Interview: Charlyne Yi, Jake M. Johnson Talk Love in ‘Paper Heart’

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CHICAGO – When confronted with the observation that her body language closed up whenever her love history was examined in the just released “Paper Heart,” the film’s star Charlyne Yi posed exactly like that in a publicity picture.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Such is the style of detached bemusement that Yi brings to the “documentary,” an investigation on the meaning of love, both in the success stories of couples around America and her own journey in the pursuit of that intimacy.

City of Love: Jake M. Johnson and Charlyne Yi in Paris filming ‘Paper Heart’ Photo credit: © 2009 Overture Films

“Paper Heart” works on a couple of levels – the document of true loving couples in anecdotal reality – and a loose fabrication in the same style regarding Yi’s own burgeoning relationship with actor Michael Cera.

Her director, advisor and co-writer on the film, Nick (played with compassion by Jake M. Johnson and based on the real director Nicholas Jasenovec), is constantly coming from behind the camera to guide the narrative toward a hopeful conclusion.

HollywoodChicago.com sat down with Charlyne Yi and Jake M. Johnson as they talked about “Paper Heart,” with all the love, improvisation, wedding gowns and yes, body language.

HollywoodChicago.com: Where did you get the idea for this film and where did it come from? Your stand-up? Your relationship? Describe the process of the idea to the finished product.

Charlyne Yi: Around the time I graduated high school, I would be watching shows like ‘Elimidate’ and see them making out in a Jacuzzi on their first date. I thought, how do you meet people and do I have to be a slut (laughs)? Are they a slut? Maybe I’m a prude.

I got kind of weirded out, wondering if I’d ever meet someone and feel comfortable letting go to a certain point where you know all of them and they know all of you – where the feeling is mutual and both of you want to be true to each other and love each other. At the time it seemed so impossible. That inspired the idea of why I felt like I did in the film.

I met people who would open up to me about love, both strangers and friends. And I thought what if we captured these love stories and made a documentary? So I talked to Nick Jasenovic about that, and it was he that suggested that I be on camera, because it was I who didn’t believe in love.

The fabrication parts of the documentary came out of my discomfort of not wanting my personal life to be filmed. So we combined the fabrication and the real interviews with the hope that if someone went to the movie blindly they would get more out of it if they believed it to be true.

Life Imitates Art: Jake M. Johnson and Charlyne Yi of ‘Paper Heart’ in Chicago, July 17, 2009. Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

HC: Jake, you were essentially playing the director, Nicholas Jasenovec, in Paper Heart. How did you and the real Nick connect during shooting, and how much of your character comes from him?

Jake M. Johnson: We connected because we are close friends. I’m playing one of my close friends. I didn’t try to do an impression but I tried to express what would happen between he and Charlyne, as they had conflicts on the set about the direction of the film. So while they would be improvising, I would take in the scene and try to duplicate it the next day when Charlyne and I did the actual scene for the movie.

HC: Charlyne, what did you learn about love when interviewing the long-time survivors of the emotion?

CY: In the sequence, for example, of the judge and the lawyer, she mentioned how easy in today’s society that people break up, how easily they give up. I don’t know if its right or wrong, because there are relationships that you really have to fight for, but sometimes I wonder if they are right for constantly fighting through it.

I found that when you have histories and memories with someone, it does make you realize that some things are worth fighting for, maybe we should be strong and fight for a relationship that’s important.

Bowling for Love: Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi in ‘Paper Heart’ Photo credit: © 2009 Overture Films

HC: I detected that the character of Nick the director was falling in love with the hyper-essential version of Charlyne. Jake, did you intend that to happen with the character or did it evolve in the improvisation process?

CY: I think he actually fell in love with me (laughs). How can you not?

JMJ: Untrue! (laughs). I’ve actually had this question a lot. In an earlier version of the film, there was a cut scene where Charlyne and I are sitting on rocking chairs, watching the sunset and talking. Many who saw it said that there was the point where the Nick character confesses his love, because the character says he was happy for Charlyne and Michael but was jealous of their impending relationship.

