The Dukes of Hazzard
An Interview with Seann William Scott

Seann William Scott has not strayed far from the Stifler role that made him famous. Over the years, the man has made a career of playing loveable goofballs and his upcoming turn as Bo in The Dukes of Hazzard is no exception. Sporting a freshly shaved dome for his upcoming film Southland Tales during this interview, Scott spoke to us about impressing stunt drivers, daily greetings from Johnny Knoxville's manhood, and how his character Bo Duke really, really loves his car.

You’re pretty much the wheelman in this one. How was it driving the General Lee for the most of the film?

Seann William Scott: It was always fun to drive that car. Also to have the opportunity to actually do the stunts. I didn’t want it to be one of those things where I did two stunts and then I’d have to go in a press junket and say, “Oh, I did all my driving.” Actually got the opportunity to do quite a bit. The training actually was stressful. It was really intense. Because, you know, they were clear. They were like, “We want you to do a lot of driving. We want to showcase that." So, it would be eight hours a day of runway with this guy who works with the Department of Defense and teaches the military how to maneuver their cars before they go to Iraq. So it was like the most intense roller coaster ride almost every day. And every time I’d feel like I’d accomplished one thing, we’d go onto another thing. But it all paid off, so by the time that we were shooting the movie people were like, “Wow.” Some of the stunt guys were like, “I don’t if I could’ve done it any better than he did.” So it was pretty cool.

Any moves you had trouble nailing?

Seann William Scott: At first it was looking back. There’s a move, it’s a reverse one-eighty. So it was driving, then driving straight while looking back. After a while I got that down.

Any big mistakes where you inflated the budget?

Seann William Scott: You know, the stunts that I was doing, they weren’t like that. I mean the worst that I could’ve done was maybe ran into a camera...or a person. (laughs) Can you imagine? Yeah, the budget might have gone up a little bit. The lawsuit. But even most times I screwed up in training.

There was a lot of innuendo in the movie about it. What exactly was Bo's relationship with the car?

Seann William Scott: A little weird. I don’t know. I kind of took it from a lot of my friends in Minnesota. I had guys that would work on their car every weekend. That’s all they ever did. And I’d never see their car. I’m like, “What are you doing?” “Working on my car.” Where is this mystery car? And then maybe I hadn’t seen them for five years. It’s been like fifteen years since they started working on their car. And I’d see them back in Minnesota like, “What are you doing?” “Still working on that car.” So I thought this idea of how much guys love their car, and then taking that to a whole new level. And, also just for comedy.

There going to be any deleted scenes on the DVD that take it further?

Seann William Scott: Oh yeah. We had a different ending at one point. (laughs) It was a little too weird. It was just me and the car. Yeah, it was a scene where Johnny, and I think it’s in the outtakes, at one point Johnny’s with two girls in the outtakes and the girl goes, “Are you sure Bo’s going to be okay with this?” And he’s like, “Oh, I think Bo’s off doing his own thing.” And I’m like shirtless, waxing the car, and I’m like, “Uh, I never thought I’d get you alone. I thought I was going to go crazy out there.” (Sean’s pantomiming the scene at the table. He leans in close as if the imaginary car is whispering something to him.) “What? You’re crazy. I can’t believe you’re saying that.” And I start like waxing it more, and you pull back. Because at first you think I’m with a woman, and then you pull back, it’s me and the car. And I’m like, “What? Oh man, you’re killing me. You’re too funny!” And it’s just like way too weird.

Johnny kept trying to put his, um, parts on you a lot while shooting.

Seann William Scott: (voice rising defensively) He never put them on me. They were always next to me. I just want to clarify that.

The outtake where you're dangling from the fence, it seemed like he came pretty close to putting them on your head?

Seann William Scott: I don't actually think he was really pulling them out. He was trying to be funny. But everyday in the car, he did have them out. I don't know why, he's just got this weird thing. He just does. He was trying to screw me up too while I was driving. So I'd be thinking about what I was supposed to do to pull off this stunt, not hit a camera, and he's like, (imitates Knoxville singing his name sofly to grab his attention) "Seaaaan." For forty days in a row he'd done this.

How did you prepare for the role of Bo Duke?

Seann William Scott: Well, I'm a method actor. So I had to do a lot of research for it. No, I watched as a kid. I was a huge fan. And then we watched like one episode of the show and I was like, "...wow." It's really still fun but you know, if you're going to cast Johnny and I, we don't want to disrespect any fans of the show because it's got such a huge fanbase. But we'll probably need to update it a little bit. Have some fun with it. I wasn't thinking like, "What did John Schneider do?"

Did you have a lot of opportunity to improvise?

