Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s role as Fogell (a.k.a. McLovin) in 2007’s Superbad is one of the most iconically memorable comedy performances in all of millennial cinema. The character, with his all-consuming, absurdist quest for alcohol and sex, is endearingly irritating for viewers. But during shooting, co-star Jonah Hill found the unknown actor just plain irritating, as he revealed in a Vanity Fair oral history celebrating the film’s 15th anniversary..
“Chris was really, really amazing off the bat. And I think he was really annoying to me at that time,” Hill said. Mintz-Plasse was a senior in high school when he read for the role, and was so sure he wouldn’t get it that he had Seth Rogen and the rest of the cast sign his script as a souvenir. Producer Judd Apatow described his performance as “caustic,” and said Mintz-Plasse insulted Hill during their improvised scenes together.
“Jonah said, ‘I don’t like that guy. I don’t want him doing it.’ And I said, ‘That’s exactly why we’re hiring him. It couldn’t be more perfect. The fact that it bothers you is exactly what we want,’” Apatow added.
In a movie filled with established young talent like Hill and Michael Cera, as well as the feature film debut of future Oscar winner Emma Stone, Mintz-Plasse’s performance remains the most ubiquitous part of Superbad. His Hawaii fake ID has been emblazoned on countless pieces of merchandise—the piece includes an anecdote where co-star Bill Hader picked up his sixth-grade daughter from school and saw her friend wearing a McLovin shirt—and scenes of the character attempting to buy liquor and firing a pistol are comedy staples.
Mintz-Plasse shared the story about prepping for the gun scene where Seth Rogen and Bill Hader’s police officers let him shoot at their cop car. He was sent to a practice range, where they kept handing the scrawny teen larger and larger weapons. “It became all about giving Chris Mintz-Plasse the biggest gun possible,” Hader said. “They gave me, like, a shotgun,” said Mintz-Plasse. “And I weigh like 105 pounds. I’m the size of the shotgun,” Mintz-Plasse said. “And I’m holding this thing and I shoot it, and it launches my whole body back. I’m turning the gun, and everyone’s like, ‘Fucking point it away, bro!’”
That sounds unsafe, but not nearly as awkward as what happened when Mintz-Plasse showed up to film his first ever sex scene…with his mom in tow since, at 17, he was still a minor. “She had to come down, which was pretty uncomfortable. She was loving it up, though. She was having the time of her life, watching her son do that,” he said. (Director Greg Mottola told Vanity Fair that he shot the scene predominantly with point-of-view closeups so that the production “wouldn’t spend an enormous amount of potentially illegal time with both of them uncomfortable faking sex.”)
Superbad was an instant critical and commercial success, debuting at no. 1 and making over $33 million in its first weekend. For the actor who played its breakout character, that meant a life-altering level of recognition, one that Mintz-Plasse said lasted for years.
“The day after it came out, I was a nobody; 18 years old. I had never done anything in my life. And then the next day I go to a Habit restaurant, and then someone across the way goes ‘MCLOVIN!’ in front of, like, 40 people,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘Oh, something is changing in the atmosphere here.’”
Fifteen years, a Kanye West reference, and at least one instance of a stranger screaming “I got a boner!” at him later, the 33-year-old actor has built a solid career of non-McLovin roles, including turns in Promising Young Woman, Neighbors, and the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.