Quirky wunderkind stand-up and Knocked Up actress Charlyne Yi is usually found around the LA stand-up circuit making all types of people chuckle.

Recently, she’s been taking a break from the mic to write and star in Paper Heart; a hybrid rom/com documentary co-starring Michael Cera.

The film is now heading to DVD for Valentine’s Day and the lovely Charlyne took some time out to talk to us about the film and all things luuuuuvveee…

Hecklerspray: Hi, how are you?

Charlyne Yi: Good, just lying in bed.

HS: I hope we haven’t woke you too early?

CY: It’s not too early for me!

HS: Paper Heart is coming out here on DVD soon – tell us what it is all about.

CY: I’m so bad at this. I never have gotten any better! It’s a half documentary and half fictional film about a character named Charlyne and her journey to make a documentary about love. On her journey she meets a character called Michael Cera who tries to contradict her belief on love – on how she sorta doesn’t believe in it – and tests her against it.

HS: As everyone keeps saying, it’s an unconventional love story. Do you think audiences are looking for more from their romantic comedies, with other notable examples like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 500 Days Of Summer?

CY: I think, strangely, every story has been told. It does fit into the conventions of boy wants girl or girl wants guy, but I think it is definitely how you shoot it. I’m not sure if our movie is that crazy, I think it is just the medium we chose to tell the story. Hopefully it’s not too strange. I’m not sure if folks are looking for something new but I don’t think it is that out of the ordinary in the way the story is told.

HS: What were your influences for the film? Were you a big romantic film fan or was it born out of your own cynical opinion of love?

CY: I do like a lot of romantic films, a lot of cheesy ones. I wasn’t meant to be seen as cynical or jaded. As far as the character; she is just questioning the idea of love and deep down she says she doesn’t believe in love, but that is a bit of an exaggeration on my personal feelings which was the inspiration for making the movie originally.

It was going to be a doc and it was just me questioning the idea of, like, how do you know when you’re in love, how could you ever be sure? Feelings are so complicated, you can like somebody one day and the next be like – do I really like them? Or you can be with someone for 50 years and your questioning, like, if you’re gonna to get a divorce and that is such a scary thing to question if you’ve been with someone for decades. And if it didn’t work out after the 50 years and you were just divorced, does that mean that that was never love because it never worked out or does it mean that was love then and now it is over? So that was kinda the inspiration, to try to understand love, which, I don’t think anyone can ever understand, and I knew that going into it.

I think the point of it was, at the time, I had a lot of strangers opening up to me, telling me these amazing stories.

HS: So did you find it difficult to get the people in the film to open up to you?

CY: Well, some of the people there were from postings in newspapers and the casting director went from town to town and just asked ‘Hey, do you know any couples who have been together for 50 years or anyone with great love stories?’. So some people were asked in that form and some people were really spontaneous like the bikers. Strangely, people were just so excited to share these stories, I think they were so proud of their love stories and, like, ‘I’ll tell you a thing about love – I can teach you!’ I think people were really open to it. We weren’t like mocking them, we just wanted something genuine.

HS: The film mainly focuses on the relationship between yourself and Michael Cera – who found it the most difficult to play themselves?

CY: Michael, it’s funny, I actually think he liked playing a character of himself. I think he enjoyed the idea of messing with reality and how he is perceived, as I think I do with my live performances. But I don’t think it was difficult to play a character of myself. I think it was difficult period to learn how to act. A lot of the time Nick (the director) mentioned that I have the characteristics of a cartoon, saying I had broad gestures in real life. Like extremely broad! So he had to tone me down to a human being so I could be perceived as realistic. It was kinda cool learning how to mute how I would originally react.

HS: Turn the volume down on your personality.

CY: (Laughs) Yeah.

HS: Did you worry at all about how you would be perceived by the audience? Some people will think this is you throughout it and, y’know, if you turned around and said ‘I don’t like Star Wars’ people may turn around and say ‘I don’t like her, she doesn’t like Star Wars’!

CY: (Laughs) That’s a funny thing not to like someone about! I think we knew going in that some people will not read the credits. I don’t think we’ve been that secretive about the reality parts and the fictional parts of the film but I don’t think we have a problem with the way we are perceived. I think we kinda enjoyed that part of the element.

