20Q: Jason Lee

Q1

[Q] Playboy: On NBC's My Name Is Earl you play a former criminal who discovers karma. He makes a list of 200 or so people he has wronged in his life and vows to make amends. Who's on your list?

[A] Lee: Wow. Where do I begin? I'm a 36-year-old human being, so I'm sure I've made some big mistakes along the way. It's not in the 200 range, I'll tell you that much. If I had to point to one thing, it would be my family. I'm very conscious of correcting any laziness or carelessness from my past that might affect my son.

Q2

[Q] playboy: Earl's funky mustache has become his most recognized feature. Do you regret growing it?

[A] Lee: Not really. I think it gives Earl some flavor. I originally tried to grow a Fu Manchu, but I looked a little too scary. NBC said absolutely no to the Fu Manchu, so I shaved it. A mustache can be a burden sometimes, especially if I haven't trimmed it in a while and I start to get bits of food in there. But I can live with it. It's a sacrifice for my art.

Q3

[Q] Playboy: When you hosted Saturday Night Live, you claimed to have one of the greatest mustaches ever. That's a pretty bold statement. Which celebrity mustache would rank a close second?

[A] Lee: Burt Reynolds's, obviously, and Tom Selleck's is definitely on the list. I also have a lot of respect for Bill Suplee's stache. He plays Willie the one-eyed postman on Earl, and he has the most insane handlebar mustache I've ever seen. It curls in ways that can't be described.

Q4

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of Reynolds, he has been a fixation in your work. You've referred to him in nearly every film you've done with director Kevin Smith, and you even devoted an episode of Earl to Smokey and the Bandit. Is this some sort of man crush?

[A] Lee:Smokey and the Bandit was a huge part of my youth. It was my fantasy to be the manly man with the hot rod and the cowboy hat, which is kind of funny because I turned out to be the exact opposite of the tough guy. Doing the Earl episode about Smokey and the Bandit was a big thrill for me. When I drove the Bandit car, I remember thinking, Man, I need to get a cowboy hat and a Trans Am and some cowboy boots, and I'm just going to drive cross-country. There's something kind of appealing about that. I want to be on the run from the law, with stolen beer in my trunk.

Q5

[Q] Playboy: Do you think audiences actually sympathize with Earl, or do they just enjoy mocking a white-trash loser?

[A] LEE: They definitely sympathize with him. We're not making fun of Earl, and I don't think people would like the show as much if we did. If Earl were just some redneck asshole, it wouldn't be as funny, (continued on page 124)Jason Lee(continued from page 113) It's rare today for a comedy to try to move you on an emotional level as much as make you laugh. There's an ironic, cynical gloss to a lot of films and TV shows. But we care about Earl. We're rooting for him to succeed, and I think that's why it works.

Q6

[Q] Playboy: Before accepting the role on My Name Is Earl, You sat down and wrote a pros-and-cons list. What were some of the cons?

[A] Lee: I was apprehensive about doing TV, because I didn't want to be known for a certain character. When I did Kissing a Fool with David Schwim-mer, I realized how trapped he was by his role on Friends. Everywhere we'd go, people would shout out to him, "Ross! Hey, Ross!" It's difficult to get away from the shadow of a TV character. I hope I've done enough movies that I won't be pigeonholed as Earl for the rest of my life.

Q7

[Q] Playboy: Your stink-palm routine from Mallrats, in which you shake a person's hand after wiping your ass, has lived on among your fans. Do you care that you may never escape the scatological humor of your past?

[A] Lee: No, I dig it. That's an admirable legacy. When Mallrats first came out, I couldn't walk down the street without somebody yelling, "Hey, wanna shake my hand?" It died out after a while, but it comes back every few years. Recendy I've been approached by a lot of 15-year-old kids, and they'll quote lines to me: "You want a chocolate-covered pretzel?" At first I didn't think anything of it, but then it hit me: When the movie came out, these kids were six years old. That's so bizarre to me. They've grown up with Mallrats and made it their own.

Q8

[Q] Playboy: There's an action figure based on Brodie, your character in Mallrats. Do you own the toy version of yourself? And if so, do you ever take it out and, uh, play with yourself?

[A] Lee:[Laughs] I've never really played with myself in that way. The chances are good that I've masturbated at some point, of course. It's a pretty cool action figure. Actually, I think it's technically called an inaction figure. My son has one in his room. We call it Brodie Daddy.

Q9

[Q] Playboy: You were one of the first professional skateboarders, before the X Games brought skating into the mainstream. Do you regret retiring before you had a chance to rake in some fat endorsement cash?

[A] Lee: No, I was never interested in that. When I decided to retire, I thought I was getting a little too old to be skating for a living. There was a lot of pressure to be at the top of my game all the time, and my heart just wasn't in it anymore. But I haven't given up skating completely. I still cruise around now and then just for fun. I'm way past my prime, so nobody expects much from me anymore.

Q10

[Q] Playboy: Unlike many other athletes, you were able to make the transition from sports to acting. What's your secret?

[A] Lee: It might be that skateboarders aren't considered real athletes. Skateboarding was never as popular as something like basketball. But I think the real reason it worked was I went into acting with no expectations. I was just curious about it, in much the same way you might be curious about how cars are made or how to get to the moon. It was naivete. My girlfriend's mother was a talent manager, and when I told her I wanted to do movies, she said, "Okay, let's give it a shot." So many people would have said, "Oh, I don't know. Let's get you into some acting classes first and see how it goes." That would have been a bit deflating, and I think I would've lost interest.

