Charlyne Yi opens up her Paper Heart in faux-doc

Part documentary, part fiction and all twee affection, Paper Heart is a curious gem of a movie, wearing its endearing eccentricities and clumsy charm on its tattered, vintage sleeve.

At the centre of this meditation on the existence of true love is Charlyne Yi, the 23-year-old comedic phenom from LA – whom audiences may recognize as Jodi the stoner girl from 2007’s Knocked Up – and Canadian wunderkind Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”, Superbad, Juno) who (maybe) falls for our adorably gawky and apprehensive protagonist.

Here Yi steps in front of the camera and, along with her motley crew, hops in a van and travels from Vegas to Virginia talking to real-life couples and exes about a subject she’s never truly understood, while exploring the possibility of finding it herself.

While in Toronto recently Yi and her co-star Jake Johnson, who plays the real director of Paper Heart Nick Jasenovec, sat down with Cineplex.com to talk Sundance awards, falling in love on camera and guerilla filmmaking.

Cineplex: So, Michael Cera…are you dating or were you dating? Before this film came out, that's what I'd read. How was he cast in the film?

Charlyne Yi: He was cast because he was our first choice as an actor and we were never together, so…

Cineplex: So the whole courtship process in the film…that’s not real?

CY: No, no, not at all. We’re all friends. I’ve known him, now, for maybe two or three years. But we shot this movie maybe a year ago. I've known everyone around the same time.

Cineplex: Was it always envisioned as being a documentary and a proper narrative film?

CY: In the beginning, it was going to be a traditional documentary and I came to Nick with that idea and because I didn’t believe in love, he thought I should be on-screen. So he convinced me that it would be interesting to see it from my perspective. He was hoping I would fall in love on camera, and that I’d be open to that, but I was not open to that. [laughs] And so that kinda inspired the idea of creating a narrative and using the documentary elements to bring it out.

Cineplex: Michael Cera plays Michael Cera and Charlyne plays Charlyne and Jake, you play the director. How did that happen and why?

Jake Johnson: They decided they wanted to do a movie where she was fake Charlyne and he was fake Michael Cera. And I think partly, Nick didn’t want to be on camera and then they wanted just to be clear in the end, that it wasn’t real but while you’re watching it, you go along for the ride. It’s just a story about the making of a movie and two people who fall in love…or almost fall in love.

Cineplex: What was it like filming this movie. It seems like it was pretty close quarters…

JJ: It was intense.

CY: On one of the first days, we were like, ‘Ok, whatever happens on the road, we’ll be friends in the end, right?’ And we shook on it. Cause we didn’t know if we were going to lose our minds or…

JJ: We drove in the van from Los Angeles to New York in four weeks, staying at the cheapest hotels we could find along the way, interviewing and shooting scenes.

CY: Sometimes, we’d be on the road for like a 10-hour drive and we’d stop and decide to shoot a scene and it would be raining. We’d have mud all over our shoes and we had to hop back into the car for another 10-hour drive.

JJ: And everyone smelled like wet dog and it’s two in the afternoon and Nick goes, we’re driving straight through till we get to New York State. [laughs]

Cineplex: You guys brought the movie to Sundance and it won a screenwriting award, which movies like You Can Count On Me and The Squid and the Whale have also won. What does it feel like to be in that company?

CY: It was shocking; especially considering it was a 5-page outline. We knew we were winning an award because we had to fly back to receive it so I was like, it’s not the cinematography award, it’s not the dramatic award, maybe it’s the audience award. So when they announced the Audience Award, Nick and I are like: ‘This is it!’ And it wasn’t us! And then me and him look at each other when they announce the screenwriting award and think, how does this make any sense? We talked to the judges a bit and [Sundance jury member and actor] Mike White said ‘We picked you cause you’re punk rock!’ I guess the writing did mostly take place in post-production, so we were improvising and technically writing as we spoke.

Watch the trailer here

Cineplex: What was the outline of the story? You’re playing a dramatized version of yourself. Do you actually not believe in true love?

CY: The real me, early on before shooting this, was skeptical about love. Not of other people’s love but my own. Throughout the whole process and throughout time, I think I’ve definitely changed the beat of my drum and I think the character of Charlyne in the film is more dramatized and more exaggerated for the sake of the film.

Cineplex: Having gotten some perspective from the film and talking to all of these people, has your mind changed? Do you look at love differently?

CY: Yeah, I think with every story, each time we’d be so inspired. We’d talk to them for an hour and a half or two hours even though in the movie, it’s like two minutes. They’d let us into their lives and just open up to us, which was amazing. Being part of their lives and experiencing what their stories were, it was so inspiring and made me hopeful. And my perspective was a bit naïve in the beginning because I didn’t understand things or the idea of never being sure, but then I realized, you’re not sure about anything – that’s life, you just go with it and live in the moment. It’s obvious but sometimes you get wrapped up in your own things.

JJ: And I don’t mean to come off as cheesy, but people’s stories were really touching. People who have been together for 50 years, 60 years, when they’re actually sitting next to each other, re-telling how they met and they’re remembering it and looking at each other…I didn’t have any notes for anybody, so we’d just quietly set up cameras and Charlyne would be interviewing and people would just really open up.

CY: And when you’re sitting down, face-to-face with them…I got chills sometimes and thought, ‘Oh my god, that’s so good! I kinda want to cry right now.’

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Paper Heart opens in select Cineplex Entertainment Theaters August 7.