August 15, 2001

AOL Live heated up with hottie Seth Green. The former 'Buffy' star stopped by to chat and answer questions about his roles in 'Rat Race,' 'America's Sweethearts' and the upcoming 'Knockaround Guys.' See what he had to say below! Scroll down to read the full transcript... 

 AOL Host: Hello, everyone, welcome to AOL Live's chat with Seth Green, one of the stars of the new film Rat Race, which opens nationwide this Friday, Aug. 17. Seth, welcome. Great to have you here. 

Seth Green: Thanks. 

AOL Host: Before all the questions our members have for you, tell us about the new movie and who you play in it. 

Seth Green: Well, I won't be descriptive on screen. It's about an eccentric billionaire who puts $2 million in a locker 500 miles from Las Vegas, then gives a bunch of strangers keys to it and tells them whoever gets there first, wins.

 AOL Host: You're one of the strangers? 

Seth Green: Yes, Vince Vieluf and I play the Cody brothers, and they will do anything to win the money. 

AOL Host: Who else is in the movie with you? 

Seth Green: John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, Jon Lovitz, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Breckin Meyer. A big old cast. 

AOL Host: Guitar Gal 56 wants to know: Did you enjoy working with so many cool actors in Rat Race? 

Seth Green: Of course. Most of these people are people I've admired for a long time. It's always a pleasure to work with people that are qualified and good actors. 

AOL Host: Were you a big Monty Python or John Cleese fan? 

Seth Green: Absolutely. 

AOL Host: What was it like meeting him? 

Seth Green: At first, I did my best to look cool and be normal, so I didn't freak him out. At one point, I told him that his show and his troupe and all of his work had been inspirational to me as a comedian, and then I quickly left the room. 

AOL Host: Was this a tough film for you physically? Did you have to do a lot of stunt work? 

Seth Green: Yeah, Vince and I did like 90 percent of the stunts. You can clearly see in the movie the stuff we did. There's some stuff we did you can't tell it's us. We were frustrated by that, because we worked physically hard on the film. 

AOL Host: Was this the most stunts you've ever done for a project? 

Seth Green: Absolutely. 

AOL Host: Did you get hurt at all? 

Seth Green: Nothing life-threatening. But Vince and I did a lot of yoga at the end of each day. 

AOL Host: We got a bunch of questions about Buffy from our members. I'm sure many of us are curious why you would leave Buffy when it was popular, or still is popular. 

Seth Green: It wasn't like Seinfeld or anything. It wasn't like me deciding to leave when it was at the top. I had conversations with Josh going into the third season, I guess it was, just talking about what we'd done with the character and how, throughout that entire season, I'd really -- the character was so defined as a peripheral part of the show. So because I had a series regular contract, they had to write me into every episode, and I would wind up being written into shows where there was nothing for me to do. So I'd spend the entire day there, five days a week, you know, 14, 16 hours a day, so that I could be in the background and say, I think Buffy's right. And both Josh and I agreed that wasn't the best -- that wasn't what we'd planned, and it wasn't the best thing. 

Seth Green: I started getting opportunities -- I got an opportunity to do this movie Knockaround Guys, and Josh had agreed to let me out to do the movie, but the movie was a four-month shoot that would require me to be absent for six episodes, and to write [out] a character who is peripheral, yet very integrally designed into everyone else's storyline. Even though I didn't participate in every storyline, to get me out for six episodes would be a big deal. That's how they came up with the whole female werewolf, you know, going to India show. Then when I came back, the show had gone off in so many different directions, it was just as much of a disruption for me to come back as it was for me to have left. So I came back, I did the show, and that was the episode where I come back from India. 

AOL Host: Another one of our members, JelloIsVicious72, wants to know if you'll ever reappear again as Oz. 

Seth Green: Nobody's talked about it. I have absolutely no ill will. That was my family for two years. But, you know, nobody's called. Let me put it this way, if there was a story that made sense, I'd do it. You know? If it wasn't like a force or a cheat or a ratings ploy. 

AOL Host: Any interest at all in doing a voiceover for [the] cartoons if they have Oz in there? 

Seth Green: Nobody's mentioned it. I heard about it two weeks ago. 

AOL Host: A member named CarmenS94 wants to know what the atmosphere on the set of Buffy was like. Did you guys do a lot of practical jokes? Did you goof around? Or was everyone in their own trailer when the cameras weren't rolling? 

