Seth Green

In "Without a Paddle," Seth Green plays one of three big-city friends (Dax Shepard and Matthew Lillard are the other two) who venture into the woods of Washington state in search of the lost treasure of D.B. Cooper, who hijacked an airplane in 1971 and disappeared with a $200,000 ransom by parachuting from the jetliner. Of course, their quest turns out to be harder than expected, and along the way they encounter a hungry grizzly as well as a grizzly mountain man (Burt Reynolds). MTV News’ Kelly Marino sat down by the campfire with Green to ask burning questions about bears, gangsta rap and the star of "Smokey and the Bandit."

MTV: First of all, let’s talk about the bear scene. That wasn’t really you in the bear’s mouth, right?

Seth Green: No, that’s not at all intelligent to do. Cause it’s a bear, and at the end of the day the bear is sated with chocolate, whipped cream and powdered doughnuts, but chances are, you put a human being into it’s mouth and it’s going to be like, "This tastes a whole lot more natural to me." So, I stayed away from that.

MTV: So even during the parts where your character wasn’t in its mouth, you were worried about working with the bear?

Green: I really put a lot of faith in the people around me and the fact that they are doing their job, and I try to do my job as best as possible.

MTV: Did the director allowed you guys to do much improv?

Green: There was a lot of improvising in the movie, and it’s a testament to [director Steven] Brill as a director that he was able to keep that governed and put it together so cohesively. You have three guys who are all trained and skilled in improv both comedic and dramatic. And they have the most supple firm asses you will ever get to put your hands on, and believe me I put my hands on it every chance I could.

MTV: So none of that was challenging to you?

Green: The greatest challenge was keeping my hands off those gorgeous men’s asses. [He laughs.]

MTV: About the music, did you have any part in picking the song for the scene where you guys sing along to "Nothin’ But a ’G’ Thang"?

Green: No, no, the one thing that actually happened, we didn’t know which songs we were actually going to get clearance for, we were supposed to be doing sing-alongs to our mixtape in the car, and we’d done all these .38 Special and the Clash and all that, and we’re on this rig driving back in the car, and I just came out with the "One, two, three and to the four ..." ’cause on my background is all this hip-hop, so we just started rapping all this Dre song and Brill was like, "We’re filming it" and we were trying to get Suge Knight on the phone trying to get clearance. Well, the simple fact of the matter is that I’m waiting for someone like Dre to see the movie and complain that they cut the verses together ’cause I know all the words to all of Dre’s song, and the fact that it was edited makes me look like an idiot, and I don’t appreciate it at all. If [Interscope Records CEO] Jimmy Iovine comes after me I’m blaming Steve Brill.

MTV: What was it like working with a veteran like Burt Reynolds?

Green: Yeah, not only a veteran but a legitimate icon. He’s one of the most famous movie stars that I can put my finger on, and I put more than one finger on his gorgeous ass. He was great. It was such a thrill to get to hang out with him. And he told us amazing stories, but more than that he was really, really friendly, and collaborative, and humble. And, um, so reflective and honest about what he’d been through. It was great, and I truly loved it.

MTV: Had you ever seen his movie "Deliverance," which has some parallels to "Without a Paddle"?

Green: I had seen "Deliverance," but I hadn’t seen his other work, so this was a crash course.

MTV: And finally, what’s your take on D.B. Cooper? Do you think his money’s really out there somewhere, or is that just a legend?

Green: Well, D.B. Cooper actually hijacked a plane and it was ransoms money that he collected, then he jumped out of a plane and no one ever found him, although there was some money that washed up at some point.

MTV: You think he could have survived the jump?

Green: It’s possible. Anything is possible. Elvis is still alive. He doesn’t look so good. A little decomposed and still hanging onto his cape.