'Napoleon Dynamite's' Jon Heder charmed his cultish following by embracing his inner nerd.
Posted on 09/04/2005 11:41:40 AM PDT by freepatriot32
DELAWARE, Ohio (August 30) — The star of the cult hit Napoleon Dynamite said making the film gave him the chance to "celebrate the nerd within me." Jon Heder, who plays the film's curly haired, awkward namesake, appeared with Aaron Ruell, who plays Napoleon's older brother Kip, at Ohio Wesleyan University north of Columbus Sunday.
They said they could relate to the movie, which follows Idaho outcasts trying to find their place in the world.
"We created Kip and Napoleon from ourselves and from people we knew and experiences we had," said Heder, 27. "It was fun to celebrate the nerd within me."
The movie's low budget — it was made for $400,000 over 22 days — forced the cast and crew to improvise.
"All of our clothing came from thrift stores or Wal-Mart, and we did our own stunts," said Ruell, 29.
Napoleon Dynamite grossed more than $45 million at the box office and has made more than $104 million in DVD sales.
The movie also has opened new opportunities for Heder and Ruell, both Mormons who met at Brigham Young University's film school.
Heder stars alongside Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo in Just Like Heaven, which is to be released Sept. 16. Ruell is working on an untitled feature film that he wrote and will direct.
About 1,100 people packed into a campus auditorium for the appearance — part of a seven-stop tour at colleges and universities this fall. The university's Campus Programming Board paid more than $10,000 to bring the actors to campus.
"We are huge Napoleon Dynamite fans here," said Jessica Lawrence, a Wesleyan senior and the board's president. "You can't walk around campus without hearing someone say 'Heck, yes!' or 'Gosh!' in Napoleon's voice."
'Napoleon Dynamite's' Jon Heder charmed his cultish following by embracing his inner nerd.
I love this movie.
"Gosh! You're ruining my life."
What are you going to do today Napoleon? "Whatever I want, gosh."
he's 27? wow, he sure looked younger than that in the movie.
I dunno - one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen.
It's inexplicable why some people like certain kinds of movies. Some people I know just love "Moulin Rouge." Me, I thought it was the suckiest suck of a movie that ever sucked. My wife rented it one evening and I hit "EJECT" on the DVD player before the damned thing was half-way done playing.
You know a movie's bad when you bail on it during a home showing...
Makeup can make a huge diff, plus no muscle tone whatsoever. It was a _great_ movie.
I dunno - one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen.>>
Thats the genius of it.Gosh
LOL!
I agree. And it was probably one of the most hilarious movies I've ever seen too. Weird, that...
"Summer Wheatley?!? How the heck are you going to do that?"
"I don't feel very good."
Hilarious. Loved it. One unexpected, upbeat turn after another. Nerds of the world, rejoice!
I dunno - one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen.
That was the beauty of it. It was so dumb it was funny. And it didn't have the regular sex and violence and language to make it that way.
L
I'm with you 100% on that. I have little patience for wasting my time watching sucky movies and tried to hit the eject button within the first twenty minutes. But like you said it's inexplicable why some people like certain movies because Mrs. Suhks would have nothing to do with turning it off and I was forced to watch the rest of this wretch of a movie. That said...the bike jumping scene was pretty funny but that's about it.
Liger ... pretty much my favorite animal. They're bred for their skills in magic.
Liger ... pretty much my favorite animal. They're bred for their skills in magic. On a related note you should check out this thread on real ligers those things are flippin huge gosh!Ten foot tall "LIGER" - part lion; part tiger; weighs half a ton and is still growing!
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