A Jonah Hill, John C. Reilly, and Marisa Tomei love triangle? Now that's a movie! Well, actually, it's Cyrus, the latest dramedy from the next big brother filmmaking duo (we think): Mark and Jay Duplass. It's an awkward, funny, heartwarming film about the courtship of single mom Molly (Tomei) and lonely schlep John (Reilly). And oh yes, her creepily competitive 20-something son, Cyrus (Hill), who wants to break them up. Last week we were fortunate enough to have a chance to chat with director Jay Duplass and John C. Reilly about the movie, Reilly's yearning to play a nun, why the Duplasses can never be the Coen brothers, and more...Read on for our interview with John C. Reilly.Christine Champ: So how did you get involved with Cyrus?John C. Reilly: Well, my wife is an independent film producer and she had met Mark and Jay at a couple film festivals, and saw The Puffy Chair early on and was really impressed by how these guys work. She brought home a copy of The Puffy Chair and I watched it and loved it. So I sent word back to Mark and Jay, like, yeah -- let's find something to do together, and they wrote a script with me in mind. And then here we are.CC: John is a very vulnerable and awkwardly honest character. Do you identify with him? JCR: I just think it's better to cut to the chase rather than feed somebody a line to get into their pants or whatever. It's better just to let someone know who you are so that you're not wasting each other's time ... I just think it's too much effort to lie. What did somebody say ... like, if you always tell the truth you never have to keep your stories straight. So I think it's just the best way to be as long as you're not so honest that you're hurting somebody's feelings.CC: Were there any scenes that were especially awkward to do?JCR: Yeah, there were lots that were awkward [laughs]! I mean, in my first scene in this movie I have my pants down ... that was pretty awkward. You know, starting the movie with a two-shot as it were, my ass hangin' outta my pants. And then, you know, I had just met Marisa and we shot the movie in order. So as you see stuff happening in the movie it was really kinda very early on in our relationship, our friendship, Marisa and I. So five days after I met her we're taking off our clothes and climbing into bed to do that sex scene. That was pretty uncomfortable and she was great about it. She was very professional and at ease with herself. But I just get really embarrassed when I have to do a lot of that smoochy stuff. CC: How was it working with the Duplass method?JCR: I improvise a lot in all my work. I think maybe that's why these guys were drawn to me. But this was a chance to really go crazy. In a lot of cases we didn't even shoot the script at all. We didn't shoot the dialogue as written at all. It was more there as a guideline for what was possibly gonna happen in the story. I think these guys are just after honesty. They're just after truth. And a lot of people these days, I think, are kind of sick of superficial characters and phony movie stories. This one seems very real ... to me.CC: Were there any particular lines you ad-libbed that really impacted the film?JCR: I don't know -- in some ways I regret saying [laughs], "I'm like Shrek. What are you doing in the forest here with Shrek?" Just because people have really jumped on it. It's just kind of speaking to the guy's lack of self-esteem, but I don't think I'm really like Shrek. CC: Mark Duplass mentioned there was an element of competition between you and Jonah Hill.JCR: Yeah, that's just a natural part of improvisation. You could call it competition or you could call it play. You know, if somebody throws you something and you try to throw something back so it can seem like competition, but really what it is is cooperation and you're kind of playing this game. And these characters are competing with each other -- they're competing for Marisa's character's affection -- so it was very much like a psychological chess game between Jonah and I.CC: Was it hard to keep a straight face in any of the scenes?JCR: When he plays me that music that was pretty tough. I mean, Jonah kept cracking up actually when we were making that scene. The footage that you see in the movie is basically the only footage we had where he wasn't laughing. There was just something so ridiculous about having that music playing and taking it really seriously and him just staring at me. We were both cracking up quite a bit on that one. CC: Do you prefer improv to strictly following a script?JCR: I like being employed, you know [laughs]. That's my favorite kind of acting. That's the kind of acting that, it's a job. I don't mind doing scripted material. It's actually kind of a relief, because improvising is a little bit like screenwriting on your feet. It's a very demanding thing and you often kinda fall flat on your face, so it's scary and it's a lot of responsibility but ... I think an actor's job is to adapt to the way the director that you're working with likes to work. It's your job to find a way to bring that person's vision to life in the way they want it to happen. CC: Is there anything you haven't tried that you'd like to?JCR: I've always wanted to play a nun [laughs]. There isn't much that I haven't tried, to tell you the truth. Maybe a horror movie or something like that, but I'm not so interested in that. Things that require a lot of makeup or a prosthetic and that kind of thing ... I don't have a lot of patience in the makeup chair, so I know myself well enough to know that I'd be miserable in something like that if I had to be covered in fur or something every day. That wouldn't be that fun for me. CC: So no Cats [the Broadway musical]...JCR: No, no Cats ... You know what I would like to do is some more musicals. I thought the new age of the Hollywood musical had arrived with Chicago, but it turns out they're harder to make than originally thought. CC: Speaking of Chicago and music, you also wrote and sang songs in Walk Hard. What draws you to musicals?JCR: I just grew up doing musicals as a kid. There wasn't a lot of dramatic theater being done in my neighborhood in Chicago. If anyone was putting on a play it was always a musical. So you either had to learn to sing and get into music or you weren't going to be in a play. And I loved acting and doing shows, so it's just something I learned how to do. And then in college I picked up the guitar and started playing just cause it seemed cool at the time. I kinda taught myself how to play guitar and I still play to this day. It's become a pretty big part of my life. I like how pure the expression is in music. You can go straight to the heart of an audience rather than through their brain. It's a little less complicated than doing a play or movie ... I'm still waiting for Guys and Dolls to come together; that would be a great one to do. CC: Who are your favorite musicians?JCR: Tom Waits, The Everly Brothers ... all the usual greats like Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles...CC: Have you ever been in a band?JCR: Yeah, I've had a few bands. A blues band for a while there. I play a lot of music with people just informally. And I play often at this place, Largo, in L.A. It's this great club there, with a lot of great musicians. CC: Any types of characters you haven't played that you'd like to?JCR: I'm really into explorers. I've read a lot of books lately about extreme survival like Ernest Shackleton and Colonel Percy Fawcett, who was a cartographer in South America and disappeared looking for the lost city of gold. I'm drawn to stories like that and nonfiction right now. I guess period pieces. Or a fantasy character might be really fun to do right now.CC: Would you ever want to try a serious romance?JCR: Yeah! A torrid affair on some windswept island ... Yeah, sure, like a Jane Austen kind of thing -- that would be great. CC: What's next after this? Any possibility of a Doctor Steve Brule movie?JCR: I know of Doctor Steve Brule, but I'm not sure what his plans for the future are. I'm not even sure what kind of doctor he is. I'm curious to see his credentials, but I don't know...