Jump Magazine-interview with the male leads of Can't Hardly Wait

We snagged the most genius guys from the cast of Columbia's summer flick Can't Hardly Wait - a hilarious look at what can go right (and wrong) on grad night - for a serious heart-to-heart. The result? In real life, they're as fresh and funny and, yeah, adorable as they are in the movie. So Sweet!


Which one of you guys had the most dates in high school?

Breckin: I was a loser in high school.

Ethan: Wasn't everybody a loser in high school?

Seth: We were either losers or jerks.

Peter: Let's put it this way. When I look at pictures of myself in high school, I always automatically think, Gawd, I was such a loser!


You really expect us to believe that?

Peter: It's the truth.

Ethan: He really is a loser.

Breckin: We're all losers to some degree.


So, I guess getting dates in high school was kinda tough, eh?

Seth: I didn't have many.

Charlie: It might have been tough if I could have gotten a girl to even speak to me.

Seth: For me it was all about having a lot of meaningless sex.

Everyone: [Laughs]

Ethan: Yeah, right Seth.

Breckin: I had a serious relationship in high school - I mean, not like marrige, but, ya know, serious enough that I still remember them.

Charlie: Well, okay, my high school experiences can be summed up sort of like this: Before a movie starts on, say, HBO, they give you a rundown of what you're gonna see, like strong language, violence, all that. Well, mine could be summed up as: strong sexual content and brief nudity.

Ethan: What the heck is he talking about?


How old were you when you went on your first date?

Peter: I didn't go on a date untill I had a car. I mean, I wasn't about to make a girl get on my bike or anything.

Seth: I was sperm. No, seriously, I started dating very young. I was maybe seven. [Laughter.]

Breckin: Seth is such a ladies' man.


Do you think guys should do the asking?

Charlie: Yeah. I never went to any school dances because of that.

Breckin: I've only been to one school dance in my life.

Ethan: I don't dance.

Peter: I went to two proms.


Did you ask her to go?

Peter: Well, no.

Charlie: Actually, I did ask a girl to a dance once, but she asked me to ask her because she didn't want to go with this other guy.

Peter: I don't think you ever say, "Hey, do you wanna go on a date?" You say something like, "Hey, do you wanna go see a movie or something?"

Seth: Or, "Hey, my parents are away, and uh..."

Ethan: Yeah, and they have a waterbed.

Everyone: [Laughs.]

Breckin: I bet girls felt really safe with you Ethan!

Seth: Like you're one to talk, Breckin. Breckin used to sleep in a coffin instead of a bed for, like, four years.

Breckin: But I don't anymore. I'm in a serious relationship now.

Peter: But Seth dates.

Seth: No, I don't.

Breckin: Seth doesn't date. I should know, I'm his best friend.

Peter: Seth soes too date. Remember, he had a girlfriend? I swear he had one once.

Seth: Don't believe them. They're lying.


What would you do if a girl walked up to you today and asked you out?

Peter: Usually only gay guys ask me out.

Charlie: I don't run into that problem all that often.

Seth: Me either. Usually it's just gay guys asking me for Peter's phone number.


Do you thing girls should ask guys out?

Seth: I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact, it's important for girls to be smart and self-respecting.

Ethan: Exactly. Girls should have more of a say in it because then, hopefully, they'll make better choices. I mean, there are a lot of young girls out there going out with older guys, and I think that's really stupid.

Peter: Yeah, and I think the older guys are really messed up for doing that.

Peter: Yeah, and my little sister is going out with a 20-year-old right now. She's 15! And I really think she got togeather with him, not because she likes the guy, but because the guy likes her. And when you've got an older guy with a car liking a 15-year-old, you gotta question what's going on.

Seth: We're talking Jerry Springer here.

Ethan: Yeah, and then you have the older brother -me- jumping up out of the audience running on stage and punching the son of a #$@!& in the face!


Which one of you in the most romantic of the bunch?

Peter: I just have to say we, meaning all of us here-who by the way happen to be really, really tight friends-are the exception to a lot of the guys out there. We are. I have to say we are all good guys. We are not, like, slimy. There are a lot of scuzzy guys out there who are just asking you out because they're after sex.



How's a girl supposed to be able to tell the difference?

