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This Issue 02/21/2008

Also in this issue

• The Week in Music
• Bartending 101
• Got Adderall?
• No Nose Job Here

What audience is the Charlie Bartlett aimed at?

When I first pitched to do the film, I said it's a movie for teenagers for anyone who has a teenager and anyone who ever was a teenager. That's a pretty broad net there. Even though it's a teen film, and we really did want to make sure it was authentic for teenagers, I do believe it will play to any audience. Clearly marketing a movie, those guys have to have a target area and the R rating is an issue and a problem for them and they're very great that they took it on. We had no choice. You have a teen giving other teens drugs its an R rating, and I understand that. I respect it and I know the MPAA very well from years as an editor. They're doing their job, and the last thing I would want is for a teenager to watch this and go, "Hey, Ritalin looks like a lot of fun!" It's really not about drugs. It's about listening to people, and I think its heart's in the right place. Even though we play fast and loose with the drug stuff I think its fine for kids. We're doing this college tour because I think there's some resonance for people in college who were in high school and remember it better than anyone else.

How has being an editor impacted the way you direct?

Editing certainly was a good training ground because I've spent so many years judging performance and the irony is that I'm in a room with the lights off looking at a screen saying, "in the next take Dustin, please do this," so here I was on a set and I could ask them to do the things I hoped they would do.

Was Kat Denning's (Susan) being cast in Charlie Bartlett a coincidence, or did it have something to do with her previous role in The 40 Year Old Virgin, which you were an executive producer on?

Total coincidence I though Kat was great in 40 Year old Virgin, and its funny. At most Q&A's I ask people if they recognize her. They will - she's doing a lot of movies now, but nobody ever remembers her from that movie. I walked into casting one day and I went "Kat!" and she went "John!" and then she gave a reading. I'll quote David Rubin who said, "She's a force of nature." Charlie's kind of a special kid, and for him to fall for somebody, she's got to have something on her brain too, and I thought Kat was able to really pull that off.

Could you describe your role as editor on Austin Powers?