Paper Heart Rings True, Sort Of
After a recent Chicago screening of the new movie Paper Heart, Charlyne Yi, co-writer and star of the film, led the audience in chanting her name. “I always wanted to do that,” she said. “I wanted to cry in the film, in hopes that someone in the audience would cry—did anyone cry?” She looked around the room and a few meek hands raised. “You did? I win," she said.
One week before the July 16th screening, visitors to aintitcoolnews.com, a popular film and television review site, had the chance to win tickets to a Paper Heart preview and post-show Q&A. Contestants wrote about a lesson on love that they had learned from a film. Steve “Capone” Prokopy, a frequent contributor to that site selected the winners and moderated the Q & A, which took place at Landmark Century Theater in Chicago.
“Why did you win and I didn’t win?” said Joe Shea, this reporter’s boyfriend, “My answer was funny too.” Having been informed by email that the screening was overbooked for the 200-seat theater, winners and their guests formed a line more than an hour before the 7pm show.
Paper Heart, directed and co-written by Nick Jasenovec, stars Yi (Knocked Up), Jake Johnson, and Michael Cera (Superbad, Year One). The film follows the awkward attempts of Yi and Johnson to discover the meaning of love as they travel across the country. In search of answers, Yi and Johnson interview experts on love including a romance novelist, a professor of biology, and a minister/Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas.
The boundary between fact and fiction blurs as the real filmmakers — playing fictional versions of themselves— make a real documentary. Yi, playing ‘Charlyne’ meets Cera, playing ‘Michael’ and romance blooms. “It’s a movie with documentary elements,” said Yi.
After the film Yi and Johnson answered audience questions. Asked how Michael Cera, who was not in attendance that night, was cast in the film, Yi said, “We’d gone through other actors, like Martin Lawrence.” The audience, and Yi's co-star, laughed at the idea of Lawrence playing Yi's awkward love interest.
“I want to see that movie,” said Johnson, with a chuckle, “but he had too many notes.”
“And we needed someone who was pretty low energy.” said Yi.
Asked how Johnson had been chosen for his role as the fictional director of the real documentary, Yi explained that Johnson was a friend and was attractive. “I don’t want to know if he can act,” Yi said of the casting process, “I would rather he just be pretty…We were joking it was going to be called Sexy Heart, but no one in the film is sexy but Jake [Johnson].”
Paper Heart premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the 2009 Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Released by Overture Films, Inc., this film will be playing in select cities starting August 7th.
As for her next project, “I like writing stuff for myself to work on,” Yi said, “…ultimately I just goof around with friends.”