In reality, it feels like brother and sister. We became friends during the shoot. And Charlyne was under a lot of stress, with the producers and crew. I became somewhat protective of her. Those looks I give her in the film in slow motion may look like love, but really it’s like, ‘you all right?’

CY: It may be also that in many movies there are love triangles, but you never really see a platonic relationship honesty portrayed.

HC: Charlyne, you in a wedding dress was an awkward but funny scene in the movie. Why do you think women put themselves through the sometimes humiliating process of the wedding ceremony, beyond the desire to be with the dude?

CY: Traditional, probably. They have in their head that this is the way to go. I’m not a typical girl, I hate to shop. I think the wedding planning is linked to this, but I don’t know.

HC: What was your favorite interruption that the director character did and why?

JMJ: Probably the kiss between Charlyne and Michael. It felt like the actual movie and what the real Nick was doing. As I observed the interviews and thought about the character, the kiss was the point that I felt was the character of Nick was captured. And that interruption seemed real. Get out of there, man!

HC: Charlyne, I love your song ‘Smells Like Christmas.’ Who are your musical influences and how do you hope to further your evolution in songwriting?

CY: I listen to the old Whitney Houston, ‘Greatest Love of All’ period, I love John Lennon, especially his rough homemade recordings. Jonathan Richman, who does a similar type of comical songwriting, is someone I also like.

I want to teach myself to do different things, I don’t want my songs to sound the same.

The Heart of the Matter: Charlyne Yi and Patrick McDonald in Chicago, July 17, 2009. Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

HC: Jake, you wrote and produced a short film called ‘This is my Friend’ Were you able to give Charlyne and the real Nick any pointers on streamlining the filmmaking process based on your experiences?

JMJ: Oh, so many (laughs). I think more so than that short film I had done a lot of improvisation before this, and in that process I had sold a TV show to NBC. So what I brought to this process was the ability to improvise in any situation and help write while the camera was on.

HC: In many parts of Paper Heart, your body language seems to block out the more intense moments of your own interaction with intimacy and love. Crossed arms during the psychic reading and objects placed between you and Michael in other scenes come to mind. Was this film an exercise in allowing you to ‘open up’ to the possibilities of love?

CY: The fictional part, no. The documentary part, definitely. I didn’t think I would change at all, but I did.

HC: You both talked about the improvisation elements of the film. Was there any scene that was created in improvisation that you had to do over and ‘act’? Was it strange trying to recreate spontaneity?

CY: Yes, it was hard to keep it fresh during the redundant takes. But other times we caught it in the first take, like my ‘tired scene’ in Paris.

JMJ: The first month was just Charlyne and I, and because we didn’t know what the tone would be, we shot everything a million different ways. When Michael Cera came in, he didn’t want to do it that way.

But in each location, we would essentially do the same scene, so by the end it felt like we had a script. So the equation was that Charlyne and I would just keep saying things back and forth, Mike Cera would come in, and then it would only be one or two takes.

CY: You would throw out the ‘bad’ improv elements, but you would retain the beats and then you could throw out something fresh during the take, and that would keep it alive.

HC: Final question for Charlyne. If you became famous, what would you do?

CY: I’d be scared (laughs). I don’t know, what are you suppose to do when you’re famous?

It would be shocking to be famous, I would be scared. I would get a disguise and hide. But if you can convince people to help other people because of your fame, maybe that’s good, maybe that’s how you use it. People would follow me, and I could make them do stuff (laughs). Good stuff. It wouldn’t be evil, I’m not evil.

2:40 p.m. update on Aug. 12, 2009: We are giving away 25 admit-two run-of-engagement movie passes to see “Paper Heart” in Chicago! Win yours in this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup!

By PATRICK McDONALD Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]