When AICN hosted its screening for SEX DRIVE last month, I was a little nervous. Though I was secure in my assessment of the film as a quality throwback to the best teen sex comedies of the 1980s, I was worried that I'd oversold it. After all, my first viewing was ideal; aside from a "Hey, I know you!" interview with Clark Duke at Comic Con and a fairly amusing red-band trailer, I walked in knowing next to nothing about the movie. At best, I was hoping for a quick, painless, intermittently amusing ninety minutes.

SEX DRIVE far exceeded those meager expectations. Though the premise lifts overtly from THE SURE THING (undersexed kid plans road trip based on the too-good promise of guaranteed trim), Sean Anders and co-writer John Morris pay affectionate homage to the Rob Reiner classic by playing it smart. Whereas most filmmakers would be content to shamelessly slap together recycled gags and gratuitous nudity, Anders and Morris are consistently gunning for something new. For example, we've seen horny young men exaggerate their physical attributes via anonymous IM sessions, but I'm pretty certain we've never seen this scenario conclude with a scrawny kid, Ian (Josh Zuckerman), getting an out-of-the-blue blow job as he capably bench presses 300 lbs. It's a good joke (in fact, it's so effective that Anders found a way to work the film's main titles into it), and it immediately signals to the viewer that the film won't be a phoned-in piece of teen-skewing trash. And this was so completely unexpected, that I kind of fell in love with the movie as it skipped from one raunchy set piece to the next.

Happily, the good folk who braved the traffic-laden trek to Woodland Hills for AICN's screening seemed just as won over by SEX DRIVE as I was the first time through. But what really impressed me was how well the film played on a second viewing. Like the most beloved teen comedies of the John Hughes era, SEX DRIVE is extremely durable: it's quotable, features a number of scene-stealing comedic turns (James Marsden's abusive Rex is a big brother of nightmarish, Chet-ian proportions), and is as sweet as it is debauched (thanks primarily to Amanda Crew, who's nerdy-hot as Ian's bff Felicia).

But I can't imagine the film working half as well as it does without Clark Duke as the insanely confident ladykiller Lance. If you're familiar with Duke (and you should be), "ladykiller" is probably not the first, second or seventy-second trait that comes to mind when you think of him. Sure, he's charismatic enough, but Lance is, in part, written as "Rick" from THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN. He's a trim-magnet. You're supposed to get the feeling that he could talk his way into any girl's pants. And while I'm quite certain Duke does very well for himself in the real world, this isn't exactly his onscreen type.

Well, it is now. And, as you'll read in the below interview, he's got Anders and Morris to thank for this. A couple of notes before we dive in: 1) this is the first interview I've ever conducted in a shopping mall food court, and 2) this is only part one, as we continued our chat following Moriarty's post-screening Q&A (which means we got to add "surprise guest" Marsden to the tangential madness). Hopefully, you'll find Anders, Morris and Duke as engaging as I did; if not, blame the transcript. The sarcasm level is pretty high here. It should be pretty evident when they're joking, but I still felt compelled to cut a tongue-in-cheek bit involving Ms. Crew's commitment to "inclusiveness" because it just didn't read right. I'm sure her representation is relieved.

So here's the first twenty-six minutes. Can you smell the Sbarro?

Sean Anders: George Clooney must do a lot of these food court interviews. Soderbergh, too.

Mr. Beaks: That would actually be fascinating.

Clark Duke: It's great because we all look terrible in this lighting.

Anders: It's like gas station bathroom lighting.

Duke: If you really want to know what a girl looks like after you meet her at a bar, tell her you want to go to 7 Eleven to buy cigarettes. If she checks out under the funky lighting at 7-Eleven, marry her. (Laughter) They have an ugly filter in those fluorescents.

John Morris: The only problem is none of us will pass it.

Duke: It doesn't matter if we pass it.

(There's confused crosstalk as I attempt to tie this in to the Black Sheep's "Strobelight Honey". Apparently, I'm the only one with any affection for the erstwhile '90s hip-hop act.)

Duke: It's so true, though.

Morris: Rappers have got an answer for everything.

Beaks: Now, I had to check out of the movie early to talk to you guys, so I need to know: is the Donovan cue still in there?

Anders: Yes.

Duke: The "what"?

Anders: The Donovan song "Atlantis". It's over your scene.

Beaks: I thought "Atlantis" was a pretty ballsy choice because of GOODFELLAS. I expect Joe Pesci to be beating the shit out of Frank Vincent every time I hear it.

