by Emily Cassel, News Correspondent

Comedian Russell Brand made the character Aldous Snow’s ridiculous wardrobe and overtly sexual lyrics famous in 2008’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” This June, Brand is reviving Snow and pairing up with Jonah Hill for “Get Him to the Greek,” the story of a record company intern’s attempt to get the rock star from London to Los Angeles in 72 hours. The two were in Boston over the weekend to promote the film, and spoke to The News and several other student media in separate round table interviews. Here’s what they had to say about partying with Diddy, Justin Bieber and why America is so great.

Round Table: There’s a lot of music in this movie. Did you have any input in the music or lyrics?
Russel Brand: Well, I sang all of them. They came out of my face. I opened up my mouth, and out came the vibrations. And sometimes I would change the lyrics a little bit, but Jason Segel – like in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” – he wrote four or five of the songs. He’s really good. The only time I would change it is when people try to write things that sound really “English” but don’t. That’s the only thing, where I’d go, “Well, we would never say that. That is not our attitude toward the monarchy.” Then I’d change it. But generally I’d leave it. They’re very brilliant songwriters. Jarvis Cocker from Pulp wrote a couple, Carl Barat from the Libertines wrote a couple. So you know. I once had to do a film with Julie Taymor, she’s very fine director. There was this adaptation she did of “Across the Universe,” and Frida about Frida Kahlo, and she did an adaptation of the Tempest, by Shakespeare. And she said, “You can improvise over that if you want.” And I though, “Well, Shakespeare wrote that, so I won’t.”

RT: How do you feel when people imitate you to your face?
RB: They do that a lot! It happens all the time. “You sound like you’re from London.” That’s not my line. And “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.” They’re the ones people do most. And neither of those are my lines. Both are lines from “Sarah Marshall.” I don’t mind, I like it. Just remember that I’m used to being in England, where my English-ness and English accent are commonplace. It’s like Gulliver’s travels, it’s like going somewhere where things are sort of cute. [Gets up and yells at Jonah, who’s making noise in the hallway, and sits back down] I did that because I wanted to impress you.

RT: You thought you needed to impress us?
RB: I thought, “This is going to blow their minds. If I open this door.” So anyway, where were we? It’s Swiftian. It’s a Swiftian satire having people mimic my own accent at me.

Huntington News: Do you ever try to mimic an American accent?
RB: [Lowers voice, speaks haltingly] I have this one. This is my standard American accent.

RT: I’ve heard your American accent in your stand-up when you’re talking about the elephant in the room at the VMAs [Video Music Awards], that was hilarious.
RB: Thank you very much. I’ve been observing you Americans for a while now, on this petri dish called earth.

RT: What are your findings?
RB: Well your government are actually all very American now, but now that colonialism is achieved through commerce, not imperialism and the military, we’re all imbibing American culture. My findings are: You’re very powerful. People like, criticize America because of foreign policy and all that a little. But Richard Pryor and Bob Dylan – your American counter-culture is amazing. But I think it is generally better, globally, now that Barack Obama is president. Generally, the global perception.

RT: As a follow-up to that, what do you see as the biggest difference between British and American humor? Is there a difference between what British people think is funny and what Americans think is funny?
RB: I think both countries are interested in manners and protocol at different times, right? In Britain we’re thought of being incredibly polite, and to a degree that’s true. In America, you have these quite powerful social modules, that are sort of a way of communicating with each other and stuff. But we’re double-polite and sort of sexually repressed, English people. I’m finding it very hard to overcome that repression.

RT: How often do you improvise your lines, and do you ever feel that you go completely overboard?
RB: Well it’s a pertinent question in the way that the answer is apparent from the way you asked it. I improvise a lot, I enjoy spontaneity, I think a lot of the best stuff comes from that. Obviously when you’re making films, you can’t improvise like, “I’m an astronaut now!” “No, you’re not!” “Oh I am!” You need to improvise mildly. The problem is that the gravitational pull of my psyche is towards the macabre. So I find I’ll say stuff that’s – to use my national lexicon – dodgy. I lean towards the dodgy if I’m left alone too long. So it’s good for me to learn what’s acceptable among people of your age and your culture, so I don’t get myself lynched.

RT: What was your least favorite part about shooting this movie?
RB: Well, I got set on fire once during the film. When you do stunts, they’re supposed to tell you that it is a stunt. “Do you do your own stunts?” “No, I don’t.” “…OK, action!” And then you’re in a stunt! There’s a bit in the movie at a concert, where a wall of sparks rain down, and it caught me on fire because I was underneath that wall of sparks.

