There is a wonderful moment near the end of The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) when the titular high school shy-guy, played by Logan Lerman, takes leave of himself, transported by the euphoric cocktail of friendship and adolescence and glee. In a pique of ebullience, he announces, “I can see it. This one moment when you know you’re not a sad story. You are alive … And in this moment, I swear we are infinite.” The moment is doubly wonderful as it coincides with Lerman’s own crossing over as a performer. It is in that moment that audience members—at least those who may have missed him as the swashbuckling half-god teen Percy Jackson in that fantasy franchise—went wow. At that moment he came alive and, in Hollywood terms, was probably infinitely in-demand.
SHANNON: Oh, Jesus.
LERMAN: It’s a bad story.
SHANNON: Yeah, “Hair in All the Wrong Places” is not a good title for a story.
LERMAN: Nope. It’s my autobiography.
SHANNON: Oh, Jesus. “The Logan Lerman Story.” But seriously, Noah is presumably about Noah’s Ark? And you play his son, correct?
LERMAN: Yeah. I play his middle child.
SHANNON: Is the middle child a little more rebellious than the other ones?
LERMAN: I guess so. He’s the biblically “wicked” child, which basically translates to: he questions things. He questions the Creator’s word and his father’s word, so he’s the wicked child.
SHANNON: That’ll get you in some hot water. No pun intended. Get it? So does he get punished for this? I’m not a Bible enthusiast—does he get 40 licks or whatever?
LERMAN: He does get punished.
SHANNON: Well, first of all, his name’s Ham, right? That’s kind of punishment right there. (Lerman laughs) Russell Crowe is Noah. Was it like seeing an old friend, working with Russell again?
LERMAN: I thought he wouldn’t remember me, so when I first saw him, I introduced myself. I assumed he wouldn’t know who the hell I was.
SHANNON: He told me a story about Henry Cavill, who plays Superman. He said that he remembered Henry from when Henry was a child coming up to ask for his advice while they were on set. So if he can remember Henry from being a kid in a movie, he’s probably going to remember you from3:10 to Yuma.
LERMAN: He’s got a great memory, or he’s bullshitting and he looked it all up right before meeting both of us.
SHANNON: No, no, I really do think he remembers. You grew up in Los Angeles?
LERMAN: Yes, I did.
SHANNON: I’ve got to confess, I’ve got a couple of kids myself and sometimes—
LERMAN: You just had a baby, congratulations.
SHANNON: Oh, thank you very much. I’ve got two now. But sometimes people will say, “Are you going to live in L.A.?” And I look at my children and think, “I couldn’t possibly take my children to Los Angeles—that would be terrible.” But you grew up out there and you turned out all right. I just get scared, like, how do you not become a drug addict or something?
LERMAN: It is a weird place to grow up. But I guess you could say that about any major city.
SHANNON: That’s true. I’m in New York City right now. Did you see Kids? Not a good movie to see as a parent. I remember the first time I saw it, I was like, “This is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen!” And now that I have two daughters, I just keep thinking about Chloë Sevigny in that movie; it’s like a horror film.
LERMAN: I can imagine. Must be nerve-racking to have two young daughters.
SHANNON: Did you ever go skateboarding at Venice Beach as a kid, or were you always on set?
LERMAN: I did that pretty often, but I was never really the coordinated, athletic guy. I always made short films and shit like that growing up.
SHANNON: Where does one watch these short films?
LERMAN: My buddy actually put them on YouTube when we were kids. It’s kind of embarrassing that they’re online, but that’s what we did for fun growing up. Other kids played sports, other kids did drugs. We made movies, basically—horror movies, comedies—just spontaneous little creations that came out of 14-year-olds with nothing to do.
SHANNON: Damn, I wish I would’ve had a camera when I was a kid. Are you going to continue to make your own movies?
LERMAN: It’s something I’d like to do eventually. But I’m really passionate about acting right now.
SHANNON: I always feel bad for the director on the set. It just seems like too much work. Today on set, the day kind of fell down around my director, Jeff Nichols. I could see it happening.
LERMAN: And he’s amazing, man.
SHANNON: He’s my favorite. But people don’t realize how much goes into these things. I mean, every little second of film that you’re watching, how much work goes into it. The days of sitting in a director’s chair with a martini, that’s over. It’s down-and-dirty stuff when you’re making something like the David Ayer film—there’s no glamour to it. I wanted to tell you that I really loved your performance in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I loved that movie in general. Your co-star, Ezra Miller, what’s he like?
LERMAN: He’s awesome—a really good actor, a free spirit. He’s kind of that same character in the movie. I love that guy.
SHANNON: How were you able to capture your character’s experience so well? You’ve been acting since you were 5 years old, so you are probably in such a different situation in terms of getting attention and having people like you. And your character is kind of lonely and messed up.
LERMAN: I was kind of like my character Charlie in high school. I was pretty shy and a little bit of a wallflower myself. He kind of reminded me of two friends I grew up with who I was very close with, so I took a lot from them and put it into that role.
