YRB Magazine

Whether he's playing McLovin or a kickass villain, Christopher Mintz-Plasse keeps his young Hollywood status grounded and fun, all while maintaining his ladies man swagger.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse doesn’t consider himself a pussy – he’s more along the lines of an asshole. With his cherubic young face, slack-jawed jowels and a voice that’s filtered through his nose, the 20-year-old lives the Hollywood dream that so many have attempted and miserably failed before him. And he makes it look easy. Yet, like most post-teens, Mintz-Plasse hasn’t left the roost. Lying in his childhood bed while his career-guiding parents are at work, the actor explains that, despite living under his parents’ roof, he keeps an arm’s length from them when it comes to Hollywood basics like sharing news of getting a new role.

“I probably tell my best friends first because I'm always with them. I care about them a lot,” he explains. “And then, when I get home, I tell my parents and my agent and my publicist. It should be the other way around. I'm just an asshole.”

But that’s about the extent to which Mintz-Plasse is actually an asshole. Having spent the past few years ascending the ranks of young Hollywood, Chris is just an everyday nerd whose real life personality happens to translate to his loveable on-screen roles. His characters are the kind of guys you’d find in a high school A/V club slobbering over yearbook photos of the prom queen, yet it’s the coolness and affability that he brings to his roles that’s made him one of comedy’s youngest underdogs.

His latest role sees him falling into that same dorky guise that made him one of the breakout stars of 2007’s Superbad, his cinematic debut that put him on the fast track to Hollywood gold. Chris plays Chris D’Amico (aka Red Mist) in this year’s action-comedy Kick-Ass, an adaptation of the cult comic book series that sees ordinary folk donning superhero costumes to fight crime. D’Amico, son of drug kingpin Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), plays antagonist to Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who sparks the grassroots superhero movement by slapping on a costume to become Kick-Ass. Mintz-Plasse first auditioned for the film’s title role after he connected the dots between seeing the series’ first issue in his father’s comic collection and reading the script, only to be told by director Matthew Vaughn that he had too much “charm” and “charisma” to play the lead.

“I was just excited that he gave me any role in that movie,” he says, adding that there were no hard feelings in spite of the snub. “Matthew Vaughn is incredibly talented. And if there's a sequel, I have a pretty decent part in that one, too.”

Chris relocated to London in 2008 to shoot the film over a period of four months, during which he got one of his first tastes of independent life. Like any 19-year-old faced with newfound freedom, he took full advantage of the situation by sampling the local flavor (“I would go out and dabble with a few beers”) and even getting his mack on. He struck up a short-term relationship with the lead singer of a rock group, steering clear of local British girls and their superficial qualities. “Their teeth are kind of messed up, they reek of alcohol, but I found one attractive girl and I stuck with her,” he states with a laugh. “I was like, ‘If you're the only one I'm going to meet, I have to keep hanging out with you for the four months that I'm here.’ So I just let that go.”

His personal life ironically resembles that of his famed character Fogell – aka McLovin – in Superbad, the Judd Apatow-produced hit comedy that saw him trying to get schwasted by purchasing liquor with an atrocious fake ID and, ultimately, bed the girl of his high school hallway dreams. The role was a blessing for Chris, but after getting the part, Chris had no idea that, in the years that followed, McLovin would chase him everywhere he went. “At first, I thought McLovin was a lame name,” he admits. “I thought they could have gotten more creative with it, but as soon as the movie came out, [writer] Seth Rogen told everyone that I was going to hate him because I'll be known as that for the rest of my life.”

Playing McLovin might have been the best debut gig for a new comedic actor on the big screen, but it hasn’t come without consequences. “I love when people come up to me and tell me they love my movie and whatnot, but I don't love it when people are shouting McLovin' through a mall 15 times because they think I can't hear them. So they just keep shouting and yelling and coming up and touching me.”

But there’s an upside to the notoriety, too. “I actually went to Boston recently to promote a film and I went with a buddy of mine to a restaurant/bar kind of area, and about 20 people came up to me with shots of vodka saying, ‘You and me, man! We gotta take shots of vodka together! It's gotta happen!’ And I turned down everybody because it's unacceptable. I'd probably die before I finished.”

