Can an average Joe and a brainy blonde bombshell find true happiness together? That's the question at the center of She's Out of My League, a refreshing, rambunctious romantic comedy from DreamWorks Pictures.  When Kirk (Jay Baruchel), an airport security agent, catches the eye of a stunning party planner named Molly (Alice Eve), no one can believe it's really happening--especially him!
A wildly entertaining combination of outrageous comic antics and old-fashioned romance, She's Out of My League starring Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, Nate Torrence, Krysten Ritter, Geoff Stults and Lindsay Sloane is directed by Jim Field Smith.  Written by Sean Anders & John Morris. 

Twenty-something Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel) works as a TSA agent at the Pittsburgh airport.  He still hangs out with his high school buddies and co-workers, Jack (Mike Vogel), Stainer (T.J.  Miller) and Devon (Nate Torrence) and imagines of getting back together with his ex-girlfriend, Marnie (Lindsay Sloane), who has long since moved on.  All in all, Kirk seems content to simply maintain the status quo--until the day Molly (Alice Eve) sashays through his security checkpoint at the airport and accidentally leaves her cell phone behind. 
Molly is smart, sophisticated, devastatingly beautiful--and completely out of Kirk's league.  When Kirk returns the phone as a courtesy, she offers to repay the favor with a pair of hockey game tickets, and he accepts, never thinking for one second that this dream girl is asking him out on a date.   
The pair couldn't seem less suited to each other, a fact that Kirk's friends and family waste no time pointing out to him.  She, in Stainer's words, is a "hard 10," the top of the dating food chain, while Kirk is struggling to keep his status at five. 
Nonetheless, Molly is determined to win him over and as Kirk struggles to understand why such a gorgeous girl would be interested in him, he starts to think maybe she sees something no one else can.  After being wined and dined by the most beautiful woman he's ever met, Kirk is finally starting to believe in himself and contemplate a different future. Then he makes a disastrous first impression on Molly's upper-crust parents, and the relationship is over as quickly as it began.
With the "help" of his friends, Kirk launches an all-out attempt to win Molly back, with hilariously cringe-inducing results.  With Molly's dashing ex-boyfriend and Kirk's suddenly possessive ex-girlfriend Marnie complicating his quest, Kirk attempts to prove that if you try hard enough, love can overcome even a five-point spread.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
When producers Jimmy Miller, David Householter and George Gatins began work on She's Out of My League, they agreed the film's success would ultimately hinge on keeping the tone real and the characters believable.  "We all knew that what made the script unique was a combination of outrageous laughs, genuine emotion and real affection for the characters," says executive producer Gatins.  "We wanted to make a movie with heart.  If the characters aren't presented as real people rather than caricatures, then an audience isn't going to become emotionally invested in whether or not they get together."
The producers' first step was to find a director who shared their sensibility and vision.  "We had seen a short film by a young British commercial and sketch comedy director named Jim Field Smith," recalls Gatins.  "Jim had never directed a feature before, but he obviously had a flair for comedy that comes from a place that's very real."
Field Smith was in London, where he lives and works, when he got a surprise phone call from his agent in Los Angeles telling him DreamWorks had him in mind to direct a romantic comedy.  "I really loved the script," he recalls, "because the comedy came from the characters rather than being pure formula.  I put myself on the next plane to Los Angeles and came out to meet with the producers."
Field Smith sensed that screenwriters Sean Anders & Tim Morris had tapped into a universal experience.  "It was such a solid concept and also had these fantastic characters," he says.  "I had read high-concept comedies and thought 'wow, that's great but I don't know if I'm the right guy to direct that.' This could have been just another geek gets hot girl story, but under the broader, more basic comedy, there's an emotional core, and the fusion of the two is where the heart of the script is. Because of that, we can have the most outrageous scenes, but when they're seen in the context of everything you know about the characters, you accept those scenes as real, and hopefully funny, situations."
"That's my kind of comedy," the director continues.  "I want to see characters who are real and relatable and then see them go through hell, because I want to imagine how I would react in that situation.  "It's funny seeing someone slip on a banana peel.  But what's funnier to me, is to see someone slip on a banana peel, and then while they're lying on the ground their phone rings and it's their girlfriend saying 'you're dumped.'  That to me is immediately 400 times funnier, because they have to pick themselves off the ground metaphorically as well as literally."
After speaking with Field Smith, the producers were convinced he had the ideal approach to the material.  "Jim didn't just focus on the two main characters," says Gatins.  "There are a lot of characters in the movie and they all hold an important place.  He seemed to know how to handle everybody and make them distinctly different."
The film's leading male character, Kirk Kettner, works in airport security, but has always dreamed of being a pilot.  Although the two jobs are close geographically, they are miles apart in terms of status and glamour, observes Field Smith.  "Kirk is waiting for something to happen to him, but he's not motivated enough to do anything about it.  That is a situation a lot of young people find themselves in." 
Meanwhile, Molly, who was briefly a lawyer and is now happily running a party planning business with her friend Patty, is afraid to tell her parents.  "The simple version of the movie is that she gives him the confidence to be himself and not care what anyone else thinks," says Field Smith.
But despite her brains and beauty, Molly finds something in Kirk she didn't even know she was looking for. "He holds the candle up to some of the problems and fallacies of her life," the director continues.  "Maybe she's a 10 physically, but she's concerned with money and what her friends think and how she looks--things that he doesn't care about at all. It's only because they start listening to the subversive voices in their heads and to their friends that it starts to go wrong."
That advice begins with Kirk's pal's devising a not-so-foolproof system of calculating a person's romantic potential.  T. J. Miller, whose character Stainer is the ultimate arbiter of the rating system, explains the complex algorithms that form its basis.  It begins with a simple one to 10 rating system, with 10 being the best, and one the worst.  A select few, like Molly, are "hard 10s," which means they really have no drawbacks.
From that initial number, Stainer applies exemptions, add-ons and deductions. What kind of car do you drive?  If you drive a crummy car, that's going to deduct a point--unless you're an artist because you're expected to have a bad car.   A guy can get a point bump for being in a band or dressing cool or doing a little manscaping.   
Based on Stainer's calculations, Kirk is a five (that beat-up Neon he drives works against him), which puts Molly well outside the permissible two-point range.
"Personally I would never rate women on a number system," says Miller.  "I have my own rating system.  To me, women should be rated on an alphanumeric code.  For instance, some women would be an 849B." 