Seann William Scott: Yeah, I mean some of the stuff would be a few lines here or there. I mean it wasn't like a Christopher Guest kind of setup, you know, where it's just like an idea and then we would just keep going. It was just like, the scene would be written one way and then I would just add my little flavor to it. Like the whole idea of Bo, the stuff with the car. Also the stuff that he thinks he's got a much better game with women than he really does. And when he gets to the sorority house and he's like, I got a great opening line planned with Katie. And he just can't get a line out, or he's just a total fool in front of girls. So it's just little lines here and there and I think it added a little spice to the scene.

What was the most physically uncomfortable day you spent on the set?

Seann William Scott: Wow, well we would do some days where we'd be in the car all day. And I would get claustrophobic. I was anxious to do a lot of driving, so I would say a third of the time we were in the car, maybe like twenty-five percent of the time, I'd be doing stunts. But then we would just do scenes in the car, just regular dialogue stuff. But then we would do the Go Mobile stuff. So the Go Mobile, the guy's driving in front of the car and it starts pretty much in the middle of the hood and allowed him to go really fast and safe and do precision driving while it looks like I'm driving. He can also do it from behind. But when he does that, I'm sitting I'm like, "God, I want to drive so bad. This sucks." Somebody else is driving in the front. You smell all the fumes and stuff. So I mean, it wasn't any like stunts or jumping or anything. I guess maybe when I landed on the barbed wire. That didn't feel so good. That was physically uncomfortable.

What was it like working with Jessica Simpson? Any expectations of her beforehand?

Seann William Scott: I mean, I guess I thought maybe she could've been like a diva. I hadn't seen her show but she's so popular you always worry about, "Is this person going to be real and appreciate the job?" She was really nice. She was just a lot like what people had described her. Just really down to Earth. Great girl. And we just kept reminding her, it's the Dukes of Hazzard. We're not trying to save the world. Win an Academy Award. Just have fun,
you know?

You were the only one of the cast that wasn't southern. Did they try to make you a good ol' boy?

Seann William Scott: I think because I'm kind of a redneck it was okay. But the accent thing was a problem. I was learning an accent and I just went way too southern with it. Like it was too Gone with the Wind. The director was like, "Your accent sounds really funny." I'm like, "Oh no, I'm going to be that guy." The movie could actually be somewhat fun and I'm going to be the guy that like kills it with a horrible accent. Hanging out with Knoxville and being in Louisiana helped me out a little bit.

Did they give you any pointers?

Seann William Scott: Not really. Every once in awhile. Well, you know what, I had a great driver on the movie and he grew up in a small town outside of Baton Rouge. And he was like, so Louisiana to the core. So every once in awhile I'd hear like a cool saying that he did. I can't remember any off hand.

Did you have any accidents on the set?

Seann William Scott: You know what? The thing that I probably got banged up the most was trying to get in the window of the car. It was embarassing. I need to take yoga. Sliding off the hood, the first time I tried that wasn't so graceful. I actually had a pad because they greased up the I've done, I don't think I've ever played a characer that's smart. So because they all come off like doofuses, there's always going to be that similarity to those movies. And I think because that was the movie that started me off, because we did three of them, they remember me as that character for awhile. I think if you can do roles that are even degrees different it helps, and over time if you're smart enough...but it also gave me the opportunity to do this role.

How was it working with Willie? He's kind of an icon.

Seann William Scott: I didn't know what to expect. I figured he'd be really nice and zen like. But he was so nice. He was kind of similar to Chow Yun Fat. They have this presence to them. Just really kind and gracious to everybody. And really Burt Reynolds was a lot like that to. Even doing a funny comedy, they're still psyched to be a part of it. So I appreciated that.

Any stories about working with Burt?

Seann William Scott: I think that Burt got injured once and his eardrum blew out. So at one point in the early eighties, he had to stay in his house in Florida. In a blackened room because he was so sensitive to light and sound. So when he tells a story he'll be talking like this...(Seann moves his lips in imitation of Burt, no sound comes out.) And you're like, "Oh no, I can't hear what he's saying." So Johnny and I would look at each other like, "Oh no." And then Burt goes, "So what do you think?" (He reenacts the ear to ear smiles he and Knoxville made to humor Burt) "So good! That was really funny." He's like, "I was telling you how my grandmother died." I was like, (horrified expression) "Oh no!" He's like, "Just kidding."

Did Knoxville try doing anything to you on the set?

Seann William Scott: He threw a salt and pepper shaker at my balls in the beginning of the movie, and I was like, "Okay. I'm not that guy. Don't do that. I'll pull a Travis Bickle on you." But then also I was like, "Just don't do it because I'm not going to play the game with you because you've had everything happen to you. You've been electrocuted. You've been shot." So all he did was flash me...everyday.

The Dukes of Hazzard Opens August 5th