ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: [To Shue] How did you like working with the great Steve Coogan?
ELISABETH SHUE: Ah.... It was really incredible. It's so easy.
STEVE COOGAN: We had great chemistry.
SHUE: We did.
COOGAN: We still have great chemistry.
SHUE: I want him.
COOGAN: I want her.

Well, don't let me stand in the way. [To Coogan] So, what about working with the wonderful Elisabeth Shue?
COOGAN: It was tremendous and stupendous and chemically...
SHUE: Destabilizing.
COOGAN: Destabilizing!
SHUE: He plays this has-been actor whose most important role was being in the background of a herpes commercial.
COOGAN: I was in the foreground of a herpes commercial! The herpes commercial was all about me. And I've had a cold sore in real life. Carry on.
SHUE: And then, I play myself, Elisabeth Shue. I've quit the business and I've gone to Tucson, Ariz., to become a nurse. He comes into the fertility clinic where I work and he's so excited to see me, because he's a great lover of film and he thinks I'm just so wonderful.
COOGAN: I'm obsessed with Elisabeth Shue. I metaphorically and literally kiss her ass. And I invite her to my school to give a talk. It's very exciting. She says some very explicit things. I won't tell you what they are. But they're shocking for fans of Elisabeth Shue.

You play yourself — or a version of yourself?
SHUE: It was definitely a version of myself. The first day, I was really self-conscious and nervous because I didn't know anybody. There were no rehearsals so I just showed up and started shooting. But Steve made me feel comfortable because he was so excited to see me in the scene that it just made me laugh every single time. [She laughs just talking about it] I felt like I understood the version I was supposed to play once he started to react to me.

[To Coogan] And your character — was he fun to play?
COOGAN: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I play kind of a heroic fool whose heart's in the right place, but he's a bit of a jackass and he tries to save the drama department at his school by writing a sequel to Hamlet.
SHUE: It's a musical!
COOGAN: It's a happy version. He figures that the original Hamlet — Hamlet 1 — it's a bit depressing when everyone dies at the end. So he wants he want to do a more uplifting, positive, Hollywood version.
SHUE: Jesus is in it. He comes in a time machine.
COOGAN: Jesus Christ. And Albert Einstein. He travels through time and meets a bunch of people.

Wow, so it's like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure?
COOGAN: It is like that, except that...it doesn't star Keanu Reeves.

How does it feel to be at Sundance with a comedy?
COOGAN: Great. [At film festivals, there tends to be a lot of] interesting, quirky, odd, individualistic, kind of esoteric films that make you sad. Ours is a film that makes you laugh. It's not a film that makes you think. But if you want to think, you can. It's a kind of optional-thinking movie. You don't have to think too much.
SHUE: Not at all.
COOGAN: Not at all, actually, no.

You Might Also Like

• All About Elisabeth Shue
• Movie Article Elisabeth and Andrew Shue plan autobiopic | Gary Susman
• Movie Article A DIFFERENT KIND OF GIRLFRIEND | Tom Russo
• Cover Story THE HOLLOW MAN