Year One is a new comedy starring Jack Black as Zed and Michael Cera as Oh – two tribesmen who have been banished from their homeland because they don’t fit in. They set out on a journey to find the meaning of life where they encounter biblical figures such as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and Abraham. The film is directed by Harold Ramis (Caddy Shack, Analyze This) and is produced by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin).

Black, Cera and Ramis gave us a snippet of what to expect from the characters in the film, what is was like working with each other and the creative process in developing the film.

Q: What intrigued you about working on this film?

Cera: The script was great, and I love Harold’s work. He has been a big influence on my life and the thought of working with him was really exciting. I loved working with Judd and it’s a lot of fun. It sounded like it would be great.

Q: What does your character learn by the end of the film?

Cera: He learns more about the world then he thought was out there. He always thought the world ended at the other side of the mountains, which obviously it doesn’t. He learns about himself and is put in situations in that he has never been in and has to suffer some indignities.

Black: My character, Zed, starts off in caveman times, kind of Adam and Eve/caveman times. It’s a very tribal lifestyle that he is living in his primitive village where there are just hunters and gathers. He doesn’t really fit in with the hunter dudes. And he is a searcher; he is looking for meaning in this life. That resonated with me because I think of myself as a searcher as well.

Q: What was it like working with director Harold Ramis?

Cera: Harold has been great. He is so relaxed and makes you feel comfortable and confident. And he laughs at things that are funny. If you have a funny idea, he will laugh at it, which is a great feeling. He has been a lot of fun.

Black: Harold loves actors and definitely lets you do your thing. He encourages you to play and he enjoys it. I could hear him laughing sometimes, and I was thinking, ‘Don’t ruin the take big guy, don’t laugh too loud.’

Q: How was it working with Jack Black?

Cera: He is so much fun to work with. I have had so much fun hanging out with Jack, it’s flown by; we have been doing it over three months and it is almost over now.

Q: What was it like working with Michael Cera?

Black: His subtly is profound and he has the skills way beyond his years. He reminds me of a really young Walter Mattthau or something like that. He is really bright and funny as hell.

Q: What is the overall message of the film?

Black: The moral to the story is appreciating the miracle of life. And don’t count on stuff happening afterwards, enjoy it now. Take responsibility for what we do right now.
Ramis: It becomes a search for meaning with Jack and Michael being these blank slates. They encounter all of these people, in a way to me represent, different takes on how we live and what it is all about. And who we are in relation to each other, who we are in relation to God, and who are we in relation to the planet and the environment. That is all embedded in the movie for me.

Q: How do you come up with an idea for a film?

Ramis: How I do my work is I think a lot about it. It is not just about what will be funny or what is popular right now. I torture myself with what I really want to say to an audience. And no matter how silly the jokes gets, I force myself to constantly ask, ‘Is this true to what I am trying to say? Is it true to reality as I see it? And is it good for people?’

Q: Tell us about the process of writing a script and then filming it.

Ramis: When you write a script you are working on a projected reality; what you think is going to happen. As soon as you get on the set of a movie, you’ve got to assemble all of these elements. Then you are dealing with reality, no matter what you thought was going to happen. You can only deal with reality, and that is when you start improvising both in the shot, the script and in the performance.

Q: How did you pick the location for filming?

Ramis: In your mind you idealize all of these things. You find all kinds of images from art or history or national geographic, and you put these images together and the challenge is where can I logistically do this? Where will it make logistical sense and where can we afford to do it? And in the months we will be shooting, where will the weather be hospitable enough to do it? So, the American south made a lot of sense.