HS: Do you like Star Wars?

CY: Errrm, I haven’t actually seen it!

HS: How can you not have seen it?

CY: I don’t know, I’ve only seen like 15 movies in my entire life!

HS: And you starred in one of those!

CY: Yeah, I had to watch Paper Heart while we were editing. A lot!

HS: You are also a comedian and musician as well – have you been over to the UK at all?

CY: No I haven’t. I’ve just started to perform out of the state, just recently, so I’m just kinda getting my foot in the door clubbing somewhere else that’s not in LA. I’d love to at some point, when I get better.

HS: Well you’re always described in reviews as quirky, would you prefer being known as anything else?

CY: It’s funny, I almost feel like quirky is negative now. I’m not really sure what it means either. I think maybe it means different. I’m not sure, I’ll take it, whatever!

HS: Well the film is coming to DVD, do you think it’ll make for a nice romantic film for Valentine’s Day?

CY: I don’t really want to be presumptuous and say yes in case they hate it. I think that everyone has their own taste and definitely some people love the movie and some people thought it was OK and some people hated it. That is the reality of all movies, so I don’t wanna be arrogant that it’s gonna make the best movie for everyone.

HS: It’ll probably make a better Valentine movie than Schindler’s List, though?

CY: (Laughs) Definitely! That’s a good point.

HS: You can put that on the DVD box.

CY: That’ll make a great marketing slogan. Maybe I’ll make a fake commercial for it.

HS: Have you had any bad Valentine dates yourself?

CY: No, I think strangely… no I haven’t. I guess that’s not strange.

HS: Finally, to wrap things up – what does love mean to you now you’ve made the film?

CY: I’m not sure, I think it is different with every experience and is very unique to the individual. I know this is very vague but it is hard to define how you feel and to distinguish whether you are in love or not. (Pause) I don’t know. I often go; oh man I’d love to have an ice cream! I think we love a lot of things and it’s just in a different way.   

Look out for the quirky Charlyne in Paper Heart – on DVD 8^th February – from Anchor Bay Films.

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Some people are just never happy now, are they? Especially when they’re called Katherine Heigl, it would seem.

For she who whines about everything in the world ever has seen fit to now whine about the thing that probably affects her worst of all. Yes, Katherine Heigl is complaining about Katherine Heigl.

Not in the same way hecklerspray has complained though, oh no – Katherine doesn’t like how she seems to have forgotten her religion, and she feels that she should be paying more attention to her spiritual side as a result.

If paying attention to the Mormon belief system she was raised with means that she might actually shut up for once, then we’re all for it. Maybe she’ll learn to stop whining too? It does seem to be something that only a god could accomplish, after all.

While we wait for the results of Katherine Heigl‘s spiritual re-awakening though, we still have to put up with her incessant complaints. At least with this most recent bout being about herself we can actually agree with her – it’s not like the frighteningly snotty comments she made about Grey’s Anatomy now, is it? Nor is it like the time when she nearly killed off her chances of starring in every Judd Apatow film ever made ever.

No – this is the kind of complaint that hecklerspray enjoys listening to. We do wish Katty had been a bit more critical of herself, and not just highlighted the fact that she’d fallen away from her religion over the years. Maybe if she’d referred to herself as ‘a stupid, sour-faced, whining bitch’ or ‘absolutely not the kind of girl any man with a brain would want to go out with, contrary to apparent popular belief’.

Instead she just went with these words – talking to anyone who would listen, Heigl whined:

“I’m not as disciplined about it as I once was, but I hope to find my way back as I get older and a little less selfish.”

She went on, even though there were probably very few people listening by this point:

“If I start going back to church I’d have to stop the smoking and drinking, and I wouldn’t be able to curse any more. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve got very lazy about it all.”

Maybe she’s saving those particularly strong gripes for her next outburst. Hopefully then she’ll ‘go a bit Britney’ and start trying to eat a car or something out of sheer rage for the world around her, vomiting out blood in a ferocious pattern of bitch-induced hatred. Or maybe she’ll just complain that the next film she’s in made her look too happy.

