Brother of the more famous Owen, Luke Wilson has starred in everything from "My Dog Skip" to "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Legally Blonde". With "Old School", he tries his hand at playing knockabout comedy with the help of fellow aging college graduates Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell.
Do you think all men want to stay teenagers?
I think it's one of those clichΓ©s about male society, just like the idea that all women want to get married and all men don't. I don't think things break down quite like that, but there definitely is that element of guys who like to party and have a good time and putting off for as long as possible the idea that they'll actually have to settle down.
Is that something you have first hand experience of?
The thing about being an actor is that you're in the business of not growing up. I never had to say to myself, "OK now, I've got to grow up and work for a bank, or go and sell real estate." I never had to make that kind of break.
Have you ever been to a college reunion?
I went back to my high school in Texas about a month ago. I ended up spending five, six hours at the school meeting different kids. It was really fun because it made me think, "Wow, people are actually seeing these movies that I make!" When you're in Los Angeles, nobody bats an eye, they're so used to seeing actors, they just act really cool. But these kids were crazy. They had lots of questions, from "What was it like kissing Cameron Diaz?" to the little studious kids who said, "I really enjoyed "The Royal Tenenbaums"."
Vince Vaughn says you guys were known on-set as The Wolf Pack...
It was a "Lord of the Flies" mentality. We'd be making fun of one guy and then it would shift and it would be someone else. I remember Will Ferrell saying, "I never got the chance to see "Legally Bland", though I hear it's wonderful, I hear it's just great!" So I'd say, "Will, you know the transition from TV to the movies isn't a very easy one, so you might just want to keep one foot back in TV just in case this whole movie thing falls through!" We were always making fun of each other.