SHANNON: And Emma Watson. She was also quite spectacular, and she’s in Noah as well.
LERMAN: She plays my sister this time.
SHANNON: Your sister. Probably a pretty different relationship.
LERMAN: Very different, although our characters didn’t really interact that much in Noah.
SHANNON: I hear you play music. What do you play, the kazoo?
LERMAN: I do. I play the kazoo, a little bit of the harmonica, steel drum. Those are my primaries.
SHANNON: What are you, Jamaican?
LERMAN: (laughs) You know, I’ve asked myself that question before. No, I play the piano and drums and guitar and things like that. Do you play music at all?
SHANNON: Yes, I have a band.
LERMAN: No shit.
SHANNON: Yeah. I wasn’t going to bring it up because this is supposed to be about you, but, yeah, I have a band. We’re called Corporal.
LERMAN: What do you do in the band?
SHANNON: I breakdance mostly. No, I play piano, bass, and guitar—I’m the frontman. What do you do with your music? Do you record it? Do you put it on the internet?
LERMAN: No. I keep that for myself. I like to jam. I play with my friends’ bands, but I’ve never put anything out there. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but once I started working more, I couldn’t commit to bands because I was just going to take off in a month.
SHANNON: Do you do, like, Alicia Keys covers?
LERMAN: Oh, I love Alicia Keys. How did you know that? Are you a mind reader?
SHANNON: And Lady Gaga? She played the piano and sang a song at the YouTube Music Awards that I thought was very powerful. Did you see that? She cried while she was playing the piano and singing.
LERMAN: Multitasking.
SHANNON: Yeah. It was kind of shocking to see such a heartfelt performance in the middle of the YouTube Music Awards.
LERMAN: I didn’t even know there was a YouTube Music Awards.
SHANNON: The first one was this year—I played in a short film for a DJ named Avicii. Before our performance, he showed up and he checked me out. He looked me over and he gave his sign of approval, although he made me change my shirt.
LERMAN: Is this for real, man, because I’m going to look this up.
SHANNON: This is all for real. Spike Jonze directed it. It was one of the main reasons I did it, because I wanted to meet Spike Jonze.
LERMAN: I’m a huge fan.
SHANNON: I heard that you really love movies, so let’s talk about some movies that I like and see if you like them. Have you ever seen The Decalogue by Kieslowski, the ten films based on the Ten Commandments?
LERMAN: No, I have not.
SHANNON: I recommend that one. He also made the Three Colors trilogy: Red (1994), White (1994), and Blue (1993).
LERMAN: I saw those.
SHANNON: He’s one of my favorite filmmakers. Have you seen The King of Comedy (1983)?
LERMAN: Yeah, of course. It’s been a long time, but it’s a classic De Niro, dude.
SHANNON: I just like seeing Jerry Lewis wrapped up in duct tape. I can’t imagine how much duct tape it took to wrap him in that chair that way. My favorite film in the last year wasPhilomena.
LERMAN: Oh, I loved that. Loved it. Steve Coogan.
SHANNON: Yeah. He’s something else. And he’s funny, but not in a glib way.
LERMAN: No, he manages to bring levity to really dramatic situations without undercutting the drama. It’s really impressive.
SHANNON: And then the year before, my favorite movie was Amour. That was about older people as well. Did you see that?
LERMAN: Yes! Beautiful.
SHANNON: What’s a super young guy like you doing watching these movies about old people?
LERMAN: I need to go out more, huh?
SHANNON: So when are we going to get your Harold and Maude (1971) remake?
LERMAN: If only you could, man. You can’t remake that film.
SHANNON: You and Judi Dench, come on!
LERMAN: Oh, dude. That’s actually a really good idea, but you can’t do that. People would hate me for it. I would hate me for it if I remade Harold and Maude.
SHANNON: You can’t live life that way, worrying about people hating you. If I lived my life that way, I wouldn’t be on the phone with you right now.
LERMAN: It’s just such a perfect film, why remake it?
SHANNON: So you’re in New York. You’re a young man. And it’s an evening that you have free to yourself. What are you going to do?
LERMAN: Sadly, I’m going to go eat some dinner. Probably go back up to my hotel room and search the internet for an hour. That’s going to be my night.
SHANNON: Come on, you’ve got to have some buddies in New York.
LERMAN: I have to get up early tomorrow. I’ve got work.
SHANNON: Maybe you should do some volunteer work or something. Go to some island somewhere and build a house.
LERMAN: That’s a good idea. Maybe I will do that.
SHANNON: Well, it feels like they’ve gotten a chance to know you better. I certainly do feel that way, and I hope to talk again soon.
LERMAN: Hey, likewise. It’s been a pleasure, and best of luck with the rest of filming. You know I’m really excited about that movie.
SHANNON: Oh, Midnight Special? Yeah, I think it should be all right.
LERMAN: Wait a second—what a cool title.
SHANNON: Midnight Special? People keep calling itMidnight Express (1978), which is a very different movie.
LERMAN: Very different.