SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
If you look at some of the highest-grossing movies of 2024, you might notice just how high the stakes are in their plots. The fate of the world in "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire."
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REBECCA HALL: (As Ilene Andrews) Something is coming - something even they're afraid of.
DETROW: The fate of multiple worlds in "Dune: Part Two."
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CHARLOTTE RAMPLING: (As Reverend Mother Mohiam) This is a form of power that our world has not yet seen - the ultimate power.
DETROW: The fate of a comic book universe or - I don't know, or something in "Deadpool & Wolverine."
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RYAN REYNOLDS: (As Deadpool) I'm the messiah.
DETROW: But if you go back to the films of 1999, like we've been doing all summer, you will find a good number of stories where the stakes were only as high as this.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "AMERICAN PIE")
THOMAS IAN NICHOLAS: (As Kevin) Here's the deal. We all get laid before we graduate.
DETROW: That's high school senior Kevin, making a pact with his friends Jim, Finch and Oz in the teen classic "American Pie." The obsession with sex wasn't limited to stories about white kids. In "The Wood," released the same year, about three Black high school juniors, Mike, Slim and Roland had the same thing on their mind.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) The first one to get some [expletive] gets five bucks.
DETROW: To put it simply, horny teenagers were just about everywhere on screen that year. In "10 Things I Hate About You, " remember when that rich jerk Joey was willing to pay the cool outsider - played by a young Heath Ledger - to date the sister of the girl he wanted to get with?
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ANDREW KEEGAN: (As Joey) Look. I can't take out her sister until Kat starts dating. You see, their dad's whacked out. He's got this rule where the girls are...
HEATH LEDGER: (As Patrick) That's a touching story. It really is. Not my problem.
KEEGAN: (As Joey) Would you be willing to make it your problem if I provide generous compensation?
DETROW: Or just look at the twisted mind games two step-siblings play in "Cruel Intentions."
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SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: (As Kathryn) I hate it when things don't go my way. It makes me so horny.
RYAN PHILLIPPE: (As Sebastian) I hate it, too.
WHITNEY FRIEDLANDER: 1999 was the culmination of a bunch of things that had happened prior to that.
DETROW: Whitney Friedlander is an entertainment journalist living in Los Angeles. She says the prior success of films like "Clueless" and "Romeo And Juliet" proved to studios that teenagers were a powerful ticket-buying force.
FRIEDLANDER: And you also had the advantage of having smaller studios, like MTV Films, that were looking at these films and being like, we can make all these movies to an underserved market.
DETROW: Many of these films were also based on classic text whose rights were in the public domain, which made them cheaper to license. "Ten Things" was inspired by the Shakespeare comedy "The Taming Of The Shrew." "Cruel Intentions" came from the French 18th century novel "Dangerous Liaisons." But something like "American Pie" came from less-reputable sources.
FRIEDLANDER: The people who are making the movies were the ones who grew up on the John Hughes movies or the ones who grew up on the quirkiest movies ever - "Revenge Of The Nerds" and things like that. So they're catering to what they know.
DETROW: These were very raunchy films, and not all of their jokes have aged well. Like many raunchy comedies in the '80s and '90s, "American Pie" was made primarily with white teenage boys in mind. And full disclosure, in 1999, I was one of those white teenage boys. But one of the most memorable characters in the film introduced herself this way.
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ALYSON HANNIGAN: (As Michelle) And one time at band camp, we weren't supposed to have pillow fights, but we had a pillow fight.
DETROW: That was band geek Michelle, who turns out not to be such a geek after all. And she's played by Alyson Hannigan, who, by the time "American Pie" came out, was already starring in the hit TV series "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." Since she was a part of two iconic portrayals of teenage life, I figured I had to start the conversation asking about what her teenage experience was like.
HANNIGAN: I mean, it was terrible. And - as it should have been 'cause, you know, it makes me - it prepared me for being happy after it was over. I sort of was just like, all right, I'm here. Four years. I'll try to get out unharmed and just keep my head down and get through it the best I possibly can. But it was by no means - it would not have been a comedy, my experience. It would...
DETROW: Yeah.
HANNIGAN: ...Be more like a drama.
DETROW: Do you remember your initial thoughts about the script and the plot when you first came to the movie?
HANNIGAN: Yes. I remember first being sent the script from my manager at the time, and he prefaced it by saying, you're either going to love it or hate it. There's really no in between. And I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It made me laugh out loud, and I remember just reading it very quickly because I enjoyed it so thoroughly. And I adored Michelle. I thought as soon as I sort of started reading her lines, I could hear her voice in my head. And I knew that that's the part I wanted to audition for.
DETROW: This - I think, for anybody who saw this movie at the time, this is a very obvious question. But what do you think it was about Michelle, about the character, about the scenes that left such a big impression on audiences, despite it being one of the smaller roles in terms of minutes onscreen of the movie?