RT: Did you stop, drop and roll?
RB: I didn’t, no one had taught me stop, drop and roll.

RT: Really? We have a dance for it.
RB: A stop, drop, and roll dance? My God. It’ll take off, it’ll become a craze. It’ll be like Justin Bieber, everyone will be doing it. Not that everyone’s doing Justin Beiber. He’s a tiny boy. But no, I didn’t know about that. I just was completely in the wrong place, I caught fire for a while, that was about it. But generally speaking it was really good, because the people working on that film are funny and smart, they’re nice to be around. But in terms of what was the worst thing: Being caught on fire. The sex thing, that’s another thing! You think, “Oh, sex, let’s get my trousers off.” But it’s actually sort of stressful, it’s not like actual sex.

RT: As a follow up to that —
RB: Yup, here it is.
RT: The threesome scene … I can’t even imagine how awkward and difficult that must have been to film.
RB: Well sex, when it’s done correctly, is about creating sort of an atmosphere of intimacy and escape and adventure. But sex scenes are about hesitant, angular sort of choreographed moves. And this is a comedy sex scene! It sort of goes on for ages and ages, you don’t have your pants, you’re sort of hunched over someone, you’re aware of each other’s breath mingling, but without the sort of baseline of lust pounding rhythmically through the act … it’s awful!

RT: Is Jonah Hill a good kisser?
RB: I love that kid. Yeah, me and Jonah kissed. I don’t think that’s actually in the film, we were at home when that happened. But yeah, I love him. He’s a very tender boy.

HN: Is it weird doing sex scenes since you are in a long-term relationship?
RB: Well I wasn’t then. That was, at that time, the longest relationship I ever had, because it lasted a day. But in retrospect, yeah, it would be different I suppose, now that I’m in a relationship.

HN: So would you do it, now that you are in a committed relationship?
RB: Yeah, yeah. As I said, it doesn’t feel like a sexual transgression. There’s a lot more sexual energy going on between me and these two gentlemen underneath the table. [Lifts up tablecloth and peeks underneath.]

Round Table: So was there any point in this movie where you were going to be your character from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall?”
Jonah Hill: Um, no. Never. I think Nick Stoller – the director – noticed a very unique chemistry between Russell and I during that movie, and leading up to that movie in terms of rehearsals, table reads and so forth. But that character in “Sarah Marshall” wouldn’t have been interesting to see throughout a whole movie. He was sort of … I hate to use the word, for a character I created to be one dimensional, but he was more funny, weird stalkerish guy. And Aaron, the character in this movie, I really felt it was important, and so did Nick, the director and writer, to create a character that represented the audience, so it felt like the audience was this person going on this journey, you know? So I’m the audience, going through this crazy thing, as opposed to a guy who’s really weird himself. Aaron is sort of … probably the most together character I’ve ever played in a film, that acts his age, kind of has a good job, ambitious, has a strong relationship. I don’t know, I just felt like Matthew, the waiter from “Sarah Marshall,” was a really funny character, but he’s not someone you may want to sit through a whole film with, you know? You may not buy it.

RT: If you could spend 72 hours with any musician, who would it be and what would you guys do?
JH: OK, that’s a really good question. Dead or alive?

RT: Either.
JH: Any musician, for 72 hours, of all time, and what would we do … that’s a tough question. Maybe … maybe Jeff Lynn from ELO? I mean I love, you know, John Lennon, he’s someone who I think would be most people’s answers. I’m trying to sound cool, it’s a college newspaper. Uh…

RT: Should we suggest some indie bands?
JH: Yeah, like The Strokes, or…

RT: We don’t care about street cred.
JH: Yeah, I guess it would have to be John Lennon. I think there’s no one who’s had more of an impact on music and culture and is no longer with us. I’d probably just walk around New York City and talk to him. I guess that would be my activity. I know that’s a really boring answer but a lot of the bands I really like now I’ve been fortunate enough to become friends with the members and spend time with them, because I’m a huge music aficionado. I try to wear T-shirts of bands I really like that are newer, that are coming up, in the films and put their music in the movies. So bands like Dr. Dog, The Strokes, Beirut, I’ve gotten to know all those people and put their shirts and music in the films. So that’s been a really gratifying part of the job, is getting to show love to the people that make music that inspires you, and that gives you so much enjoyment, you know? A band like Dr. Dog gets a lot of exposure out of me wearing a Dr. Dog T-shirt in “Funny People” or “Get Him to the Greek.” And Dr. Dog eventually got their song, because I was wearing their tee-shirt and telling Judd I love them so much, they used their song for one of the campaign ads for “Funny People,” which I know was kind of interesting for them. That’s a really fun thing to get to do.

