Comedian, musician, actress and Knocked Up standout, Charlyne Yi didn't believe in falling love. She didn't think it would ever happen for her, and wanted to explore how other people were dealing with the phenomenon. The documentary/narrative hybrid, Paper Heart follows Charlyne in her quest to get to the meat of the human heart via interviewing average people on a roadtrip across America, maybe meeting Michael Cera and interpreting her findings through handmade puppet dioramas. Now the confusing part: the actors involved play themselves, aside from Jake Johnson who plays the film's actual director, Nicholas Jasenovec. Charlyne and Jake (Jake playing Nick and Jake as himself) share a sibling-esque bond, both in the film and during their press tour and are equally invested in the success of their project. Hearts will break across America if this indie flick (drops today) doesn't hit it big.

In the film you’ve said that everyone was playing a version of themselves. Was it ever hard to snap out of the pretend you? Charlyne Yi: Oh, no. I couldn’t wait to get out of it. I’m so used to being loud and having my hands fly around and I think I had to contain myself as the character Charlyne. It was nice to let loose and a lot of times when they would cut I would just start singing MC Hammer songs.

Jake, did Nick give you notes during filming, on himself? Jake Johnson:He just gave me joke ideas. A lot of the inspiration would come because he would say something. Since we’ve been in New York, he’s calling himself the Urban Cat because even though he doesn’t live in the big city, this is where the Urban Cat belongs. So, if we were shooting Paper Heart, I would do a scene where I would then reference the fact that I’m an Urban Cat and belong in the big city.

How much of the film was scripted? CY: 50 percent was documenting, 50 percent was based off of a 5-page outline. JJ: Right, but there was no script, everything was improvised.

How long were you on the road? CY: About 5 weeks? JJ: 5 weeks on the road and then two and a half weeks with Michael [Cera] in LA.

What was life like on the road? Rock star lifestyle? CY: Whenever we did go out to bars, we would rudely interrupt each other by having our fart war. We had a fart war throughout most of the trip. I remember when one of the guys was hitting on a girl in a bar and I ran in between them and farted and so I kind of crushed their rock star dream of hitting up the ladies

But how were you traveling? JJ: We were in an eleven-seater van. It's the van that you actually see in the movie. We went from LA to New York. CY: Very snug. JJ: We stayed at cheap hotels along the way and would travel for probably 8 to 10 hours a day shoot an interview and do some scenes on the side of the road. Charlyne and I were in the back of the van the whole time in the last row, switching off who was at the window who was in the middle with the cooler. We wanted to keep our on-screen connection going -- life imitated art, or art imitated life, whatever that is -- but we were always back there talking. When we'd do a scene, we'd pull over, Nick would grab a camera and we would just try to continue the tone of what we were doing in the car mixed with Nick’s reaction what was going on and what was happening in the story of the movie.

How did you find the individuals that you interviewed? JJ: Eileen Kennedy? CY: Yeah, I was gonna make up a joke, but, Eileen Kennedy. She cast reality TV shows before, and she drove out two weeks in advance looking up lists that we compiled of sorts of people we’d like to meet and she pre-interviewed people. She went from town to town like asking, 'Do you know where these sort of people hang out? Do you have any references?' She would show us videos through the internet and we would see the pre-interviews. She even went to a Polygamist area where we were hoping to interview and it was a shaky camera and she sees some like pilgrim-esque kids digging in the backyard and she’s like, 'Oh my God and then she turns around to the right and she sees a pick-up truck and a guy with a shot gun and she’s like, 'Okay, let’s get out of here.' She had quite an adventure herself like kind of dictating where we would go whether or not we’d get into trouble or not.

Did anyone butt heads on the road? JJ: Nick and Charlyne did a little bit in terms of creativity. We just became like brother and sister. We fought, but it’d be more like joke-fighting where we’d punch each other in the arms. Rather than fighting, we'd just would go through extreme phases of being annoyed at each other. I can’t sleep in vans so whenever she would fall asleep I would go, 'HEY CHARLYNE,' and wake her up, then I’d go, 'Were you sleeping?' Now what we’re doing in press is, my brother and I had a thing growing up where we’re always allowed to hit each other in the face—not punch but slap—and I said [to Charlyne], 'You’re allowed to hit me whenever you want during an interview.' We were doing live TV in San Diego and they asked me a serious question, and I’m taking it all seriously and I’m like, 'Well, stepping into the character of Nick…; and I’d just feel this giant slap across the face.