ABOUT THE CASTING
Casting the 30 speaking roles and nine major characters in She's Out of My League would present a challenge for the most experienced director, let alone a first-timer like Field Smith.  Fortunately, he was able to tap into his experience in improvisational and sketch comedy to help him find a company of like-minded players.  "This is really an ensemble piece," he says.  "Obviously we have Molly and Kirk, our heroes, but much of the comedy of the movie comes from this outrageous group of friends and Kirk's crazy family.  It's very dialogue-based.  To be able to make that work, you have to have a group of performers who can fire off each other and keep the dialogue lively and real." 
The filmmakers put together a uniquely talented ensemble that includes comedians with stand up and improv backgrounds, television comedy veterans and gifted up-and-comers to play Kirk and Molly's various friends and relatives.  "We got very lucky with the cast," says Gatins.    Read more

Last year, while cast and crew were busy filming the new romantic comedy, "She's Out of My League," the town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became an honorary camp site for the young stars of the film.  Thrown together for three months in a downtown hotel, the 20-something cast (by their own admission) sometimes behaved like pre-teens, suddenly freed from parental supervision for the very first time.  Food and fun were the rule of the day. Read more

AIRPORTS, ARENAS AND AMBIANCE
As the filmmakers searched for the perfect city to serve as a backdrop for She's Out of My League, they compiled a checklist of attributes:  It needed to have luxuriously romantic settings, an NHL hockey team and perhaps most importantly, an airport that was available for extensive filming. 
"First we looked for the airport," says Field Smith.  "It was one of the most important settings in the story.  But finding an airport that you can film in the way we needed to is almost unheard of.  It's easier to build a set."
While scouting locations, the filmmakers visited the Pittsburgh International Airport.  After a tour of the facility, it was clear that the restrictions on time and access would make shooting there impossible.  "We could film in certain areas between 2 AM and 3 AM, and in another area at 5 AM, but only with one camera," says Field Smith.   "As we were getting into the van to leave, someone mentioned there was a concourse that wasn't being used, and asked if we wanted to see it.   We were on our way to make another flight, but we figured why not? Read more

JIM FIELD SMITH (Director) makes his feature film directorial debut with "She's Out of My League."  He is a writer, actor and director based in London, UK, who also runs Idiotlamp, the production company he set up with old friend and collaborator George Kay. 
As a writer/director, Field Smith is currently developing several movies in the U.S., including a family adventure comedy for Paramount Pictures, and a feature version of his short film "Where Have I Been All Your Life?" for Columbia Pictures. He is also currently attached to direct "Butter" starring Jennifer Garner. Back home in England, Field Smith is steering an adaption of the novel "All Quiet on the Orient Express."
His previous credits include the acclaimed shorts "Goodbye to the Normals" and "Missing Moscow," as well as several award-winning international commercials for clients such as Burger King, Smirnoff, Boots and MINI.
As a writer, he has worked on numerous TV shows, including "Fur TV" for MTV, and two series of his own BBC sitcom "Deep Trouble," in which he also starred.  As an actor, he has appeared in several British TV comedy shows, including "Coupling," "The Robinsons," "My Life in Film" and "Snuffbox".
Prior to that, Field Smith was writing and performing with sketch group Dutch Elm Conservatoire, who were nominated for the Perrier Award in 2005 and have staged sell-out shows in Edinburgh, the West End and a national tour.
Field Smith graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2001 with a degree in politics and international studies, which, by his own admission, has been largely of no use whatsoever.