Free shots are a pretty sweet perk if you’re an underage actor whose most famous character nearly botched an illegal booze purchase, but Chris isn’t one for the limelight or the freebies that come with fame. In fact, Chris might just be young Hollywood’s most non-fancy working actor. Pulling up to his cover shoot at a motel on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Chris hopped out of his whip – a Honda Civic – that he went halfsies on with his parents when he got his license almost three years ago. “Oh, yeah,” he says when his choice of car is questioned, sounding surprised that anyone would think twice about his ride. “It's really great. There's no need to get a new car unless this one breaks down.”

Instead of blowing his riches on useless stuff and becoming tainted by the attention, he’s been focusing on building his career one brick at a time. Though he’s only been in a few films thus far, they’ve all been hits: Chris starred as antisocial nerd Augie Farks in ‘08’s Role Models and biblical figure Isaac in ‘09’s Year One, the former of which almost crossed the $100 million mark at the international box office. And for someone whose voice sounds like a cotton ball is lodged in each nostril, Chris is soon going the animated route by lending his vocal talents to the upcoming How to Train Your Dragon and Marmaduke, an ironic twist for someone who claims he can barely listen to his own voice.

“I'll tell you man, that's the worst thing about the voice, about me, is that I can't stand my voice. So it's going to be very tough for me to watch those movies, where it's only my voice and I don't have to see myself,” he says. “But apparently, my voice is known. I've been in a movie theater in pitch black, talking to my friends, and someone leans over and goes, ‘Hey, I recognize you because of your voice!’”

It’s almost as if the more his visibility increases, the less he wants to be seen (he has a hard enough time being anonymous when a stranger can recognize his voice in the dark). That’s why Chris tends to cherish his family and friends the most, bringing them up several times throughout the interview. When he’s not on set or promoting a film, Chris uses his downtime to its fullest, discussing the joys of playing in his rock band, The Young Rapscallions, that consists of him and his three besties. The band, which got name from an incident where one of Chris’s friends called his dog a rapscallion (“It’s an awful story”), is what Chris calls a “jam band,” with all four members having picked up their instruments a mere three years ago.

“I bought a drum set after I got my first paycheck,” he says. “And my bassist and guitarist have been playing for three years, and we all just started jamming together and we've been getting better together and writing some awesome tunes.”

The Young Rapscallions aren’t yet on the mainstream radar, with only a few gigs under their belt performed at San Fernando Valley venues (there are a few clips from their second show at the Variety Room floating around on YouTube). But Chris hopes that the band will turn into something more, giving him an alternative outlet to expressing himself in film. “It's really hard because I'm working a lot and my guitar player is in another serious band where he plays bass, so it's more of a hobby for us. We just play on the side twice a week. But we want to record very soon when we get some time.”

Looking at the release schedule, Chris might not have much free time on his hands in 2010. Though he’s almost wrapped up his recording sessions for How to Train Your Dragon and has already logged studio time for Marmaduke, he’s about to be thrust into a whirlwind of promotion for Kick-Ass, which has such incredible buzz that there’s already talk of a sequel. And if everything plays in his favor this year, Chris’s biggest wish – moving out of his parent’s house – might just come true.

“I am ready to move out, but my mom keeps saying, ‘But you're a baby! You're not ready! You don't do the dishes, you don't do your laundry! How will you live on your own?’ You know, that whole thing. She kind of wants me to get another movie under my belt and have some backup money, which is smart.” Nothing is set in stone for what he’s got planned beyond Marmaduke, but if he stays on the right path and listens to his mother like a good boy, the sky’s the limit. “I'm very comfortable in the comedy world right now. So, you know, I'd love to keep doing some good comedies,” he explains. “But I hope with age, I become a better actor, a more talented actor. I would always love to do a dramatic role or a thriller. I would pretty much like to try any kind of film before my career ends. I want to be able to say I did it all.”