Seth Green: There was joking around. Remember, it's going on two years since I've been there. Yeah, I had plenty of fun with all those folks. 

AOL Host: Any specific incidents that come to mind you want to share? S

eth Green: I can't think of anything offhand. You -- when you're working with people that closely and it's almost like being part of a like plane crash survivors, you're the only ones that can relate to one another. You're working these long hours, you're in the makeup, doing all these insane things, and you can only relate to one another. That makes it a really comfortable atmosphere on the set. 

AOL Host: You still keep in touch with any of the cast members? Did you form long-lasting friendships there? 

Seth Green: I haven't talked to anybody in a while. I just ran into Marc Blucas at an audition. He's a sweet guy. 

AOL Host: Were you up for the same part? 

Seth Green: No. He played Riley, which was part of the military syndicate. 

AOL Host: Right, the Initiative. 

Seth Green: Right, thank you. I was leaving just when he was coming on. Then I came back on and he was really -- he was really important in this one episode that I came back for. So we spent a bunch of time together. 

AOL Host: We got a question from a member named Jess Jess, wants to know if you helped designed your Josie and the Pussycats action figure. 

Seth Green: My what? 

AOL Host: Was there a Josie and the Pussycats action figure? 

Seth Green: Not that I'm aware of. 

AOL Host: Was that fun to do? Seth Green: It was a blast, because Breckin Meyer and I knew each other for a long time. The movie was directed by two folks who did Can't Hardly Wait. That was just a big, playful, fun thing. It was a total goof. I think you can tell, if you see the movie. 

AOL Host: Were you forced to listen to real boy bands as part of research?

 Seth Green: We did an intense amount of research, yeah, to stylize the movement. It gave me a different respect and appreciation for anybody that does that for a living. 

AOL Host: Do you ever dwell on the fact that you're considered a teen idol, the way boy bands are? 

Seth Green: No. I think dwelling on your public persona leads to an unfortunate amount of ego flattering and keeps you from living in the real world. 

AOL Host: Speaking of bands, a member named LaLaLaMonkey30 wants to know: How's your guitar playing going? 

Seth Green: I'm a terrible guitarist. That's why it was nice to play a rock star on TV. 

AOL Host: They were referring to Oz playing guitar. 

Seth Green: I became an excellent mimic. All the bands who recorded the songs that our band on the show would play came in, you know, a couple days early to teach me the song, so that I could look like I was doing it. 

AOL Host: What kind of music are you into personally? 

Seth Green: Very, very wide range of music. It's kind of indefinable. Everything from Green Day to Sarah McLachlan. Everything from Willie Bobo to Celtic folk music. 

AOL Host: Next question: Is there going to be an Austin Powers 3, and will you be in it? 

Seth Green: That's the talk. I haven't heard anything official. We'll all hear at the same time. 

AOL Host: Would you do it if offered? Again, if it made sense, you know -- 

Seth Green: If it made sense. If my character made sense to be in the movie. I don't want to be like Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 3. 

AOL Host: A member wants to know: What's been the most fun movie for you to work on? 

Seth Green: I know this is going to sound obnoxious, but I really have a good time in everything I do. I've been really fortunate that way. I had a great time -- I had a blast on Austin Powers, the second one. Rat Race was a lot of fun, though it was really taxing. And I did America's Sweethearts, which was a huge, great time. 

AOL Host: What was it like working with Billy Crystal, John Cusack on that? 

Seth Green: Billy Crystal is one of my heroes. To work with him was a thrill. He was everything I would want him to be. 

AOL Host: Stronger 248 wants to know: What's your age now, and how old were you when you started acting? 

Seth Green: I'm 27 now. I started when I was seven. 

AOL Host: Starting that young, did you have any idea what you were doing? Or were you having a good time with a bunch of people? 

Seth Green: I knew really young that I wanted to act. Over the course of my career, I've learned how to be a good actor. Or to be a better actor than I was before. 

AOL Host: Did you have any role models at that age? 

Seth Green: Yeah, everybody I could see on TV. Everybody that was doing it. 

AOL Host: Did you have to attend regular schools? 

Seth Green: I graduated from public school. 

AOL Host: What was the most embarrassing thing you went through as a teenager? Or in high school, when you were a teenager, if anything? 

