Justin Long is well known as the Mac in the Mac Vs. PC television commercials. Now he plays a computer hacker in "Live Free or Die Hard," solidifying his geek credentials. Perhaps that is a testament to his acting, because Long claims to be computer illiterate.
"I just think it’s sort of funny that for somebody who is as retarded as I am is playing the smart hacker guy," said Long. "I get the worst of both worlds. I look like a geeky hacker but I don’t know anything about computers. I play a hacker in this movie and I have to deliver a lot of exposition about like, ‘Well, the algorithm is contracted into…’"
For the record, his computers in the film are PCs. "I’m sure they were aware of it. I don’t think they’d want Macs everywhere in the movie. Listen to iPods while we’re running away from things."
Long and Bruno in "Live Free Or Die Hard"
Long did get to bring his personal brand of humor to the "Die Hard" one-liners. "They always wanted us to do a bunch scripted, but the script was sort of in a constant state of flux. Bruce [Willis] did it too. There was a lot of that going on. In those moments of sort of like extreme, I’m always scared for my life, it’s kind of hard to stick to [the script]. You kind of have to bring something a bit more natural. Some of the dialogue was not exactly solidified. I’m just surprised he left a lot of it in. I was really, really surprised."
"Live Free Or Die Hard" is in theaters today and is Certified Fresh with 78 percent on the Tomatometer.
