Patton Oswalt waxes nostalgic for 'Young Adult'

“How f—king amazing was she in this movie?” Patton Oswalt asks breathlessly when one of Charlize Theron’s particularly harrowing scenes in “Young Adult” is mentioned. She was amazing, but really, this film, written by Diablo Cody, directed by Jason Reitman and co-starring Oswalt himself, is overloaded with talent. Playing the impromptu sidekick to a woman on a mission to seduce her married high school boyfriend, Oswalt went to great lengths to get his character right. He even hired an acting coach to tackle the role, which is something quite different from what he’s used to in his stand-up performances and film and TV appearances. The multi-hyphenate spoke to Metro in an exclusive interview about Generation X and the dangers of nostalgia.

You used an acting coach for the first time with this role. Why did you think this character merited that kind of preparation?

Because the script was so good but there was so much nuance and so much of a delicate tightrope back and forth between despair and humor. The humor never came out of “let’s stick a joke here.” The humor came out of real human behavior. I had this mix of exhilaration for being offered the script and then terror. I didn’t want to do wrong by it because it was so well-written.

Screenwriter Diablo Cody fits so many pop culture references into her work and you’ve discussed so much pop culture in yours, so how do your two viewpoints relate to each other?

“Juno” was, whether you like it or not, a pretty accurate depiction of how young people talk to each other … This movie [“Young Adult”], if you notice, there’s not as much pop culture bric-a-brac in the dialogue because this is more about Gen X getting older and moving towards 40 and 45 and 50 and what do they have to jettison and what do they still hold on to? I think they remember being so self-conscious about people that were baby boomers and how stupid they sounded using their old slang and now they’re almost over thinking, “Do I say the stuff I used to say?” So again, like it or not, it is a very accurate portrait of, “this is how Gen X gets older.” If you thought the baby boomers grew old in a really clumsy way, wait till you see how we do it.

Much of the film has to do with sentimentality and trying to bring the past into the present. Are you ever tempted to do that?

It’s very dangerous. I’m just as guilty of it as anyone else. I think Frank Zappa said, “some day we’re all going to die of nostalgia.” Nostalgia is also an anagram for lost again. You have to keep moving forward because a big part of life is loss. Things fall away and it’s very childish to turn away from that. I have mixed feelings about it because I can say what I just said and then when I’m done with this day, I know I’m going to wind down by listening to Juliana Hatfield’s “Hey Babe” and old Elvis Costello and Supergrass and just kind of then be awash in those memories. It’s almost like if you want the same good times to keep happening, that’s what’s dangerous. Good times can keep happening, just not the same ones and if you expect to be the same person having the same good time, then that’s also really dangerous.

You’ve got a well-received comedy album released, a book out (“Zombie Spaceship Wasteland”), and there’s awards buzz for your performance here. Would you ever aspire to achieve an EGOP? (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Pulitzer)

[Laughs uproariously] I just want to keep doing creative work. Obviously I want to write, I want to do comedy. I want to do films and TV. I mean, of course I’d love an Oscar nomination. Of course I’d love a Pulitzer, but not if it meant that I couldn’t keep doing steady work. I just want to work all the time. Obviously, getting a nomination would help me get more work. That is true. And also, I’d love to go to the Oscars.