Seth Green: Yeah, it was complicated, because I've actually talked about this a lot, just, you know, I was short and funny-looking and obnoxious and had a big vocabulary and really wanted to fit in with everybody, but tried to fit in by, you know, making myself the center of attention. And kids just don't respond well to phony people who try and steal the spotlight. You know what I mean? 

AOL Host: Yeah. 

Seth Green: So I had a lot of trouble in school, because I was a loudmouth and really wanted to be everybody's friend. It was me just kind of disguising the discomfort that I felt. 

AOL Host: A member named Jess Jess again wants to know: What do you do in your free time for fun? 

Seth Green: I've taken to meditating quite a bit, actually. Just because when you work a lot -- I just did The Daily Show like five minutes ago, and you walk out onstage for five minutes and it's this huge, hyper, live audience screaming, yelling, joke-telling, ha ha, funny, then you have to get offstage and you've got all this adrenaline, and you have to calm down and be able to sit with yourself. I work a lot, and it's always the same thing, fast paced, but then you wind up spending a ton of time waiting for things to happen. And you have to be able to keep focused and be calm and be a normal person. So I do a lot of things that normal people do -- go to concerts, you know, watch television. 

AOL Host: H Adams 267 wants to know: What was it like being in Can't Hardly Wait with Jennifer Love Hewitt? 

Seth Green: Being in the movie was great. We had worked together before, so it was nice to see her again. 

AOL Host: Can't Hardly Wait was one of the best 1990s teen movies. You were in Can't Buy Me Love -- other than the word can't in the title, how do you compare the experiences? 

Seth Green: Can't Buy Me Love, I was really obnoxious and didn't know how to relate to people. In Can't Hardly Wait, I thought more about the character and the story, you know, all those obnoxious Val Kilmer things actors do, and wanted to do a good job and tell a good story. 

AOL Host: M Bug 1511 wants to know your perspective on the whole movie star life, and if it's changed from when you first started. 

Seth Green: I think I used it -- I know for a fact I used to have -- I used to put a lot more emphasis on career and success and working all the time and wanting to get to a place where I could just do what I wanted. And when you get to a place like that -- and mind you, I'm not, you know, Tom Cruise or anything -- but you trade off things, you trade off a certain amount of your privacy and your public comfort to be successful. And these days, I just try and be as normal as possible. You know? But you know, you go out in public and -- just today, I was sitting in Central Park and these group of kids walked by, maybe five feet from me, and started talking to each other in normal voices, Hey, that guy was in Austin Powers. I think that's Seth Green. We should say something to him. Wow, look at him right there. I looked at him like, I can totally hear you guys, because I'm a human being and we're five feet apart. But you know, people forget. They're used to seeing you on television and talking to each other, that they almost think that you're not real. 

AOL Host: Or you don't have feelings. 

Seth Green: The feelings are kind of beside it. It's just a really strange dynamic to be on the side of. 

AOL Host: Speaking of people talking about you, there are obviously a ton of Web sites about you that fans have created. Do you check them out? Do you think that's creepy? Do you think it's flattering? 

Seth Green: When I first heard about it, you kind of fortify your audience, see what people are saying. Then I got to a place where I realized that it's flattering and I appreciate it, but it doesn't really play on my everyday life. You know what I mean? What people are saying and what people are writing or how people express their feelings about you, we don't know each other on a personal level, and we can't through those means. We can't get to know each other through those means. 

AOL Host: Is it an ego boost to see a biography of you on the same shelf as a biography of John Adams or whoever else? 

Seth Green: I didn't know that. That's very funny. 

AOL Host: You didn't know there's an unauthorized biography of you out there? 

Seth Green: No, I did see that. I don't know where they put it. 

AOL Host: They put you between John Adams and whoever else. 

Seth Green: That's very funny. I read that biography, and it was very funny the way it's organized, because they may -- it's written by people who I've never met, and all the information is gleaned from prior interviews or the author's interpretation of what my feelings were at any given point in my life, or my parents' feelings and intentions. It's a little out of chrono logical order, you know? They define the intentions, like we meant to do this, and this is what my dad said. You know, it's borderline offensive, I say with a laugh. 

AOL Host: Right. 

Seth Green: But you have to look at it and say, all right, somebody is fascinated by something I've done and wants to write a book about it. You know? You have to appreciate it on that level and know that they would have got it right if they could have. 

