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You likely know just a thing or two about Charlyne Yi. Both of those things are probably wrong.
The comedian/actress has never been high, but because of her role as a major stoner in "Knocked Up," multiple people have asked her if she has any weed. And as a result of their real-seeming relationship in "Paper Heart" many outlets have reported that Yi is/was dating Michael Cera but, according to Yi, the two have never dated and are just friends.
The confusion between fact and fiction appropriately parallels "Paper Heart," opening in limited release Aug. 7. The film blends partially scripted, fictional footage of Yi's developing relationship with Cera with real, documentary footage of writer Yi and co-writer/director Nicholas Jasenovec (played by Jake M. Johnson) traveling across the country to ask people about their thoughts on love. Interview subjects include everyone from a romance novelist to a psychic to a judge who oversees divorces to celebrities like Seth Rogen and Demetri Martin. Yi, 23, says she wanted to use real people to ground the fictional love story, with the concept partially sprung from her own curiosity about how to find a mate.
"I don't drink," says Yi, "So I go to a bar and it's like, 'Hey, you're pretty cool. Oh, you're drunk. Oh, no!"
Indeed, "Paper Heart," a hit at the 2009 Sundance Film Fest, captures the eagerness and awkwardness of a young woman looking for love, and the onscreen romance between Yi and Cera achieves its own form of vulnerable indie sweetness. Yet it's the real-life interviews that really make the film an interesting examination of Americans' experiences. Yi recalls one young kid they interviewed with a particularly—and, likely, unintentionally—profound take on romance.
"He said, 'If you keep giving away your heart, pretty soon you're not going to have a heart anymore,'" Yi says. "I was like, 'Can you ever get your heart back?' 'Probably. If someone gives loves to you, maybe they'll give you your heart back.'"
This is but one example of the way "Paper Heart" breaks down what we think we know about love into more intriguing tidbits of personal experience and inexperience. A kid has legitimate thoughts on adult relationships. A man whose wife divorced him hopes, "Maybe my soulmate's still out there." A psychic claims to be right 100 percent of the time. It's all a portrait of love's subjectivity, as frequently entertaining and ridiculous as people modeling standards of monogamy on celebrity behavior in Hollywood.
"L.A. is such a weird bubble compared to the rest of the world," says Johnson. "If a relationship lasts a minute and a half there, that's like six months to a year [in another city.]"
Besides, celebrity relationships aren't necessarily better or easier than yours, and, obviously, just because celebs seem like ideal partners on screen doesn't necessarily speak to their life off-screen. That's why Yi—who's perhaps a bit naive about the existence of people's celeb crushes—is amazed at fans who, thinking she's Cera's girlfriend, envy her position. "You don't even know him," she says. "What if he was a huge jerk?"
Not that she's saying Cera is a jerk, of course. (Though Yi notes Cera is unlike many of his awkward characters: "Michael's confident. He can be loud. A lot of the characters he plays are timid and stuttery, and I mean everyone stutters, but not that much.")
Just that in relationships, there's often a big difference between what you think is real and what's actually real. Hence, Yi's answer to whether in the 21st century she'd still want someone to stand outside her place holding a boombox, "Say Anything" style.
"That'd be awesome. I'd totally [love if someone did that for me]. If they were cool," she says. "If they were some weirdo-creep, then no."