SEAN ANDERS & JOHN MORRIS (Written by) have together written and directed the features "Sex Drive" (James Marsden, Seth Green) and  "Never Been Thawed," in which he and Morris starred.  They have also written the upcoming features "Hot Tub Time Machine," "Mr. Popper's Penguins" and "Walter The Farting Dog," which they are attached to direct with the Farrelly brothers producing.

INTERVIEW WITH JAY BUCHEL

Q: Tell me a little bit about how you got involved with She's Out of My League.
Um I got involved, it was a pretty lucky sort of happenstance, I was knee deep in mud or rice paddies in the jungles of [Kuwacki] er making another Dreamworks movie called Tropic Thunder and er, I dunno, they called and said that we like what we see, we think you might be right for this movie, would you, do you like it, what do you think of it and I got to meet with the director, Jim Field Smith, I saw his awesome shorts which are the funniest shorts I've ever seen and they're beautiful to look at and er I was like yeah, this should be a pretty fun way to spend some time and er, I got an awesome movie and a bunch of good friends out of it.

Q: What was your reaction when you first read the script?  Did you think of yourself as a five?
No, god no.  You know to be perfectly frank I was horribly insulted.  Because there were a lot more references to how ugly I was um which was er somewhat uncomfortable but er, I thought that it, you know that the story, the plot, the characters, it lent itself to a lot of funny, funny bits and there's, we got a bunch of really funny set pieces in there.

Q: Tell me the story. 
Well I, I play Kirk Kettner, epitome of the average American male, I er…I work at the TSA, the x-ray machines and stuff at the airport and um, through happenstance I meet a lovely girl called Molly who for some reason finds something attractive about me and we start a, I start courting with her, much to the disbelief of all my friends and family.  All of them think she can do a lot better than I can.  Um and er…hilarity, awkward scenes and life lessons ensue.   

Q: What was it like, I heard that it's sort of summer camp filming in Pittsburgh.
Oh very much so, it was definitely a lot of fun in Pittsburgh for two and a half months you know, you've got…you know I, I, like when I said that I gained friends from this movie you know, Mike and Nate and TJ specifically I, I just got along with them like crazy and um, spent the bulk of our time either at Dave and Buster's or hanging out in somebody's hotel room and um, it was, and I got to go shoot at an actual NHL hockey game so this is like, that shoot was filled with fun, a lot of really funny experiences. 

Q: How much improv went on?
Yeah er…there was probably more improv than our employers would have liked but that's just what happens when you put all of us together in a room.  Um, you know the script was quite strong, it's not like, you don't do adlibs always because um, it doesn't always have anything to do with the quality of the script.  Sometimes there are just jokes you discover in the process of doing it that, where there maybe weren't any.  Um, you know, we would, we would always do it, do it to you know, on paper we do it the way it does in the book but Jim Smith was always pretty nice and would always give us at least one take to play around and um, and it kinda, and a lot of it ends up in the movie cos I think it informs the movie and kind of makes our relationships more organic and real because of our adlibs and improvs are based on us hanging out together for two and a half months.

Q: Do you and your friends use the rating system?
Um, no.  No, no.  I mean, I was a momma's boy, I was raised to respect everyone, that's…no I, basically the rating system, the rating system my friends and I back home used would be either he or she fucking sucks or that person's awesome.  Some, there's either, there's very little grey area.

Q: Do you remember your first Molly?
Do I remember my first Molly?  Um…yes, yes I do.  And er, um, I thank you for saying first, not your only Molly, your Molly.  Er yes, yes, yes I do.  I've um, yeah it was good times.

Q: This movie hangs on you.  It's kind of a scary responsibility.
Er, it is, you know.  I just gotta ill up screen time for two hours and try to make people not get bored of me, or made uncomfortable by me, you know I, it's, it's somewhat daunting but I, you know I was kind of prepared for it in that like even though a lot of people out here have no idea who I am I've been acting in Canada since I was twelve and my first job was a lead on a TV show when I was a kid for three years and I done a bunch of indies out there and I've been fortunate to be the lead in a few of those so I knew what it was to have to carry something.  Um, that being said it was still a heck of a lot of work.


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