Figure skating may seem to be just sequins, spandex and sit spins, but Blades of Glory will have you thinking differently. Jon Heder, better known as Napoleon Dynamite, stars with Will Ferrell in their latest blockbuster comedy. The loopy plot goes something like this: When two hot-headed rivals meet up at the World Figure Skating Championships, the competition gets a little too physical. A messy brawl gets the two banned from the beautiful world of figure skating, until, luckily enough, they find a loophole that allows them to compete in pairs skating. There's only one condition: they must be each other's partners.
Heder may appear like your typical quiet nerd, but this young comedic actor has a surprising background. One of six children, he grew up in Colorado and Oregon. He is a devoted Mormon and attended Brigham Young University in Utah, where he met the director of his first film, Napoleon Dynamite, which shot him to stardom. Heder now lives in Los Angeles with his wife of five years and is doing the promotion for Blades of Glory, which premieres this Friday, March 30.
This past Monday, Heder sat in on a conference call involving several college publications, including the News-Letter.
Villanova: I was wondering what it was like to work with Will Ferrell?
Jon Heder: It's not all that cracked up as it seems to be. No, I'm just kidding. It's great. You know, there's the pros and cons. Pros: he's easy to work with. He's wonderful; he's very nice, very funny. Cons: he's too funny and he'll make you look bad.
Operator: The next question is from John Hopkins [sic].
JH: Baltimore? John Hopkins -- isn't that in D.C.?
News-Letter: No, it's in Baltimore.
JH: Okay, sorry. My bad.
N-L: I'm wondering, what was the challenge of skating like? I'm sure that was a unique experience.
JH: The challenge of ice skating was -- it was a challenge but I loved it. I really did. I was extremely excited to, you know, kind of learn a new skill. Hopefully, you know, get good at it. But when they train you, you know that you're going to come home hopefully at the end of the day with some kind of new skill and for me that's awesome because I like to rack up the skills. And ice skating is just it's a challenge because it really is, you want to get better. It takes so many like, there's so many aspects to it balance and agility and flexibility and, but you have to have grace and pizzazz and it's like, it really is, it's athletic but you really it's you're acting at the same time. Because, as opposed to like a line-backer who just has to run, oh, I don't know what, some football players have to run or catch you know, you have to do a lot of the similar things. You have to really work the muscles and be athletic, but you are also have to be showy. You have to be showy and beautiful on the ice.
Eastern Michigan: Jon, you've done a lot of comedic work especially in Napoleon Dynamite and some of your other films. Do you feel that -- what do you find appealing about working with comedy?
JH: I think it's just there's something, there's something so fun about it. You know, it's, you feel good when you can make someone laugh. And if you find, and if you can make yourself laugh. But, it's just the subject matter. Whenever you get into comedy and you know, it's really the magic of laughter. Whatever, in comedy, any subject you kind of cover, whether it be ice skating or just the kind of character you play, it's really just kind of the thing, finding the things in that subject that you like the most and just taking a light look at it instead of being so, you know dark and dramatic. It's just -- it's having a good time. I guess.
University of Arizona: I was just wondering, a lot of the co-actors in your movie were from SNL and I was wondering if you would ever sort of consider doing stand-up yourself, and what do you think are your comedic strengths?
JH: Stand-up. I don't know if that will ever happen. I just have never considered it. I definitely think more of my strengths come from, if I have any strengths, it's I don't know, I really enjoy, you know, physical comedy. Kind of you know, turning your body into a cartoon. I just love bringing characters to life whether it be through the words or through their movement and being, you can get so much about a character, through the way they position themselves, or the way they move or act, not act but through the way they hold themselves, you know?
University of San Francisco: I'm sure between you and Will Ferrell, you came up with a lot of hilarious names for different ice skating maneuvers? I was wondering if you could share some of the top move names.
JH: The names. I mean you know we tried to use the names that they had already been given. But we had a, let's see, I think, Love Dust was a move I came up with and we kind of both took to that. It's pulling the sparkles out of your heart, blowing them into the air, and then letting them fade down into existence with your fingers.
McGill University: I was just wondering how was the atmosphere on the set?
JH: The atmosphere. It was murky. No, it was great because it was like a work-house. It really was. I mean people always ask did we have a fun time. Yeah, we did have a fun time, but as opposed to like maybe some of the other comedies I've worked on, and you know that we both have worked on, it was a lot of hard work. Because when you're - it was like comedy having fun mixed with if you've ever been involved in sports, especially in like college or since you know and you get those nerves right before a track meet or right before the game. It was mixed with a lot of that kind of thing because we get there and you know we want to be funny, but we also want to look good on the ice. And there's a lot of extras sitting out in the stands you know, who are cheering you on so it's an exciting atmosphere.
University of Michigan: So I know that you probably get offered a lot of roles, so how do you pick and choose which ones you actually end up taking?
JH: You know, you look through them all. I think the ones that are just definitely have something different to them. I mean, you know, there's always typical stuff, but in this you could say, okay, this is a buddy comedy, this is, you know it's broad, but for this movie an example, it was kind of almost a no-brainer. It was, when I heard the pitch and the concept, it was just, you know I was sold right away. There was no question. It was like okay two guys who compete against each other and then they have to skate together in the world of figure ice skating? You just don't see those kind of comedies that often. So, it's just really looking for originality and the kind of settings that you're in as -- and you know what the character -- mostly originality, you know.
Wheaton College: I was just wondering what it's been like progressing just from Napoleon Dynamite, a real indie movie where you started to now like this movie which is a big Hollywood comedy with Will Ferrell. What's that been like?
JH: It was, you know I think it would have been more of a shock if it was like the next movie I had done right after Napoleon. I think, you know, having a couple of movies in between helped prepare me a little bit. But it was -- what's so cool is that I've been so fortunate and lucky to work with so many nice people. And especially getting into this kind of movie, because yeah it was very daunting. This is a big Dreamworks-Paramount production where there's probably going to be some special effects and you know you have a big star like Will Ferrell. But at the same time Will is so down-to-earth and easy-going that he makes it - definitely helps you to feel more at home. You know what I mean? It's - it was weird. It was you know no joke going from yeah you're right a small movie to a very physical. You know you're actually training. I've never done training for a movie where you're learning a new skill and so it was a lot of hard work in doing special effects and getting on green screen. It was different but it's still, you know work and you're getting there and you're still kind of the same thing you're trying to bring a character to life and having a good time doing it.