Duke: You were personally beating up Alice [Greczyn, the hot Amish chick] pretty good, weren't you?

Anders: (Laughs) Emotionally.

Beaks: This is very much in the vein of the good teen sex comedies we grew up with in the '80s. We were running through a lot of them earlier: THE SURE THING, THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN...

Duke: I haven't seen that one.

Anders: THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN is bizarre. It's an hour of wacky comedy, and then twenty minutes of hard drama with a great downer ending.

Beaks: The last shot of the movie is amazing.

Duke: I've got to watch this.

Anders: And the most bizarre abortion scene.

Beaks: The abortion scene scored to U2's "I Will Follow".

Duke: I feel like U2 probably doesn't support abortion. It's interesting they would sign off on that.

Morris: It's funny 'cuz it's kind of hot.

Duke: (Laughing) Oh, man!

Morris: Just a tint of bush in it.

Duke: Just a taste?

Anders: Just enough.

Duke: But they actually show an abortion?

Anders: Well, they don't show it.

Beaks: It's not like LAKE OF FIRE or anything.

Anders: They show her undressing, and then there's a slow motion shot of the doctor going (Mimics putting on rubber gloves)...

Beaks: Yeah. So anyway...

Anders: Speaking of abortions...

Beaks: Obviously you don't get that dark with SEX DRIVE. But in terms of establishing tone, were you drawing on films like THE SURE THING or LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN for that mix of ribaldry and sweetness?

Anders: Not consciously. We grew up with those movies, and we love those movies. But there were a lot of other movies you don't remember - or you choose not to remember - from that era that didn't have any heart. They didn't make you invest in the characters. So while we wanted to have all the fun and all the wackiness... we also wanted to have characters that you'd remember and like and latch on to. You need some heart in there so it's not just a wank.

Beaks: With movies geared towards that age group, it's all about rewatchability.

Morris: The big thing for Sean and I is "Is it quotable?" Are people going to repeat those lines? We talk to each other in '80s movies quotes. A lot of people do. So if people start quoting this, that's all we ask.

Duke: That's why we said this is better than CITIZEN KANE. There's no quotable lines. Well, it's got one quotable line: "Rosebud". Which I use all the time.

Beaks: Except you guys kinda skimp on the deep focus photography.

Anders: Yeah. (Laughs) But John and I catch ourselves having entire conversations in movie quotes, especially from that era of comedy. THE JERK... whatever. We'll just bat that shit back and forth in a real conversation and not even realize it. Then we stop and go, "Aw, man, we're geeks."

Beaks: But, again, it's the sweetness that makes SEX DRIVE work. Most movies in this genre, past or present, go full on for the raunchiness and forget the heart.

Morris: Didn't Hughes tell you that?

Anders: Yeah. I had this really long conversation with John Hughes one day, and the best lesson that he imparted was that he always got his biggest laughs after an emotional moment. You bring people back into the real world, and then you hit them with something funny. You get a huge laugh out of that, and it's a better feeling to laugh after something a little bit emotional instead of going, "Hey! Dick jokes!" Not that there's anything wrong with dick jokes. It's paying for that Escalade!

Beaks: An audience with John Hughes is one of the coveted thing for guys of our generation. He's not the easiest guy to get to. He doesn't want to be bothered.

Anders: No, he doesn't. We had a project we were trying to get going with him, but he's a tough cookie. The studio wasn't able to make his deal, so it didn't work out. But I did get to talk to the guy for a while, and learned a lot of lessons from that. I mean, I grew up on those movies, and I love those movies.

Duke: But if he wouldn't have bowed out, I wouldn't have taken the role of Lance.

Anders: (Long pause) What?

Duke: The joke was that he was set to play Lance.

Morris: You really went out on a limb for that one.

Duke: Yeah, I was aiming for the fences on that one.

Beaks: That said, had you taken this to any major studio, I can't imagine they would've been thrilled with Clark as Lance.

Duke: Well, don't get the impression that minor studios were thrilled with it either. (Laughter)

Beaks: Really?

Anders: It took some convincing because the Lance character was originally written as this chiseled kind of guy you've seen in all of these movies. We actually started auditioning guys like that, but then we were like, "Wow, this character's a douchebag!" We were already fans of "Clark and Michael" at that point, but we just hadn't put two and two together. Then one day I was showing a "Clark and Michael" clip to a friend of mine; it was the bit where he's doing the self-defense class, and it just sort clicked right there. "Oh, shit! This is Lance!" We had to jump through hoops to get Clark in there, but on the day of the auditions, he killed. There was no denying it.

