Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2008-07-02

Interview:


We had the honor of sitting down with one of Drillbit Taylor's stars, Nate Hartley. Here's what he had to say:

What was the most exciting part of working on Drillbit Taylor?

Nate: Just to get to work with so many comedy people. This was like my first movie, so I was really blessed to be able to have worked with all these sweet people. I mean Seth Rogen, Owen Wilson, Steven Brill, Judd Apatow, Kristofor Brown... just all these great people. I learned so much from everyone. That and all of the extras, all the girls... that was fun [laughs].

Now speaking of Seth Rogen and Owen Wilson, did they offer you any words of wisdom for your career?

Nate: Yes, Seth Rogen told me just be as dirty as possible. Owen Wilson just taught me how to get the ladies, because he's good like that. He taught me some good pickup lines. They're top secret though, and I can't let them out. If I were to, then everyone would be using them, and everyone would be getting my women.

Have you tried any of them yet?

Nate: I have actually, and they don't really work for me. Because his pickup lines are: you walk up to the girl and you say 'Hi, I'm Owen Wilson.' And it doesn't really work for me, because when I say I'm Owen Wilson, they're like no, you're obviously not. So it doesn't work [laughs].

I imagine that the set had to be a really fun place to be. Do you have any funny stories from set?

Nate: Yeah we did, we had this prank war, and everyone ended up getting involved. I remember one time, I think it was Troy and I, and we were both at our trailers. The trailers were connected, and what happened was we switched the name plates on the trailers [laughs]. So we switched them all, and everyone got confused. It was brilliant. It ended up with Troy going into Steven Brill's trailer, and David Koechner going into Owen Wilson's trailer. So that was funny.

Another funny story, we made this bet. I'm not sure if Owen was involved in this or not. There was a bet going on to see who could get the most phone numbers from the extras. My ploy of getting numbers was just going up to them and saying 'Hey, I'm playing a game; you need to give me your number.' Everyone else was actually serious about it. I ended up losing, which sucked, but it's alright, we digress right?

[Laughs] Indeed! What was your favorite scene to film?

Nate: They were all fun. There was a really cool car chase scene, which was insanely fun. We shot that in a week, which seems like a long time to shoot a car chase, but it was a lot of fun. We got to run a lot, and since I'm just so athletic... [laughs] I'm not athletic at all. The whole fight scene was choreographed, and it was a lot of fun. They'd go into full detail with it. Every punch and kick is down to a T.

Oh! My favorite scene, the kissing scene... with the lovely Brooke played by Valerie... I had to re-do that scene a couple times, because I just wasn't feeling it. I had to just kiss her a couple more times, just as an actor you know? I just needed to get in the moment.

You just needed to perfect it.

Nate: Exactly.