The actor behind the iconic role of Stifler has spoken out over the years about the various effects that playing the American Pie character had on his life.
Seann William Scott was the man behind the role and has gone on to have a quite successful career.
With roles in The Dukes of Hazzards, Ice Age, and Role Models, he has also starred in The Wrath of Becky – a hidden gem action film added to Netflix in the UK today.
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Many, however, will always know him as Steve Stiffler.
For those who don’t know much about American Pie, it follows a group of four young guys who make a pact to loser their virginity before prom night.
The friend group is however five people, as Stifler does not exactly face this issue.
The character would, to put it politely, be considered a tad problematic in his views on relationships these days but was one of the most beloved parts of the 1999 film and subsequent sequels.
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His Mum, played by Jennifer Coolidge, was almost as iconic, if not more, becoming the most recognisable ‘MILF’ character in Hollywood (their words, not mine).
The character he plays is a particularly rowdy and audacious one, something that is bizarre when you find out that Scott himself is quite a shy man around women.
He has said in the past that he actually didn’t get a girlfriend until he was 30. However, despite his real-life persona not being the same as his character, he had to fight against being type cast in the same roles as the one he was best known for.
Speaking in 2012, he said: “I moved to LA to pursue acting because I wanted to do dramas.
"I was never the funny guy in school. I was jealous of the funny guys because they got all the girls.
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"So when I got American Pie I was shocked. I thought that after doing American Pie I could maybe do American Beauty!
“Then I did Road Trip, then I did American Pie 2. Then I just went back and made another American Pie."
In other ways, however, he has stated that he actually doesn’t mind too much how he was type cast, so clearly it is something he has grown to become more okay with.
He told The Wrap: “I did four of those movies, so I clearly embraced it… I love that character so much and I don’t really know if I set out to play those kinds of guys.
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“But as I was reading scripts or I got offered parts early on, I thought, ‘I don’t care about being typecast.’
“Those characters are so much fun. I’d rather be that guy than more of, like, the straight guy.
“So, maybe I typecasted myself. I don’t really care.”
Most recently, in 2019, he was full of praise for the effect the films had on his life, saying to People Magazine: “At the beginning of my career, that genre of films of R-rated crazy comedies were doing really well, so as much as I wanted to maybe do something more dramatic or serious, I was like, this character is much more fun to play than the boring straight guy.”
When asked if he was up to returning to the role, he was more than up for it, again stating that he did four of them before saying: “I would do it. I think seeing Stifler in his 40s as the exact same guy, just not growing up at all seems even funnier to me.”
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, Film, Celebrity
Michael Slavin