Here’s Why Natasha Lyonne Hasn’t Seen Most of the ‘American Pie’ Movies

Natasha Lyonne has assembled a killer lineup of celebrity guest stars for the second season of Poker Face, but her memory of past collaborations isn’t nearly as impressive. Case in point: She doesn’t remember working with John Cho, the actor who appeared in multiple comedy movies with Lyonne. 

“I think that he’s maybe in some of the American Pies,” she guessed while speaking to Deadline. 

Here’s a refresher for Lyonne: Cho appeared in American Pie, American Pie 2, American Wedding and American Reunion as “MILF Guy.” Lyonne played smart-ass Jessica in all of those films except for American Wedding, which she apparently forgot to attend. “I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen those,” she confessed. “I did see the first one at the premiere. I do love Chris and Paul Weitz. I do talk a lot of shit about that movie, it’s mostly just because I don’t understand high school or proms or suburbia.”

Lyonne still isn’t sure who her co-stars were. “I think that John’s in those movies,” she speculated. “Because whenever I see John around town or something, we’re always like, ‘American Pie!’ And then, when he got to set, we were like, ‘American Pie!’ But I was sort of playing along, if I’m honest, because I was just like, we’ve been doing that bit for over a decade, and so I kind of had to commit to the bit. He is in the movies, right?”

Yes, he’s in those movies.

Maybe Lyonne blocked out those memories because, as she admits, she talks shit about the American Pie franchise when given the chance. “I’d much prefer to be in Lord of the Rings,” she told Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast late last year. “I turned down (American Pie) like five times out of sheer confusion. Because I was at Tisch by 15 so I had no tangible experience of going to a white-person high school and then doing dates for prom. I had no idea what the movie was about.”

But Lyonne’s refusals were more than simple bewilderment. “I was sort of morally against it,” she said. “I have never really enjoyed the idea of, you know, these are the hot chicks and you are ‘Other.’ I’m like, that’s not that fun, guys.”

“With 400 years between me and the film, I can see that it’s very interesting. It touched a nerve for people and they felt seen in it,” she said. “But I was very confused by the film.” 

So why do the series at all after all those refusals? “I just don’t think I understood the movie,” Lyonne told Drew Barrymore. “But then they gave me money, and then I began to understand.”