Jesse Eisenberg in "Adventureland," Miramax Films, 2009

One of my favorite details about the film is how it simultaneously captures both how lyrical and depressing these little amusement parks can be.

It's similar to how Tom Waits or Bruce Springsteen would talk about carnivals or Asbury Park, or Fellini would have circuses. The amusement park is a metaphor. It's shabby, kind of ugly, there really are people vomiting everywhere, and the food makes you sick. It can be an awful place that gets on your nerves, with the endless Top 40 music on the sound system. But then the sun can go down, a breeze can start blowing, a cute girl could start flirting with you, a great song that you actually love could come onto the radio, and with all the twinkling lights, I'm a total sucker for it. It really does work its magic. It taps right into this childhood feeling. There's a place for that. It has a power, and there's a reason people still love them.

What did you hate most about working at that park?

Here's a story I haven't told that many times, when I felt like it really sank in, how humiliating the job was. Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats was the first celebrity I ever met. I was working the classic balloon and water pistol game, and his hot, tattooed girlfriend won. The prize was -- I used it in the movie -- a banana with eyes, and she didn't want that. She wanted the St. Bernard or whatever, and I was like, "You have to win five times to get that," knowing literally that if I gave them the wrong prize and somebody saw me, I'd get fired. I didn't just say, "Here, you're cool. I really like your music. Rockabilly is awesome." [laughs] I stuck by the rules, not that celebrities don't get free things all the time. I just remember being really depressed that I didn't risk losing this job to give someone whose music I actually liked a lot at the time a dumb St. Bernard. It was pitiful.

Well, Judd made a lot of things possible that, for whatever reason, the studios didn't want to finance before that -- R-rated comedies, for instance. But "Adventureland" is a very low-concept movie. Nobody wanted to make this, pre-"Superbad," because they thought, "It's set in the '80s, kids today are going to think it's not about their generation, and older people are going to think it's a kids' movie." "Freaks and Geeks" is something I thought about a lot when I made this, because that's a depiction of growing up in the suburbs that gets it right. That kind of realism is not something Hollywood's often interested in. They don't want bittersweet movies about the loneliness of suburban living. That's not sexy to them.

Judd, besides being incredibly hilarious, really cares about what the emotion of a story is. On "Undeclared," we did table reads. There'd be a joke that would get a huge laugh in the room, and I'd see Judd crossing it out with his red pen. He'd say, "It steps on the emotion. It breaks the psychology. We can't just put it in there because it's funny." For someone like me who loves comedies that are more nuanced and adult, Judd's a savior. So yeah, we'll all ride his coattails and poach his talent pool. [laughs] It's like being part of a theater company, and you get to work with your friends over and over again.

What's the single greatest thing that 1987 has produced?

"Full Metal Jacket," maybe? I remember seeing that movie that summer and being blown away. And "Ernest Goes to Camp" was also '87. [laughs]

“Adventureland” opens in wide release on April 3rd.

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