Q11

[Q] Playboy: If Earl continues to be a hit, would you be content doing television for the rest of your career?

[A] Lee: Oh, sure. The best thing about Earl is the steady income. I can do films if and when I want, as opposed to doing a film I don't really believe in because I have to pay the bills. I've never been at a Vince Vaughn or Ben Stiller level, so I don't get offered a lot of starring roles in comedy blockbusters. I've done some independent films that I'm proud of, but it's seven weeks of work for not much money. So then you have to find as many acting jobs as you can, just to keep up financially. Earl came along at the right time for me.

Q12

[Q] Playboy: You still haven't achieved household-name status. Do you yearn for the day when you're finally bigger than your Chasing Amy co-star Ben Affleck?

[A] Lee: Not at all. When you reach a certain status in Hollywood, you have to play a lot of games to stay in the limelight. It becomes more about being famous than being an actor. It's a cult of personality. Who's die It person this Week? Who has the hottest girlfriend and the most bling-bling? Who showed up at the MTV Video Music Awards in a Hummer limousine? For me it's always more rewarding when people come up to me and say, "I loved you in Mumford. What's your name again?" That's how I've always wanted it to be.

Q13

[Q] Playboy: In Chasing Amy your character shows off the scars from his many sexual conquests. Do you have any scars with interesting stories behind them?

[A] Lee: I have lots of scars, but they're mostly from my skateboarding days. I have scars on my knees from smashing into the corner of cement benches. I have scars on my pelvis from jumping off my board and sliding like Superman down a hill. One time I snapped my wrist in half and had to get a cast on my arm. Like an idiot, I skated before the cast was taken off, and I fell again and broke my odier arm. For the next three months I had to brush my teeth using only my thumb and pinkie.

Q14

[Q] Playboy: After Tom Cruise's outspoken comments about Scientology resulted in such a fierce media backlash, are you less inclined to be open about your own Scientology beliefs?

[A] Lee: I've found certain things to be true for me, but that's not something I want or need to share with the world. I'm more concerned with making a good television show than putting out my personal beliefs. If you want to ask me about my thoughts on music, I'll tell you. But I won't go off on an hour-long rant about how much I hate Britney Spears. Why bother? It's not that I'm more guarded; I'm not trying to lie low about my beliefs because of a fear that I'll be judged harshly. I'm just not interested in being a spokesperson for anything.

Q15

[Q] Playboy: You played the frontman for fictional rock band Stillwater in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. Do you miss your brief career as a semilegiti-mate rocker?

[A] Lee: Oh, man, are you kidding me? I miss it every day. That was probably die coolest thing I have ever done. I still remember meeting for band rehearsals before the shoot started. Every day for about six weeks we'd get together and just jam. We had cases of beer and all this vintage equipment to play with. I still get positive reactions from people about that movie. Kenny Loggins stopped me on the street once. He just walked up to me and said, "You're in one of my favorite movies of all fucking time!" All I could think was, I'm having a conversation with Kenny Loggins!

Q16

[Q] Playboy: You've been dumped by a lot of girlfriends in your movies, from Jennifer Love Hewitt in Heartbreakers to Shannen Doherty in Mallrats to Selma Blair in A Guy Thing. Do you have a personal favorite cinema breakup?

[A] Lee: The Mallrats one is pretty brutal. You don't want to be dumped with a letter. That's about as cold as it gets. I guess my favorite was when I did the dumping. There's the friendship breakup in Vanilla Sky, when I'm with Tom Cruise at the police station and I tell him, "I was your only friend," and then I turn around and walk away. Sometimes losing a friend can be more devastating than losing a girlfriend.

Q17

[Q] Playboy: Be honest. Were you as confused as we were by Vanilla Sky's plot? What the hell is going on in that film? LEE: I'll give you the easy answer: It's open to interpretation. I just went along with Cameron Crowe, who wrote and directed it. It was enough that he knew what the movie was about.

Q18

[Q] Playboy: You co-star with the notoriously eccentric Crispin Glover in the upcoming indie film Drop Dead Sexy. Does Glover scare you as much as he does us?

[A] Lee: Not at all. He's very professional and articulate and intelligent. He's eccentric, sure, but in a nonironic sense. He's not just putting on an act; he's genuinely like that. Everybody thinks he's psychotic and likes to collect eyeballs and stuff, but he's not a nut. He knows what he's doing. It's not like he's going to bite you and drink your blood or anything. He's actually a pretty sweet guy once you get to know him.

Q19

[Q] Playboy: You named your son Pilot Inspektor. Do people still give you flak for choosing such an unconventional name?

[A] Lee:[Laughs] All the time. My significant other, Beth, and I just thought Pilot Inspektor sounded like a cool name, but I can understand why it would baffle some people. A girl came up to me at a diner recently and asked, "Why would you name your son Pilot?" I said, "What should I have named him? Would Dan have been better? Or Brad?" I'm not trying to be self-consciously weird. But it's so easy to succumb to thoughts like, What will my neighbors think? What will my co-workers think? I think it's much braver to follow your instincts.

Q20

[Q] Playboy: You've played characters with names like Brodie, Banky, Beaver, Puggy, Skip, Donner and Bones. Is it a coincidence that your resume sounds like the roster of a cartoon-animal fraternity?

[A] Lee: Not at all. I kind of like that. It makes me feel like I've done my job well. Those are characters you remember. It's just like with my son, Pilot. I'd rather have my resume filled with names like Puggy, Bones and Beaver than Dan, Brad and John. It makes life more interesting.