In the new film, The D Train, Dan Landsman (Jack Black) has never been the cool guy. That’s about to change – if he can convince Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), the most popular guy from his high school who’s now the face of a national Banana Boat ad campaign, to show up with him to their class reunion. A man on a mission, Dan travels from Pittsburgh to LA and spins a web of lies to recruit Lawless. But he gets more than he bargains for as the unpredictable Lawless proceeds to take over his home, career, and entire life.

James and Jack recently sat down with a few of us to discuss the movie, class reunions, James’ looks, each other’s breath and much more.

Question: Have you ever gone to one of your own reunions?

James Marsden: I’ve been able to miss my reunions. I’m not against going. I was just out of town working or something where I couldn’t go. I would have gone, but the people I was friends with in high school, I still kind of keep in touch with. You went to yours right? [to Jack Black]

Jack Black: I went to my 20-year reunion. I had a good time, but there was some anxiety. Some of those old feelings come rushing back and suddenly you’re a teenager again.

James: Were the hot people still hot?

Jack: Yep. [laughs] Yea.

Q: What kind of high school did you go to? Was it a large high school?

Jack: For my last two years of high school, I went to a little private high school for arts and sciences called Crossroads in Santa Monica. I don’t remember how many people were in my class, but not that many.

James: You grew up here in L.A. Everyone sort of takes care of themselves. I grew up in Oklahoma. It’s like twenty years later and some people [look a lot older].

Q: Both of your characters are pretty different than what you’ve played before. What attracted you to the characters? Were there any aspects of your characters that you could identify with?

James: I love how both of these guys have their own form of desperation. My guy seems like a super cool James Dean-like success story, but in Hollywood itself, he’s actually a little pathetic. He’s been run ragged in an industry that hasn’t been favorable to him. I like that element of that he’s not Colin Farrell or James Dean or whoever, but he so desperately wants to be that guy. That’s what we do as actors as I guess. Everyone’s looking for their own form of validation and someone to make them feel relevant. Then Dan comes into Oliver’s life and brings me back to the days when I was the hot shot in school. As odd of a couple as we are, we both provide something for the other person. Though it’s combustible, it’s good comedy. I like my character because he’s cool, but he’s obviously flawed as well.

Jack: I like my character because he wasn’t really likable and that was interesting to me in a comedy. I hadn’t ever really read anything like that before. Usually the formula is that you have to root for the hero in some way and this guy’s kind of a turd. You don’t really root for him and you don’t really like him. There’s just scenario after scenario of cringe worthy situations where he’s so desperate to be liked and loved. There was just something so interesting to me to play that. I was always kind of intrigued by those kinds of people in my life, like the least popular people. There’s something very interesting about that and maybe it’s something in me that I am working out. I don’t know why I found it so interesting, but I found a movie about that guy very intriguing. That guy usually doesn’t have a movie made about him.

Q: [to James] Your character seems likable but doesn’t really seem deserving of all the attention he gets.

James: Yea, not really. Welcome to Hollywood [laughs]. In the movie, [Oliver] only really gets attention from Dan. [Oliver] has to be transported back in time to high school to get attention. I agree. It’s not that he’s that charismatic. He’s too cool for everything. Dan brings me back to that [high school] world and reminds me of my strengths. Everyone wants to have their ego stroked and Oliver gets caught up. Oliver never would have thought about showing up to the reunion until Dan showed up and said, ‘look, you’re a superstar. Obviously you’re a superstar because you’re in the Banana Boat ad.’ Oliver obviously doesn’t feel that way.

Q: [to James] Has it ever been a burden to be good looking?

James: [in a mock, arrogant voice] Let me tell you [laughs]. I’ve been dying for that question [sarcastically].

Jack: Before you answer, that’s a very dangerous question. It’s very hard for you to come off looking good with any answer you come up with.

James: It’s a ‘gotcha’ question [laughs]. I say next question. I feel like you’re talking about somebody else when you ask that question.

Q: So you don’t know that you’re good looking?

James: Let’s go to the next question.

Jack: I told you. I’m just being your publicist for a second. I’m covering the mic. [in a stuck up voice] The setback to being so good looking [moans to much laughter in the room].

James: Or you could go the other way and say, ‘I’m so super grateful. It’s never been a hindrance.’ [much laughter in the room]

Jack: Didn’t someone else go down this same road recently?

James: Who?

Jack: Gwyneth Paltrow? I don’t remember who it was, but somebody was talking about how hard it is to be really, really hot.

James: [in his mock, arrogant voice] You don’t know what it’s like to wake up with [as he points to] these cheek bones! [much laughter in the room] It’s like please, shut up.

Q: It’s like talking about being rich.

Jack: True. And you can never complain about being famous and how hard it is to sign autographs and take pictures with people either.

Q: Back to the movie, you guys have an intimate scene when you kiss. Was that at all difficult for you?

Jack: I don’t know if we really want to talk about that [laughs]. What did they do in The Crying Game junket? Did they talk about the penis in The Crying Game junket?

James: [sarcastically] Did they have junkets back in The Crying Game days?

Q: What did the kiss taste like?

James: What did it taste like?!?! [much laughter in the room] It tasted like chewing tobacco and pepperoni. [laughs]

Jack: We had some powerful mints. What are those curiously strong mints?

