No Dunderhead; He’s Sweet as Pie

It’s something of a shock to meet Seann William Scott. In person, he’s almost the complete opposite of the IQ-challenged, sex-obsessed goofballs he’s played to perfection in “American Pie,” “Road Trip,” “Dude, Where’s My Car?,” “Evolution” and “American Pie 2,” which opens today.

He’s sweet and polite, and it’s difficult to imagine the 24-year-old Scott as the obnoxious (if ultimately lovable) dunderhead Stifler he plays in the “American Pie” movies. He admits his cat is his best friend. He adores his parents. “I was able to pay for my dad to retire,” says Scott, who hails from Cottage Grove, Minn. “He used to work at a factory for 3M making Scotch tape.”

“If you ask any of the cast members who is the most unlike their characters in the movie, everyone will say Seann,” says Jason Biggs, who plays the sexually naive Jim in both “American Pie” movies. “Seann is the sweetest, most warm individual that I have ever had the pleasure to be around, which of course is the absolute opposite of Stifler.”

Although he bought a house in December in the Hollywood Hills, Scott hasn’t gone Hollywood. In fact, he’s transformed the 10-year-old Southwestern two-story house into something akin to a rustic cabin complete with dark wood-beamed ceilings, hardwood floors and aged walls.

“I wanted to make the house kind of a cabin--really dark and cool,” says Scott, sitting in the family room of the house, which is still under construction. There is no furniture on the first floor save for the two leather loungers and small table in the family room. “I’m really ready for it to be finished,” Scott says. “I feel like every time I come up here it is a vacation.”

“American Pie 2” finds Stifler, Jim, Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Oz (Chris Klein) and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) sharing a beach house during the summer after their freshman year in college. As usual, Stifler is on the make for every female on the beach, especially two women he believes are lesbians. Scott steals the movie with his outrageous R-rated one-liners, lopsided grin, goofy haircut, atrocious taste in clothes and wacky facial expressions. There’s one incredible “oh yuck” scene involving Stifler and some champagne and an equally over-the-top moment in which Stifler kisses Jim in order to get two lesbians to kiss each other.

Notes Biggs: “Some of his facial expressions and deliveries--it was really, really hard to keep a straight face. Honestly, I thought they wouldn’t get any usable footage [from the kissing scene] because we were cracking up.”

“Seann just brings manic energy to his character,” says “American Pie 2” director J.B. Rogers. “He’s great on timing. He always wants to try for the joke and make things better.”

Scott is the first to admit that Stifler is a weird character. “You don’t know why you like the guy,” he says. “He’s a jerk and has bad taste in clothes and bad taste in a lot of things he says. I wanted him to interact with the guys more [in the sequel]. It was tough to go back and play a character I hadn’t thought about for three years really and to find a nice mix where he wasn’t too annoying.”

Despite his ease with playing comedy, Scott says he finds playing for laughs hard to do. “When I was out here trying to get a job, I hated comedy auditions,” he explains. “I was always more attracted to the inward, darker roles. Then I got ‘American Pie.’ [The film was released in 1999.] I thought that there was an opportunity to make him the guy you hate to love. I based him on 10 individuals I knew from school. I wanted to be real specific [with Stifler].”

One reason he agreed to do “American Pie 2” was that he knew he had a part in a the low-budget indie film “Stark Raving Mad,” in which he gets a chance to finally go dramatic. “I saw some [scenes from it] two days ago. It’s unbelievable. My character is in this Chinatown underworld and he owes this Irish crime boss money and he ends up organizing this bank heist.”

The youngest of seven children, Scott was always a movie fan, but he never harbored an interest in acting. In high school, he played basketball, baseball and football. “I was going to play college ball, but I got to the point where I was so obsessed .... I wasn’t having fun. I wasn’t happy anymore.”

During his senior year, he got a job working as an usher in a local movie theater. Scott was inspired to act watching the likes of Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump” and Jim Carrey in “Dumb & Dumber.”

“I want to make people feel the same way I did when I see a good movie,” Scott says. “I thought [acting] is maybe something I would be OK at. I never did any performing. I was going on blind faith when I moved out here.”

His parents, he says, were supportive of his decision. “I think they thought I would come right back because I am so close to my family. But I had this gut feeling I had to do this.”

Scott wasn’t scared about moving to Los Angeles until he arrived. “I was just naive,” he admits. “I thought it was this big, fun, roller-coaster ride, and when I got here reality set in. I didn’t know anything about the business.”

In between auditions, Scott worked at Home Depot and as a host at the California Pizza Kitchen and a trainer at a gym.

“American Pie,” he says, was pretty much “my first acting gig. I had a couple things [before that]. I had two lines on a TV show that you and I would never watch. I just felt like a paid extra. The only acting I did was auditioning.”

Because of the buzz surrounding “American Pie” two years ago, Scott was offered a few WB shows. But he turned them down because he wanted to concentrate on movies. While waiting for the film to open, Scott worked at a law firm filing and fixing things and even sold food at the L.A. Zoo. He finally quit his day job when he got a small role in the thriller “Final Destination,” and he hasn’t looked back since.

Scott’s family is excited about his success. “They were so proud of me even when I got one of those TV shows,” Scott says. When ‘American Pie’ came out, it became more of a reality for them.”