With the film industry becoming increasingly terrified to stretch the boundaries and take risks, it is rare to see a truly original piece in the spot light.  Director Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno) and writer Diablo Cody (Juno) teamed up again to show us that the art form is still alive and well.  Young Adult is a lighthearted comedy with an extremely heavy dramatic subtext.  Charlize Theron (Monster, The Italian Job) and Patton Oswalt (Big Fan, King of Queens) star as the mismatched but loveable duo in this surprisingly raw film.  On January 10, Patton Oswalt attended a screening and Q&A of the film with guest moderator Garry Shandling to give us a firsthand look into what made this film special.

My first thought during the Q&A was, is it possible to be too funny?  Seeing comic legend Garry Shandling and comedy force Patton Oswalt talk about a rather dramatic film is rewarding in a whole new way.  They played off each other beautifully, making the crowd weak with laughter.  The few times Oswalt was able to focus Shandling on the task at hand, some interesting back story came to light.  Oswalt first discussed his transition from stand-up comedy to acting, a leap that proves very difficult for many stand-up comedians.  Shandling agreed with Oswalt that you have to treat each art form as something entirely new to you.  Many comedians make the mistake of thinking that acting is just performing comedy in front of a camera, but Oswalt takes a more humble approach.  He stated that you should, “treat everything as if you’re starting from zero.”  In fact, when he received the script for Young Adult, he knew that this character would showcase his acting in an amazing way and wanted to make sure he could handle the performance.  To do so, Oswalt hired an acting coach purely for this role.  Together, they rehearsed and reviewed the role from every angle possible.  Oswalt even wrote fictional letters from the perspective of the character to the fictional family of the character.  This enabled him to truly see through the tortured character’s eyes and feel what he felt.

This was by no means a simple character for Oswalt to play.  Although we have seen his acting abilities in films like Big Fan, it is still a daunting task to play such a well-written character.  Oswalt explained that Theron was a great help in making this character come to life.  He stated, “Charlize is a dream to work with.  She gives you what you need in a scene.”  Director Jason Reitman made this film with the intention of using silence and pacing much more, and when Oswalt’s comedy chops weren’t needed in certain scenes, Theron was there to pull out a great performance.

Although Oswalt agreed that, “it all happens in the silence,” he consistently brought the lighthearted comedic touch that the film needed to the screen, even having a couple improvised lines make it to the final cut (some would agree these were the funniest lines in the film).  Lastly, Oswalt modestly shared that he is going to treat acting as he treated his early stand-up career; he became the comedy great that he is by going on stage every single night for years, and to become the actor he wants to become, he now has to take every role he can and essentially be in front of a camera every night.  With this impressive mindset, not to mention inherent talent, we can be sure to see Oswalt on the silver screen for many years to come.