We can hope for the former, though the latter is a bit more likely to be honest.

In the meantime we can sit, wait and plan our template for the post when she does finally go over the edge – the headlines are brewing already: ‘Heigl Shoots Cat With Rocket Launcher: Video Inside!’ would be sure to make us at least a bit more popular.

Katherine Heigl has gone and done ‘that thing’ again, where she puts herself in a situation where the media can misunderstand and misquote her, thus making her look like something of a bitch.

Come on Katherine, grow some sense – you can’t make any comment about anything, ever, without it being jumped on and you made out to look like something of a snob or a twit. Remember the Knocked Up ‘sexist’ fiasco? Where it came out that you thought the film was sexist? Then backtracked, claiming your quote was taken out of context?

Then everyone decided you hated the film?

Then everyone decided you were a bit of a mouthy git?

Seriously – the smart money would be on choosing your words more carefully, or just keeping schtum. But you haven’t learned – this time you’ve made it look as if you’re slagging off Grey’s Anatomy, which currently pays the bills. Again, maybe not so smart.

Yes, Katherine Heigl was nominated for an Emmy award at this year’s ceremony, but she’s gone and pulled out. Because apparently she doesn’t think she’s deserving of a trophy this year. #

Actually, that’s quite honourable and honest of her. So why did she have to go and make it sound as if she’s blaming the show for her being undeserving?

“I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention.”

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Heigl made it all too clear where she was placing the blame. She wasn’t the one that had been crap over the last year – the show was! It’s all clear now! Possibly noticing that this was one of the least subtle comments belittling one’s own show, Katherine followed up the comment:

“In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.”

Ah. Kick the Anatomy when it’s down, why don’t you. Jeez.

We suppose it could be worse – Katherine could be having a go at a show that actually has some good points, and not an overly-emotional, faux-intellectual farce of a television show that preys on the lowest common denominator to keep its viewing figures up. Like, say, if she started on The Wire, then, whoa. That wouldn’t bode well for her.

Consider yourself warned, Heigl.

Before Knocked Up, Katherine Heigl was primarily known for being in the world's sappiest, most emotionally-needy hospital drama – but now she's a bona fide movie star.

So really you'd think that Katherine Heigl would have enjoyed being in such a phenomenally well-received comedy movie, since it's paved her way to starring in a bunch of other inane-looking romantic comedies. But not a bit of it, because Katherine Heigl has said in an interview with Vanity Fair that Knocked Up was "hard to love" because it's "a little sexist." But then perhaps Katherine Heigl is confusing 'sexist' with 'capable of eliciting human responses from viewers' – something that Grey's Anatomy has never managed to really do, unless you count yawning as a human response.

By and large, Katherine Heigl was a revelation in Knocked Up, because it showed that a) she could act and b) she had a sense of humour. Compare that to Katherine Heigl's time on Grey's Anatomy when most people either a) didn't know who she was or b) didn't care who she was, and you'll see the difference.

However, behind the scenes of Grey's Anatomy Katherine Heigl gained a bit of a reputation for being outspoken – she was an integral part in the 'Get Isaiah Washington Fired' campaign of earlier this year – and that seems to have bled through to her movie work.

Because – despite being in Knocked Up, a movie that some critics called the funniest American film in years, and playing a role that thousands of actresses would have killed for – Katherine Heigl has decided to slag the film off in an interview with Vanity Fair:

"It was a little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. … Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie."

Silly Katherine Heigl. Someone in her position should know that if you star in one Judd Apatow movie, you're more or less allowed to star in every other Judd Apatow movie ever made until the end of time. So by laying into Knocked Up, there's a chance that Katherine Heigl has destroyed the possibility of guaranteed work and giant movie star paychecks for some time.

Not that we're against what Katherine Heigl says, of course. It's refreshing to see an actress talk so honestly about her work, while simultaneously expressing her feelings about an important topic like sexism. But it's just as well that female opinion doesn't count as much as male opinion, or else we'd really have to sit up and take notice of what she was saying. We think it was about housework or curtains or something.

Read more:

Star of 'Knocked Up' calls film 'a little sexist' – Chicago Sun-Times