There’s always an element of risk that comes with being an actor. You never quite know how people are going to react to something you put out there. Will your emotional breakdown scene connect with people or will they laugh at it? Will that satirical joke land or will people be offended? You kind of just have to trust your instinct, which is certainly something American Pie actor Jason Biggs can speak to. He thought the scene where he has sex with the pie sounded hilarious on his first read through, but once it came time to actually film it, the messy gravity of it all suddenly struck him.
The actor recently sat down with People to talk about what is still undoubtedly his most famous scene more than two decades later, and he was extremely candid in his assessment. He admitted he had a “momentary freakout” when he was about to shoot and wound up calling his manager, who told him to get back in there and hump that pie. Here’s a portion of his quote…
I remember when I first read the script, I thought it was so great, unlike anything else I had read. But then the day of filming came and I had this momentary freakout where I thought, ‘Oh geez, what if no one sees this? Or what if they do see it?’ And they think, ‘What the heck did that guy do? Why would he do that? That's awful.’ My confidence waned. I called my manager and I remember telling him like, ‘Dude, am I really about to go in there and do this with a pie? Is this porn? Am I tripping? Is this not as funny as I thought it was? Am I really going to do this?’ And he literally told me, ‘Jason, you go in there and you hump that pie with all you got.
Of course the scene wound up the most memorable moment of the film, and the film itself turned into an unexpectedly huge box office hit and cultural touchstone. Three direct sequels followed, as well as five spinoff movies with American Pie branding. Recently, there have been rumors we could even get another one. It also opened the doors to a ton of additional opportunities for the primary cast members including Biggs, but it didn’t take all that for Biggs to realize he made the right call filming the scene.
Instead, all it took was for him to see the reaction of everyone on set once he pulled his pants down and went for it. They couldn’t stop laughing, and their approval made him realize what he was doing was working. In fact, he previously revealed he spent six hours shooting different versions. Here’s his recollection of events…
I went in there and I was like, ‘Okay, 110%, here we go,’ and I did the first take and there was this quick pause and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, what's happening?’ And all of a sudden, everyone on set burst out laughing and I thought, ‘Oh, this is amazing. This is a home run.’ And since that moment, I've never ever questioned anything. That was a turning point in my life where I was like, ‘No, if I think it's funny, you just go for it. If you fall flat on your face, so be it.’
Biggs will spend the rest of his career being asked about that pie scene, but it turns out his most recent quotes about it aren’t random. The comedian launched a partnership with Edwards Desserts to, of course, sell pies. It’s a fitting spokesman job for Biggs, whose big risk is still paying off financially and professionally all these years later.
You can next catch Biggs in an upcoming holiday movie called Best.Christmas.Ever. It’s scheduled to hit Netflix later this year and may or may not include any pie-related scenes.
