Key Points
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Seth Green explains how he ended up playing Kenny Fisher in Can’t Hardly Wait.
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His friend, Breckin Meyer, turned down the role to appear in 54.
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Turns out, Meyer’s choice might not have been the right one.
Seth Green has his pal Breckin Meyer to thank for one of his most famous roles.
The actor appeared on Danielle Fishel‘s Teen Beat podcast Wednesday and shared that, if not for Meyer dropping out of Can’t Hardly Wait, Green would’ve never had the chance to play Kenny Fisher in the 1998 rom-com, which costarred Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, and Peter Facinelli.
“I saw that script the same way [everyone else did],” Green told Fishel, when asked if the teen flick was “as fun to shoot as it looked.”
“Breckin Meyer was supposed to do that movie,” Green continued, having noted earlier in the interview that he and Meyer are still very good friends. “Deb [Kaplan] and Harry [Elfont] wrote that role for Breckin, and then Breckin got the Studio 54 movie with Ryan Phillippe and Salma Hayek, and all these awesome people.”
“That was supposed to be far grittier,” Green added of 1998’s 54. “At some point, Miramax was like, ‘Hey, f— it, we’re going to make this PG-13.’ And they, like, ruined that movie.”
The studio’s cut of 54 was critically and commercially panned when it initially hit theaters, but Mark Christopher shared his version of the film. The 2015 director’s cut has since been hailed as a “jubilant resurrection.”
“The only reason I even got to audition for [Can’t Hardly Wait] was ’cause Breckin dropped out,” Green, who played recurring character Daniel “Oz” Osbourne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the time, recalled. “And I did, I had to audition for it. But, when I read that script I was like, ‘Man, this is the kind of thing that if it works, it’ll be huge. And, if I could get this? This is a breakout.’ I read that role and was like, ‘Man, let me at this.’ And that’s what I did.”
Green praised the role of Kenny on the podcast, noting that he “came at it with so much energy.”
“You can see me in that movie, I’m, like, firing. Everything about me at that point is solely targeted at making that movie, playing this character. I put so much into it,” he told Fishel.
Green said they shot Can’t Hardly Wait before he went back to Buffy as a series regular. “It was so much fun,” he reiterated, noting that he took inspiration from the Michael Rapaport-starring Zebrahead to inform Kenny.
“It’s about a real white kid growing up in Brooklyn and literally being born of black culture to the point where it feels organic to you. It’s not, like, put on,” Green explained of the 1992 drama.
In cult-classic Can’t Hardly Wait, Kenny is a high school senior and wannabe-rapper, whose one goal is to lose his virginity at a huge graduation party. He quotes Tupac, sports oversized JNCO Jeans and ski goggles, and carries around a “love kit” full of condoms and other intimate essentials.
Green told Fishel he referenced his own upbringing to add to Kenny’s vibe.
“I grew up in Philadelphia,” he said. “The kids I grew up around were the coolest, aspirational Black kids you could ever imagine. And it never made me think, ‘Oh, I got to talk this way. I got to act this way.’ But I saw plenty of people who masked their own insecurity in that kind of bravado. And it was easy to access. That kid is just terrified, and that was easy to play. Like terrified, but puts out every single thing to get in the way of, ‘I’m so f—ing scared. Don’t look at me.'”
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Green, who had also just appeared in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, went on to star in more Austin Powers movies. He also starred in Josie and the Pussycats— which also features Meyer — as well asIdle Hands, Without a Paddle,and Rat Race. Green was also on various TV series, and continues to have a successful career.
“You got to want it,” Green said of pursuing an acting career. “The volume of rejection versus the ‘atta boys’ that you get, the ratios are too disproportionate. It can really crush you personally if you’re not able to separate the personal from the job.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
