star comedy anthology with the Farrelly Brothers?

eah, Eizabeth Banks directed [my segment] and actually Chloe worked with me on it. We’re in a scene together with Patrick Warburton, Matt Walsh, and Jimmy Bennett. It’s really funny but it’s too early to really say what it’s about.

Thanks for talking with me.

Thanks, that’s no fair, the lady before had a lot more time. It’s upsetting…

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Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn young. He's our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.