How did the interviewer react? JJ: He was like,'Whoa whoa, whoa. She just hit you?' And then I just kept rolling with it 'cause that’s part of the joke.

You’re not hitting her back, right? JJ: I hit her back. CY: He hits me back, but not on TV. He’s afraid that people will think he’s... JJ: Abusive. You can’t have a mustache and hit a girl Charlyne’s size.

What was the most honest, inspirational thing that you heard from the people you interviewed? CY: My favorite thing was the first interview with Mike, the guy that was playing pool. After all that talk about who his true love was, he realizes maybe he was wrong. I really loved his honest reaction, and I thought that was interesting, when he was unsure about what love is when he was so sure at the beginning of that hour interviewing him. JJ: I liked the little blond kid, David, at the playground. When he was describing the ideal date was seafood.

Everything the kids say in the film is so adorable, but was all of the footage that cute? CY: There was a lot of yelling and chasing and me being pushed around so there was so much footage of just hecticness and wild yelling. There was footage that we really wanted to keep in when the kids took over took the microphone and started to interview the crew. The crew just didn’t expect it, so like the camera guy Ben was like, 'Um—I—I don’t know if I’ve been in love.' You get these real reactions of people being intimidated by children.

Did you have to cut a lot of that for time constraints? CY: Yeah, and I also think we tried to make each segment an appropriate amount of time. Each person had a certain amount of time to tell what the story was and I think at a certain point you kind of got what the idea was.

Any particular places that you loved from the road? JJ: I really loved New Mexico. CY: There’s this old restaurant with this humongous tree and the roots were breaking the brick floor and like through the roof. JJ: It was in old-town Albuquerque. It just felt like a part of America that I hadn’t seen. CY: This is so stupid, but in Flagstaff, I saw one of my favorite sunsets. It was really gorgeous and I was like, 'Ugh, this is so beautiful. Why are the sunsets so much prettier everywhere besides like Los Angeles?'

Did the road trip instill a travel bug in you at all? CY: When I got home I was like, 'Yes! I’m home!' And then there was a part of me that wanted to get back on the road again. I missed the adventure.

Did your success at Sundance make you think of the film any differently? CY: No, I thought, 'Awesome, people are gonna be able to see the film.' JJ: When we made the film, we were told that it would go to DVD for sure, and they were going to do basically one screening in New York and one in LA and that was guaranteed. When we got into Sundance, we thought, 'We might have a chance at getting distributed,' but we weren’t sure. And then we won the [Waldo Salt Screenwriting] award, and we found out that Overture was gonna get behind it. I think the winning of the award and the reception at Sundance gave the movie a chance, which felt pretty great. So, we hope it goes. At Overture, they’re all saying like, 'We don’t know how it’s gonna go, it depends if people like it, because this is going to be a word-of-mouth movie.' So if people like it and they tell people then we have a chance, if they don’t, then we'll see it on Netflix in a year and a half.

How'd you work with the dioramas that explain people's love stories? Did your dad help? CY: He helped me with all the wood-cutting and mechanics, but I did everything else. He just helped me cut the wood because I’m not strong enough. It was really fun making the puppets, but I felt mildly crazy. I remember people would call me and I’m just like, 'Don’t bother me right now. The puppets are staring at me I have to finish them. I have a deadline.'

Do you think that the documentary slash narrative hybrid is going to be a new trend? CY: I don’t know if there’s others. Well, there's Borat... JJ: I don’t think it’s necessarily a new trend. CY: I think we used it particularly just to tell this story. I don’t think we’d ever use it again. I don’t know if other people are going to use it after this, we’ll see. JJ: I think they will because it’s cheap to do.