The Tropic Thunder star talks style, cigarettes, hockey, and why Mos Def isn’t in his new movie.

Photographs by Andre McLeod; Styling by Anoma Ya Whittaker

How do you feel about She’s Out of My League? You’re the romantic lead?

Jay Baruchel: I’m the “my” and she’s out of my league. I mean, it was not without its problems. There are a few rated R-scenes where I have a, there’s a—

Cock out?

Jay Baruchel: There’s an English Mastiff licking semen off my crotch and stuff like that. But no, it was fun. I mean, it beats what my roommates have to do on their average days, so it was definitely fun.

You have roommates?

Jay Baruchel: Yeah, I live with two guys; two of my best friends since I was 15. One of them is probably the biggest music video producer in Quebec, and the other one moves furniture, so it’s a diverse, eclectic mix of jobs in this house.

Let me ask you about Tropic Thunder. In an old interview of yours, it must’ve been prior to shooting, and you mentioned Mos Def was going to be in it.

Jay Baruchel: Oh shit, yeah. [Laughs.] That’s old school. Yeah, well without getting into it too much, I personally witnessed somebody fucking themselves out of the movie. [Laughs.]

Are you serious?

Jay Baruchel: Oh, dude. It was just like...there’s a table read and I’d say that 60% of the most famous people on Earth, including Tom-fucking-Cruise find a way to be there 20 minutes to a half an hour ahead of time. What the fuck are you doing coming in fucking half an hour late? We all just sat there—the head of DreamWorks, Tom Cruise, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson—we sat in the room waiting a half an hour for him to show up. I mean, he was fucking nice as hell to me, but he definitely didn’t bring his A game.

Maybe he had reservations about the character?

Jay Baruchel: You know what? That might actually have something to do with it. For me, it just seemed more like that muthafucka was late and then he was like, asking the driver to take him to buy sneakers and all this shit. So, it’s priorities.

How was the experience making the movie? Brandon [T. Jackson] said that Ben suggested watching some war movies to get in the mood?

J: We had these little gift baskets containing Platoon and Hamburger Hill and Full Metal Jacket when we showed up there. I’d say filming Tropic Thunder was at the same time the single most arduous and most fun, best job I’ve ever had. It was just like—the shoot was fucking behemoth. It was like six months on the island of Kauai on the island of Hawaii.

Okay, so that’s not bad [Laughs.]

Jay Baruchel: No, there’s definitely worse places to be, I would imagine, than Hawaii. Kauai was nice, it’s just real small there. But it’s a beautiful island. Just the fact that like everyday we’d show up and like…you know that big opening battle sequence?

Yeah.

Jay Baruchel: That was the first month or month and half of work. We showed up in Hawaii, had one or two days of rehearsal and weapons training and then jumped right into the muthafucka. All of the sudden, I’m showing up to work everyday and there’s 50 stunt performers and 50 to 75 extras and three Huey helicopters flying overhead strafing and there’s fucking Napalm blowing up and singed tree lines. Yeah, that’s fucking fun.

How handy were you with a weapon or firearm before? Had you fired a gun?

Jay Baruchel: I had never fired any assault rifles. I had fired Berettas and Glocks and a few shotguns and such, but I got real handy with it just by virtue of the fact that I was literally holding an M16 everyday of my life for four months. In between takes, that’s what I did to keep myself occupied. I’d have the choice of either smoking another cigarette or seeing how quickly I could unload and reload my M16 with my eyes closed. And my record was four-and-a-half seconds, Brandon and I used to time each other. Home // STYLE // STYLE FEATURES // Jay Baruchel: Breaking Out