James: Altoids

Jack: [James tasted] like Altoids and Barbiturates. [laughs]

James: I wasn’t ready for the sensation of what stubble felt like.

Jack: Oh yes! [laughs]

James: To me, it was one of the funniest moments of the script when I read it. How far would [Dan] go to win someone’s affections? Having that in mind, it’s like, do we have the audience at this point and what’s their response going to be? Will it be ‘this is awful’ or ‘this is hilarious?’ We had no idea but Jack and I were on board from the beginning. We knew this wasn’t something you could half ass, you just have to go for it.

Jack: It’s always funny when it’s real. If it’s sort of silly, then it turns into something dumb that you’ve seen before.

James: It’s like Will Ferrell kissing Jimmy Fallon on an SNL sketch.

Q: I thought it played out naturally with the aftereffects [of the kiss].

James: Romantically?

Q: Not romantically. I’m not a romantic [laughs]. Hook-up wise, it played out naturally. Like when you say there aren’t any strings and there are always strings.

James: I like what it does to Dan’s character. It rocks his world and puts him on a downward spiral. He’s like, ‘what have I done?’ and it’s just so interesting to watch that unravel. It’s just such a great character.

Q: On the chemistry note, I read in the [press] notes that you two were in an episode of Touched By An Angel together.

James: That’s where the chemistry began [laughs]. We had to be reminded of the fact that we worked together on that. That was like 1994.

Jack: Yea, that was the mid-90s. We didn’t keep in touch and it wasn’t until this movie that we were like, ‘yea we have worked together before.”

James: And it wasn’t like we were two different guest stars in two different story lines.

Jack: We were partners in crime.

James: We were drug dealers in the episode.

Q: Like the Banana Boat commercial in the film, what was the first thing that gave you your first taste that something was happening in your career?

James: I did a date rape episode of Blossom. I date raped Blossom.

Jack: You played some bad guys early on.

James: [sarcastically] See, it’s tough being a good looking guy! [much laughter in the room]

Jack: Good looking with an edge [laughs].

James: What didn’t I do when I was starting out? I had two lines in the pilot of The Nanny. I did an episode of Saved by the Bell.

Jack: But back to Blossom.

James: Blossom was a ‘very special episode.’

Jack: Was your phone blowing up? Were you getting a lot of messages, ‘[stay away] from Blossom!’

James: No, I didn’t really get too much attention for that. Was that the question?

Q: A time when other people were thinking that stuff’s happening for you.

James: My high school buddies would call and say, ‘you’re going to be on Party of Five! That’s cool!’ I mean any job is great when you’re young.

Q: Jack did you have anything?

Jack: The first thing that gave me a taste was a commercial when I was 13 years old. That was like 1983. It was for Atari, an Atari video game called Pitfall. All the kids at school saw me in the commercial and that was my mission so mission accomplished. They recognized me and I was super famous and popular for about two days. Then magically, it went right to the way it was before [laughs]. I knew I needed more. [The acting gig] was like a little taste of crack.

Q: What was it like working with Kathryn Hahn?

Jack: She’s so funny.

James: To me, she’s one of the shining spots in the movie. She anchors it with reality and heart. Hers could have so easily been a thankless role. She comes in with sincerity and grounds Dan.

Jack: It’s a super dark movie. It’s a comedy, but it comes from a super dark part of the psyche. Having her around just really lit up the days when we were shooting. When she came on the set, everyone just had a smile. You can get dragged down when you’re doing a lot of scenes about a turd that no one likes [laughs] and to have her there was so great.

Q: And Jeffrey Tambor. Do you know anyone like his character who’s allergic to technology?

Jack: Uh yea. Members of my family.

James: I was at the airport a few days ago and there’s an older gentleman who was so impressed with his new phone. And you could tell it was his first one and he says to me, ‘look what I can do’ and then he [does the motion of licking his finger and swiping a page on the phone]. He licked his finger before he swiped the phone! [laughs]

Jack: What a sweetheart.

James: It was great.

There’s an awkward scene in The D Train where Oliver [Marsden], in order to try and impress Dan [Black], pretends he knows the actor Dermot Mulroney at a club.

Q: I love the scene with Dermot Mulroney. That must have happened to you guys when people come up to you and you have no idea who they are.

James: They come up to us or we go up to them [laughs]?

Q: Either.

Jack: Careful. This is another [pitfall question].

James: Now I know why he was the spokesperson for Pitfall [laughs]. After it’s happened to you a few times, you sort of know the strange behavioral paths that people take when they try to get in your world. It’s interesting and, as an actor, you try to take note of that, but I can’t think of anything specific.

Q: [to James] Well, my sister molested you at The Loft premiere and you handled that pretty well.

James: Your sister molested me at The Loft premiere?

Jack: You might not want to answer this [laughs].

Q: I have the pictures.

Jack: To answer the question, I try to spin it around and talk about them. It gets uncomfortable to talk about myself and the thing I did in that and that.

James: The best is when they think you’re someone else. I’ve heard, ‘I loved you in Star Trek!’ ‘Sorry, it wasn’t me.’ And they’re like, ‘it was you. Don’t lie.’

The D Train opens in select theaters May 8.