AOL Host: A member named Candy Babe 09 wants to know: Who would you want to play in a movie that you haven't played before? 

Seth Green: I don't really set out -- I don't have any dream roles. I read a lot of scripts. If something strikes me, if something that I read makes sense to me, I think, oh, yeah, I could play that, I'd love to play that. I don't have any -- then I try to do it. I don't have any ideas, you know, to play the crippled gay guy that climbed Mount Baldy in a wheelchair wearing sunglasses because he's actually blind. 

AOL Host: A member says: Hey, Seth, I think you're a totally talented actor and so funny. I was wondering, what do you think you're going to be doing in a few years? 

Seth Green: First, thank you so much. I really appreciate you saying that. In a few years, I hope I'm still acting, because I love it. 

AOL Host: Back to Rat Race. Where was that filmed? Was it in different locations or all in LA? 

Seth Green: Multiple locations. We were in three different places in Canada, we were all over California, a bunch of stuff in Las Vegas. It was a huge production. 

AOL Host: As you mentioned, one of your co-stars in Rat Race is your friend Breckin Meyer. Where did you guys meet, and how do you describe the sensibility that you guys have in common? 

Seth Green: Breck and I met through auditioning together. When we started being friends, we were both in a place where we kind of needed a friend and found each other through odd circumstance. We were inseparable for a week or two, because we both had the same sense of humor, we're going through similar things in our lives, and you know, it's tricky, because the more we both work, the less we get to hang out; and the more complicated our lives get, the more we laugh about the days we had nothing to do because we were unemployed. We're saying we're going to make it some day, you know. Now we're in a movie together with three Oscar winners, and we have to laugh. There was a great moment working on the movie -- about to start a scene, they're about to click the slate, and Breck and I are right in front of Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Rowan Atkinson is right in front of us. We had to laugh, that this is where we are, how wonderful. 

AOL Host: Any plans to guest star on his new show, Inside Schwartz? 

Seth Green: If the opportunity arose, of course. 

AOL Host: Another member wants to know when your first kiss was. 

Seth Green: You know, I'm not sure. I know that sounds coy. 

AOL Host: There were so many. 

Seth Green: No, it's not that. I don't know. My first, like, real person kiss, like a meaningful, hey I want you to be my girlfriend and there's something romantic about this kiss? I was probably like 13, 12 or 13, I guess. 

AOL Host: Another member wants to know if there's any marriage plans in your future. 

Seth Green: I would love to be married. Wouldn't everybody? 

AOL Host: Do you have anybody in mind? That you want to share with us? 

Seth Green: I have a woman, a wonderful, wonderful woman that I've been with three years, and she is the light of my life. 

AOL Host: Is she in the business, can I ask? 

Seth Green: She is. 

AOL Host: Another member wants to know: You mentioned Knockaround Guys earlier. What's that movie about? 

Seth Green: It's about a bunch of guys who would like very much to be important people, and they take a job to prove that they can be, and they screw it up beyond repair, and they have to face the consequences. 

AOL Host: We have a funny comment from a member who wants to say, Hey, Seth, first I want to say how much I love you and your work. Then she adds, Kenny Fisher will never die. A little reference there. 

Seth Green: Thanks. Yeah. 

AOL Host: You also have a TV show coming out this fall called Greg the Bunny. 

Seth Green: It's actually mid-season. 

AOL Host: What's that about? 

Seth Green: It's similar to Roger Rabbit, in that, in that movie, the cartoons were real and alive, but they were actors. This is like Larry Sanders, where it's behind the scenes of a show, and the show is like a Sesame Street. In it, all the puppets are alive and have personalities and are a minority in the world and have pathos and drinking problems, and such like that. And I work on the show. 

AOL Host: A member wants to know -- 

Seth Green: On the show within the show, I should say. 

AOL Host: It's kind of meta-ironic and all that. 

Seth Green: Yeah. 

AOL Host: A member wants to know if you're nervous about the opening of Rat Race on Friday. Is there any reason to be nervous? 

Seth Green: I've done everything I could do. I'm in the movie; I did the best I could. I've been doing a ton of promotion. 

AOL Host: Are you the type of actor who like reads the box office results, you know, Sunday night or Monday morning? 