Morris: (To Clark) You were drunk, right?

Anders: He was drunk off his ass.

Duke: I wouldn't say I was "drunk", but... I had been drinking.

Morris: It was eight in the morning.

Duke: It was nine-thirty in the morning.

Anders: Don't exaggerate, John.

Duke: Yeah, you're making me sound like a maniac.

Beaks: So you drunkenly charmed your way into this movie?

Duke: Much the way I do the rest of my life. (Laughter) No, I was not drunk.

Anders: You were just buzzing a little.

Duke: I was actually nervous because I knew that was the final...

Anders: Well, and who wants to be doing improv comedy at nine in the morning?

Duke: Yeah, it was Saturday at nine-thirty in the morning. If I recall, we'd gone over it before, and I was just not nailing it. It came down to nerves. I really wanted to get it. And I knew this was the last big opportunity to do this with everybody.

Morris: So he gets the role, then he can't get off his show, and we lose him three days before we start shooting. Him and Marsden. He was off the picture. "Move on!"

Duke: And Seth, too, right?

Anders: It took a while for his deal to close, but we lost you guys for a while. John and I were freaking out.

Duke: They were putting in a new cast for us.

Beaks: So they almost lost you to GREEK?

Duke: Yeah, wouldn't that have been a shame?

Anders: (Laughing) Summit spent a lot of money pushing the film five weeks so those guys could clear up their schedule and be in the movie. We're grateful to them for that. They made the right decision. Once you've seen the movie, it's like, "Who else is going to play these parts?"

Duke: They pushed a month.

Anders: That cost over a hundred dollars!

Morris: Hundreds of dollars.

Duke: Literally hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted so me and Corny Collins could be in this movie.

Anders: (Laughing) It also meant that John and I had to spend an extra five weeks in Hollywood, Florida.

Duke: That was the best part! You hated Florida, right? I loved it. I wish I was in Miami right now. The weather is just so perfect.

Morris: That's because you're from the south.

Duke: Yeah, I don't mind humidity.

Beaks: James Marsden had a real breakout 2007 with HAIRSPRAY and ENCHANTED. Where did you see that he could possibly be the next "Chet"?

Anders: The character was written that way. It was a really gutsy character, and it was really hard to cast because agents and managers aren't really excited about their clients being the angry homophobic guy. But I saw a clip of some other project he'd auditioned for. Before that, I'd only seen him in SUPERMAN [RETURNS], and I just thought he was some pretty boy douche who thinks he's funny, but he's not. (Laughter) But then I watched that clip, and, a minute-and-a-half later, I was like, "Can we get this guy? He's really funny."

Beaks: What was the clip?

Anders: It was an audition that he'd done for another movie, and it was just him in a hotel room.

Duke: I remember when you were first talking about Marsden. I had said the same thing, and I asked Seth [Green], "Is he funny?" And Seth reassured me, saying he'd been on auditions with him years ago and he'd be the funniest guy in the room.

Beaks: Which no one would've guessed from all those years of playing Cyclops.

Anders: You know where it comes from? When you look like him, you just don't get opportunities. You're always at the end of the line, and people treat you like shit. So you have to build up this personality...

Duke: It's a defense mechanism.

Anders: Yeah. When you're hideous like he is, you just have to roll with the punches.

Duke: I think Marsden is the new Patrick Swayze. The way he sings and dances. And he's so chiseled. I see him having a career as storied as Swayze's.

Anders: He should remake ROAD HOUSE.

Beaks: They did a sequel to ROAD HOUSE.

Duke: They did?

Beaks: Yep. A direct-to-DVD sequel starring and co-written by Jonathan Schaech.

Duke: I don't know him.

Beaks: Yes, you do. He was in THAT THING YOU DO. He was the guy who treated Liv Tyler like shit.

Duke: The singer?

Beaks: Yeah.

Duke: Oh! Yeah. Well, it sounds like he's doing really well. (Laughter) I've got to be really careful in interviews. Everything I say is tongue-in-cheek, but anyone who reads it will be like, "That sounds so ugly!"

Beaks: That's good, though. That's like every interview Bill Murray ever gave.

Duke: Really? I'm not going to call anyone a "medium talent".

Beaks: That's the best insult of all time.

Duke: It really is. And I love Chevy. I've been very vocal about my support for Chevy Chase.

Beaks: Now, let's talk about Seth. Did you have always have him in mind for the Amish mechanic?