Breckin: Look for the guy who doesn't try to talk you into doing something you don't want to do.

Ethan: Yeah, the guy who refuses to make love to you for the first six months. I didn't make love to my girlfriend for the first eight months we were dating each other.

Peter: You know what else? When you first start dating someone, the guy should bend over backward. He should be Mr. Romantic - the kind of guy who will put a [coat] down so you don't have to walk in the puddle.

Everybody: [Laughs]

Peter: No, no. Go with me here guys. You know what I'm talking about.

Breckin: Hey, we've all done the coat thing. Seriously, we talk gross and we're pretty crass and rude and stuff, but we're all pretty romantic. Really, we are!

Charlie: Ther are guys out there who do things a hundred times worse than anything we'd even joke about.


Breckin: Seriously, you'd be amazed. We were kind of going for broke for a while trying to compete with each other to see who could do the most romantic thing for our girlfriends.

Seth: Yeah! Valentine's Day was intense.

Ethan: We are nice guys! We are nice guys!


Who taught you to be such good guys?

Everybody: Our mothers.

Ethan: And our messed-up fathers.

Seth: Don't listen to him. Ethan has issues.

Breckin: I don't think you learn how to do it. I think it's just instinctive.

Peter: Yeah, like when you meet up with the right girl, you just know.

Breckin: Uh, huh. And then you start doing stuff like, you'll be out shopping with her and she says, "Oh, I love that," and then you go back [to the store] later that day abd you buy it. Little things like that.

Peter: I think it's also about maturity. I mean, when you're young and you're just trying to hook up with every girl in sight, you're just using and abusing people.

Breckin: Hey, speak for yourself man.

Charlie: Boy, I sure didn't live that kind of life when I was younger.

Peter: Hey, I'm not saying you guys, just, you know, a friend of a friend, told me that uh... But seriously, something happens when you finally fall in love and you realize that dating a bunch of different is just not worth it.


Now that you're older and wiser, how do you approach dating?

Peter: Dating is a weeding-out process.

Breckin: I think it can be fun to be single and date - like when you don't want a relationship. Or when you've just gotten out of a relationship, and after you get over the initial shock, then six months later you're thinking, Hey, it's kind of cool being single. But if you're in a place where you're like, God, I just want to be with someone who gets me. Just one person. Then dating is horrible. Because it really is a weeding-out process, and you hate it.

Seth: Yeah, but if you're walking around with the goal of: Gawd, I gotta find someone...

Peter: You're never gonna find anyone.

Seth: You gotta be comfortable and happy with yourself before you can be approachable.

Breckin: Yeah, I think that's it.

Peter: You definatly have to have respect for yourself first before you can actually move out of dating and into a good relationship.



And how does that happen?

Ethan: Solitude!

Charlie: You gotta break up.

Peter: He means you have to have your heart broken a couple of time before you're really ready for a serious relationship.

Ethan: Yeah, and the first time you feel it - meaning, the first time you fall in love - don't let it run away with you because that ain't love.

Seth: See, that's the really crazy thing with relationships these days. I mean, you've got these 17-year-old guys running off and getting married.

Breckin: That's so crazy!

Peter: Some people really take that first love way too seriously.

Seth: Yeah, I don't want to point the finger at anyone (Macaulay Culkin). I'm just saying if someone is going to run off and get married at 17, it's probably because he's had some pretty traumatic experiences early on in his life. Maybe there's some freaky dysfunctional thing going on or an overbearing dad.

Charlie: Girls need to have something else going on besides guys. I think that's half the problem. The girls I meet at college [MIT] have nothing else to do, so if you go out with them, all of the sudden you're with them 24/7 and you're absolutly smothered.

Seth: And they leave you messages on your door, like : I had a great time last night. Can we have breakfast?

Charlie: I want someone to say to me, "I've got somewhere else to be. I've got a life."

Peter: But that's not what happens. A lot of times we latch onto other people because we don't want to be alone. Because we can't stand to be be alone.

Seth: That's why it's important when you do go from dating someone to getting serious with them, you maintain your individuality. As much as you want to start living for the other person and doing everything you can to make that other person happy, you have to maintain some independence, because when that person runs off or things go bad, you gota be okay with that.