HANNIGAN: I think it was just - I mean, obviously, the element of surprise, you know, at the reveal of what her true intentions with Jim were. But I think it was just - you know, she was very much a relatable character in the, like, oh, yeah, there's that band camp girl that no one really probably spends the time to get to know in actual high school. So it made sense that she was just a peripheral character in the first one because that's how it would have worked in most people's high school experience. But then you've got this, like, element of, hey, maybe you should have gotten to know her 'cause she's pretty awesome (laughter).
DETROW: Looking back at the movie as a whole, two parts here - first of all, is there anything in it that just, as an adult, decades later, makes you cringe, makes you think, oh, my God, I can't believe that was in a movie?
HANNIGAN: I mean, as a parent, probably the entire movie, because I'm now looking at it through the lens of, like, I have a teenage daughter whose friends will most likely watch this and then tell her about it. And I'm dreading that day. I've been dreading that day probably since I got pregnant. But I'm also not at all sorry. Like, you know, I love it. And, you know, I'll just have to deal with that when that comes about.
I mean, hopefully, she'll be so embarrassed and then - that she won't even want to talk to me about it. But, no, I don't want that. I, you know - I should probably be the one to tell her, but I really - I'm too chicken. It's a little - I'm playing an ostrich right now, where I just want to sort of stick my head in the ground and ignore it. But I'm sure that day will happen. And we'll all need therapy after it.
DETROW: (Laughter) To soften the blow a little bit. What do you think about this movie holds up the best, the spirit of it that makes people still look at it fondly, despite the cringey twists and turns of the plot...
HANNIGAN: Definitely.
DETROW: ...And craziness that happens in it?
HANNIGAN: Well, I think, even though, obviously, it was heightened, you know, for comedy, I do think it was a very relatable portrayal of the high school experience. Everyone's performance was really grounded and authentic, so you could believe everything. And so, you know, when Jim is getting intimate with a pie, you buy it.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "AMERICAN PIE")
EUGENE LEVY: (As Jim's dad) Jim?
JASON BIGGS: (As Jim) It's not what it looks like.
DETROW: Listen. I was a high schooler when this movie came out, and I will say...
HANNIGAN: Yeah.
DETROW: ...None of my high school experience was that cinematic, but certainly, I found myself in incredibly embarrassing situations. My friends found themselves in really embarrassing situations...
HANNIGAN: Yeah.
DETROW: ...From that same teenage roadmap that kind of leads you from point A to point, like, how did we end up here, you know?
HANNIGAN: Yeah.
DETROW: Like, I think the movie got that really right.
HANNIGAN: Definitely. And I think that there was probably, I would assume, some relief that, hey, at least your experience wasn't like that. It wasn't as embarrassing as...
DETROW: Absolutely.
HANNIGAN: ...This one. So, you know, it's a feel-good movie.
DETROW: I don't know how closely you've been following this, but it seems like there's been a lot of articles and thought lately about what seems to be a dearth of sex and sex scenes in mainstream movies today. And, you know, there's polls that say that Gen Z actually prefers a lot less sex in their entertainment. Is that a development that, given, you know, doing movies like this and being a part of that, you've thought about? And do you think that has changed the way that a movie like "American Pie" has a place in pop culture today?
HANNIGAN: Well, I don't actually know. It's a great question. But the question of, oh, does it have a place in today's pop culture - I - it's still finding new fans. So it's obviously a movie that is holding up in a strange way, even though I think the landscape of comedy, and especially teen comedies, has changed. But it still has new fans. And I know because they're coming up to me, and they clearly were not alive when the movie came out. So it's still striking a chord with a new audience.
DETROW: What is the most surprising place to you that "American Pie" has popped up in pop culture all these years later?
HANNIGAN: I mean, I have to say a Taylor Swift song, obviously.
DETROW: Of course.
HANNIGAN: That - yeah. I mean, that's just - that's probably the cherry on top of this incredible 25-year-old sundae.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SO HIGH SCHOOL")
TAYLOR SWIFT: (Singing) Bittersweet 16 suddenly. I'm watchin' "American Pie" with you on a Saturday night.
HANNIGAN: And she gets into the line, I'm watching "American Pie" - I'm like, wait a minute. And I start doubting, like, well, were there other "American Pies"? Like, wait. Is she talking about the song? And so I have to keep rewinding it. I'm freaking out 'cause I'm a big Swiftie. I'm like, no, she's definitely saying they were watching "American Pie." That's - that - I was in that (laughter).
DETROW: Well, thank you for indulging our teenage geeky selves as well and talking to us about "American Pie" 25 years later. That's actress Alyson Hannigan. It was great talking to you.
HANNIGAN: Aw. Well, thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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