Eddie Kaye Thomas

Eddie Kaye Thomas recently turned 25, but he's still getting cast as a teen. Not that you'll catch him complaining about it. In the new off-Broadway play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, he gets to play an iconic American character, albeit with a dark twist: CB, the lead in this "unauthorized" Peanuts parody is that quintessential moper, Charlie Brown, as seen in high school. His beagle has died, his sister's a Wiccan and his best friend's a pothead—and he's still looking for the answers to life's big questions. The tall, boyish-looking Thomas created something of an icon himself as Finch, the quiet, brainy kid who bedded his friend's mom in the American Pie films. A New York native, he started acting at age seven, making an auspicious stage debut in the Brooklyn Shakespeare Company production of Richard III and going on to appear in the Broadway productions of John Guare's Four Baboons Adoring the Sun and The Diary of Anne Frank, as well as off-Broadway in Mike Leigh's Smelling a Rat. On film, he also appeared in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Neo Ned, Stolen Summer and Freddy Got Fingered. Broadway.com caught up with Thomas during a recent dinner break as he prepared for a two-show night: one at 7 pm and one at 10 pm.

That sounds like a grueling schedule.
It's a little grueling but it's very exciting to do a 10 o'clock show. I've never done anything like that. We're all pumped.

How'd you get roped into this project?
"Roped in" isn't a good term. You know, I've been in L.A. for seven years, but I grew up here in New York, and the urge to get back home has been eating at me for quite some time. I asked my agents to start trying to send me some scripts and see if I could audition for some plays. The thing that brought me over the top was when I saw Brian O'Byrne on Charlie Rose talking about Doubt. He was so passionate about it, and I was like, "That's exactly what I want to be doing—that's how I want to be spending my time." So I got a place in New York, and soon after that I got this audition. The timing was pretty amazing on my behalf.

The American Pie films are often called "gross-out comedies." Is Dog Sees God is a gross-out comedy?
Absolutely not. It is about teenagers, but we're all about 10 years older, so we have this great view of that place in adolescence where you're really trying to grab on to things and be very authoritative about your opinions, but you're still just doing everything for the first time. I think the comedy comes from that—from all these people who are trying to lock into a personality, but it's almost their first idea: I'm gonna be the stoner, I'm gonna be the jock. And it's a real honest look at that by people looking at it from hindsight rather than being lost in it. But no, we don't have any sperm jokes or shitting jokes.

CB doesn't read up on tantric sex?
No. Through the rehearsal process, I knew there were funny things in the play, but I didn't realize how much the audiences were going to be laughing. And then the play takes a really huge turn and really stabs people in the heart because of the honesty that's throughout all of the comedy, and it makes the ending of the play work so well.

Were you a fan of Peanuts, either the comic strip or the animated specials?
I was a fan of It's the Great Race, Charlie Brown. I used to watch that over and over again. But it wasn't until this play that I really started getting into the original comics, and I was blown away. They are absolutely beautiful strips. Some are them are so profound. Charlie Brown is constantly trying to find something to latch onto, something to maintain his happiness. And as we all know from growing up, there is no one thing that can do that. It's heartbreaking to read those strips sometimes, because everyone's trying to help Charlie, but it's just not possible. He's looking too hard for something that doesn't exist. It's kind of opened up my eyes, as well.

Charlie Brown would be put on Ritalin if he were a real kid today, don't you think?
I would hope not. I think after you see the show, you'll understand why that would be the worst idea. Because what Charlie was doing when he was eight, and now at this age, is looking for an honest answer: Someone please tell me why all this stuff is happening to me! Why can't I go home and hug my dog? Why does everyone have to be so cruel to me? Why can't the world just work out in a nice way? You're right, I think people probably would put him on Ritalin, and that would be the biggest tragedy, because we need to go through that pain in order to heal. We have to hurt in order to callus.

It's a pretty star-studded cast. Has everyone checked their ego at the door, or are there some divas?
I almost hate saying it, because it seems such an obvious thing to say, but the group has become an incredible thing. I've been involved with plays before, and you really want to build that trust group—the one you learn about in acting school, with the exercise where you fall back and let somebody catch you. But I haven't ever really gotten that true feeling of, We're going to rise together and fall together until this group. I don't know how these people act beyond this project here, but together it's been an incredible dynamic. The great thing about it is we're all in a very similar place, in our age and career and life, and we all have very similar things going on, so we're all going through this together. We're all in the same place—including Trip, the director, and Bert, the writer. We're all here out of pure love for the theater form but also for this piece, which we all fall in love every day and have a real deep connection to.

Can you foresee an American Pie sequel that looks back on those characters in 10 years?
It's up to Universal Studios. There actually is another American Pie movie coming out on DVD next year with a whole different cast. I think they go to band camp or something.

Good grief! You mean the original characters won't be reunited at some point?
I would honestly be one of the last people to know. When the third film was happening, people started telling me about it and I said, "Listen, I'm sure they'd call me and tell me." And then they actually just went ahead and announced it, and lots of the press knew about it before I did. So you let me know.

I will. Hey, I noticed that your co-star on The Rage: Carrie 2, Emily Bergl, is in A Touch of the Poet on Broadway. Did you get to know her on that film?
We were pretty good friends. I haven't seen her in a little while. That's an awesome thing about this business: You go far away, and then you wind up down the street from each other.

Eddie, I'm sorry, but I have to ask this: Do any of the other teen characters in Dog Sees God have a hot mom CB is interested in?
There are no adults in the show.

Wait, so there's none of that wah-wah-wah talking, like the adults in the Peanuts cartoons?
I'll let the audience supply that.

See Eddie Kaye Thomas in Dog Sees God at the Century Center for the Performing Arts, 111 East 15th Street. Click for tickets and more information.