Huntington News: In the vein of music questions, you got to work with P. Diddy. How cool was that?
JH: Pretty cool. I’ll say it was awesome, because he really wanted the part. He heard about it and he flew himself out, auditioned, and he was calling me all the time before I knew him! He got my phone number, he called me while we were making “Funny People.” I’d never met the man, or I met him once maybe, but a very, very minimum encounter. So he would call me and be like, “Hey man, can you get me this part?” And I go, “You have to earn the part in the movie, you know, I can’t just grant you the part.” And he flew in and auditioned, there were all these great actors that came in and he just was the most appropriate. He killed it, he deserved the part. And he also really helped me get into character because I wanted to have sort of this experience of having the drama, emotionally, when we made the movie. So he and his friends took me and my best friends, who were all from high school and college, to Vegas the weekend before we started shooting in Vegas. And he gave us the full “P. Diddy Experience” for 72 hours. And I recommend if you’re ever about to start a four-month shoot as the lead in a movie, the three days before should not be spent partying with Diddy in Vegas. You will not get the appropriate amount of rest, and you will probably lose your voice. You should probably be resting. But it helped me because in all regards he’s a rock star, a music star. And he admittedly spends one week a month – he has a party week every month, where he just parties for seven days straight once a month, and the rest of the month is all business, and so I caught him in one of his party weeks. And I don’t really party a lot, I’m pretty responsible, not that he’s not, I just don’t really like it that much. And so he really helped me because I drew a lot from those experiences with him to pretend to be with Aldous, and that helped me.

RT: So if you’re not that much of a partier, what does Jonah Hill do with his summer vacations?
JH: Summer vacation … you do realize I’m not in school anymore, right? [Laughs] You mean my free time? Um … I like art a lot, so I got to LACMA, which is L.A. County Museum of Art, quite a bit. I live right near there. I’m trying to learn more about it. I love music, so I go to shows. I love film, obviously, so I try to see as many movies as I can. I have a really great group of friends and a great family. I’m from L.A. and my family’s all there, so we’re super close. We have Sunday night dinner every week. And my best friends and college friends, all my friends are from college, or high school, or pre-school so there’s like 15 of us and we’re all best friends, and we hang out probably three or four times a week and watch bad reality TV.

HN: We were just talking about “The Real World” earlier.
JH: Oh, I can tell you anything about “Real World.” The Challenge? Have you been watching that?

RT: Of course.
JH: I watch “Millionaire Matchmaker,” “Million Dollar Listing,” “the Kardashians,” I watch all the shittiest TV. [Laughs]

RT: “Jersey Shore?”
JH: “Jersey Shore,” I love it. The only good shows I watch are “Mad Men” and “The Wire.” But for some reason, just watching these really dumb people on television just makes me, like, turn off my brain. You know what I mean? You don’t have to think at all. Not that they’re dumb, just the fact that they’re living their lives on television is kind of dumb, and I think it’s interesting to just sit and watch people, you know? But I guess I’m dumb, because I’m the one watching it, hence making more of it. I don’t know. I’m not trying to get too philosophical. But yeah, I love all that stuff.

RT: In addition to acting, you’ve done a lot of writing. Which do you prefer?
JH: I don’t know. It changes all the time. There are periods where all I want to do is write and produce, and there are periods where all I want to do is act. I love them all in totally different ways. Right after “Superbad” came out I got kind of freaked out by people recognizing me. I just wasn’t used to it. And so I didn’t want to start another movie right away because I was A) scared of making another movie that wasn’t as good, because I really liked that movie a lot. I loved that movie; and B) I wanted to just duck out somewhere and work, and not be in the public eye or anything. So I knew that Sacha Baron Cohen was hiring writers for “Bruno.” So I auditioned for that, and eventually got that job as a writer/producer for that movie and did that for six months. And during that period acting wasn’t even on my mind. I didn’t even want to act in a movie. I was obsessed with writing and producing and found that way more valuable emotionally at that time. And after that I took another writing and producing job, and by the time that year was over I was like, “All right, let’s get back to business.” And I did “Funny People” and “Cyrus” and “Get Him to the Greek” all in a row, which were all just acting jobs. And I was so fulfilled by acting, between “Cyrus” and this movie. And then when this movie ended for six months I did a writing and producing job and didn’t want to act. And now, it’ll be about a year between “Greek” and the next movie I’m about to do, “Moneyball,” with Brad Pitt. By now, it’s been almost a year since “Greek,” I’m like, “Let’s fucking go, I’m ready to act.” So it does go in cycles.