Seth Green: I did when Can't Hardly Wait came out. I got so disappointed, because it didn't open gigantic. You see these movies opening with $45 million or $60 million, whatever. That competition makes you feel like a failure when all you should do is say, you know, how'd you like the movie? I like this movie. I think it's really funny, and I worked really hard on it. If everybody else likes it, that would be fantastic. If it doesn't make money, I'm not going to like it any less. 

AOL Host: Another member wants to say: You've worked with British comedy greats, including in Rat Race. Do you find British or American humor funnier? 

Seth Green: It's a really different kind of humor. British humor tends to be really dry and ironic or just, you know, play on words or behavior. And a lot of American humor is -- can be, I should say, because it's not safe [to say] that there's no subtle American humor -- but a lot of American humor is very bold or abrasive or gross-out, you know. That seems to be the trend these days. 

AOL Host: We have a member who has a comment. Her name is Karina B 12-12. She wants to say she was behind you in school, in Lamberton, if that rings a bell. 

Seth Green: That's where I went to high school. What's her real name? 

AOL Host: Her name is Karina. I don't want to say her last name online. She wants to say you're a great actor, and she's glad you made it. 

Seth Green: Thank you very much. See you at the reunion. 

AOL Host: Will you go to the high school reunion? 

Seth Green: I probably won't. It's a situation like that, everybody comes because they wants to see each other, relax and have a good time. And the last thing I'd want to do is make a spectacle of myself or have anybody feel they couldn't just be themselves and do what they came there for. 

AOL Host: Do you have any ambitions to play darker, less comedic roles? 

Seth Green: Knockaround Guys is pretty dead serious. It's not like an ambition like I set out, oh, I'm going to play a serial killer right now. If I read something and it called for that and I felt I could do a good job, I would give my best. 

AOL Host: Any -- 

Seth Green: Gosh, I sound really boring, don't I? 

AOL Host: Not at all. Do you have any ambitions to do more work behind the scenes, whether producing, directing or writing? 

Seth Green: Well, I got a movie that I co-wrote the story to and I'll be producing in development with Disney, called Scorned. My friend Matthew Schrenich and I co-produced a series of stop-motion shorts for screenblast.com. That was a really great experience of producing, because we got to write and produce this whole series and employ a bunch of incredible animators and make a really funny show. 

AOL Host: Is that still up online? 

Seth Green: The first episode is up on Screenblast right now. The actual site will launch this week. They'll start showing -- we did 12 episodes. I think they're going to run them once a month. It's really funny. 

AOL Host: What's Scorned about? 

Seth Green: Scorned is about a relationship that goes horribly wrong. It's that fine line that you walk when you break up with somebody, between wanting them back and hating their guts. 

AOL Host: I'd like to see if we have any more questions for you. Any actors that you'd like to work with in the future that you haven't yet? 

Seth Green: All of them. 

AOL Host: Anything more specific than that? 

Seth Green: No. 

AOL Host: A member named Jess Jess wants to know if you have any plans for a new movie yet. 

Seth Green: Jess, you're all over this chat. That guy can type like crazy. 

AOL Host: He or she wants to know if you have any plans for a new movie, or if it's too early to start thinking about that. 

Seth Green: We're waiting to see. I'm going to work on the show Greg the Bunny for a while. And if something comes up, I'll do it. If it makes sense, I'll do it. 

AOL Host: Last question: You've worked with a ton of ensemble casts. Is that the place you feel more comfortable, or do you sometimes wish it could be all about Seth? 

Seth Green: I'm not aiming to be the top of the marquee. I love working with other people. It makes you better. 

AOL Host: All right. Well, that's all the time we have with you today, Seth. 

Seth Green: I sufficiently bored the crowd. 

AOL Host: Oh, just the opposite. You've been great. We really appreciate you coming on AOL. Let's remind everybody that Rat Race is opening nationwide this Friday, Aug. 17. Seth Green has done a lot for this movie, so let's hope everybody goes to see it. 

Seth Green: Thanks. I'm not having sex with a pie, but there's a lot of funny stuff in it. 

AOL Host: Almost as good. 

Seth Green: It's a different kind of comedy. 

AOL Host: Seth, it was a real pleasure. 

Seth Green: My pleasure. 

AOL Host: Thank you. Good night to everybody. 

Seth Green: Good night. 

Copyright 2001 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Portions of this transcript may be edited by AOL to correct spelling, punctuation and/or remove any material that violates AOL's Terms of Service.