Anders: We didn't write it with anyone in mind. But it turns out that Seth had gone to some costume party dressed as an Amish. So his manager or agent or someone read the part and sent our manager a picture of Seth in the Amish getup. It was already funny. And then, of course, the character was written, and Seth is the king of that.

Beaks: He read for Rex, didn't he?

Anders: He didn't read for Rex, but he did come to a table read and read several parts. Rex was one of them. And that's the thing: at the table read, we still hadn't made a deal for him, but when he read that last line of the movie, which always gets a huge laugh, we knew there was no way there could be anyone else. And it's always fun to watch the movie with an audience. All Seth has to do is show up and people start laughing.

Duke: People love Seth. He's like nationally beloved.

Anders: He's actually deserving of it. He's a very decent guy.

Beaks: Did the idea of Rumspringa come from that documentary, THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND?

Anders: Yeah, we saw that.

Beaks: I'm pretty sure you're the first to use Rumspringa in a teen sex comedy, so congratulations.

Anders: That documentary is so awesome and insane. It's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I said to John after we watched it that we should really make a movie about Rumspringa. A whole movie about that might be a bit too much, but some elements of it in another movie gets it done.

Morris: I had these neighbors who were in a fraternity when I went to ASU. They'd come back from the bars at two in the morning, get out of their cars and just scream "Woooooo!" I was like, "Why are you screaming getting out of a car every fucking night?" I knew we had to use that. And it fit for Rumspringa.

Beaks: How did you guys get hooked up as a writing team?

Anders: We were both in different bands in Phoenix, and our bands used to play together. We got to know each other quite a bit through that. Then John's band moved up to San Francisco. I'd always wanted to make a movie, so when the technology caught up, and i could actually make a movie for no money, I started on it. I talked to a lot of people about getting involved in it, but John was the only one who had the commitment. So we made this movie, NBT--

Duke: NEVER BEEN THAWED.

Anders: Right. We made it with a video camera, a bunch of good friends and no money. And that movie led to festivals and managers and agents, and it kind of got us going.

Duke: Anders also stars in that movie. And he's really good.

Anders: Yeah, I'm phenomenal.

Duke: No, you really are! I'll be honest: you guys gave me the DVD, and I didn't watch it until we finished SEX DRIVE on the off-chance that I'd hate it. 'Cuz then you'd ask me about it, and I'd have to be honest. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anders: We did give him the DVD, and he didn't say anything about it, so we just assumed he hated it. Every now and then, we'd consider asking him about it, but we didn't want to deal with the pain.

Morris: We'd be like, "Fuck that guy!"

Anders: I figured he was using it as the nuclear option. Like if I was giving him direction that he just didn't want to do, he'd be like, "Fuck you, man! I saw your movie!"

Duke: I feel so bad.

Anders: I'm just joking.

Duke: But, honestly, I had that fear in my head that we'd have to have that awkward conversation.

Anders: (Laughing) NEVER BEEN THAWED turned out to be one of those movies that people loved and went fan-crazy for it, or it just makes them really, really angry.

Beaks: I don't want to forget Josh [Zuckerman] and Amanda [Crew].

Anders: Fuck them.

Duke: (Laughing) That's going to read really well.

Beaks: This entire interview is going to be in italics.

Anders: "Clark Duke narrows his eyes."

Duke: Hey, you said it! I might think it, but Sean will say it! (Laughter) Seriously, I love those two kids.

Anders: Josh and Amanda were fantastic. We found Amanda in Canada. We had auditioned a bunch of girls in Hollywood, and we had a bunch of solid choices to play Felicia. But then we got this tape from Canada, and... we were like "That's it, that's her!" She was awesome. She was really cool. And she swears like a sailor. She could totally hang with the boys.

Beaks: Canadian girls are like that.

Anders: And Josh we found through the regular audition process. We're both Bob Newhart fans, and Josh had this great Bob Newhart stammer. Also, his major strength is in his reactions. He's the straight man through this entire movie. All of this crazy shit is going on around this character, and Josh is so good at being the likable, confused guy who's trying to keep up.

Morris: He might not stand out like the other characters, but he anchors the entire thing. Without him, it wouldn't work.

Anders: There are a lot of characters who are wackier and bigger on the page, but if he's not doing what he's doing... I mean, gets assists all over the place.

Thus concludes "Part One". We'll pick up next week with Jimmy Marsden like you've never read him!

SEX DRIVE sneaks October 11th and opens nationwide on the 17th.

Faithfully submitted,

Mr. Beaks