Audiences were first treated to the sight of Jason Biggs getting, um, intimate with a baked good in 1999’s “American Pie.” Twenty-four years later, the actor is re-embracing his raucous coming-of-age comedy past.
“The further away we’ve gotten from the film, the more its impact has become obvious to me. I have great appreciation for it,” Biggs told HuffPost of the film, in which he played Jim Levenstein, a sexually frustrated teen who makes a pact with friends to lose his virginity before graduation. “People always ask me: ‘Does it bother you? Are you embarrassed?’ But I’m proud to be the pie guy. Viewers have a warm connection to that character. When I talk to filmmakers about projects, they reference the movie [as] being influential to them. That’s not a normal thing for a working actor to have.”
The original “American Pie,” which also starred Jennifer Coolidge, Alyson Hannigan and Eugene Levy, was a box-office smash. It also spawned three big-screen sequels, including 2003’s “American Wedding” and 2012’s “American Reunion.”
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As to where he’d think Jim and his on-screen love interest, band geek Michelle Flaherty (Hannigan), might be today, Biggs said: “I’d like them to still be together, because I don’t think there’s anybody better for Jim than Michelle. If I’m taking a page from my own life, they’ve got kids in school, but they’re also trying to take care of their relationship. Maybe Michelle taught Jim how to play a musical instrument. Maybe he’s left his 9-to-5 and joined a band.”
Biggs winks playfully at “American Pie” in a new Fourth of July-themed campaign for Edwards Desserts, deeming himself “America’s biggest pie lover ― not in a weird way.” The new dessert is called the Pie Lovers Passion Fruit and will be unveiled Friday for a limited time.
Not surprisingly, Biggs has had numerous opportunities to partner with pie companies in the past. Edwards, he noted, was the first that “aligned with my comedic sensibilities.”
“They weren’t afraid to be a little irreverent,” he said.
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Since “American Pie,” Biggs endeared himself to a new generation of fans as Larry Bloom, the one-time fiancé of Litchfield Penitentiary inmate Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) on the first two seasons of Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.”
Netflix will continue to be his on-screen home this holiday season when he appears alongside Brandy and Heather Graham in the comedy “Best. Christmas. Ever.”
“It’s my first Christmas movie, so scratch that off the list,” Biggs said. “Heather Graham plays a Christmas curmudgeon, if you will, and I play her husband. We end up at the home of her former best friend who’s a huge Christmas person, played by Brandy, and shenanigans ensue. It’s very funny, but it’s also heartwarming and poignant, as a lot of the best holiday movies are.”
As to what projects await him beyond that film, the actor said he’s hopeful for another comedic role or two.
“I just want to do fun jobs with fun people,” he quipped.