Dustin Ingram on Meet Monica Velour, Making Out With Kim Cattrall and Auditioning for McLovin

And you had a make-out scene with Kim Cattrall. Intimidating?

Yeah. That was the first scene that we rehearsed, ever. And it was probably the third time that I had met her. I met her once in a callback and she was very kind to me then. And I had heard stories about Kim Cattrall.

What does that mean?

Just that she is a powerful woman -- extremely powerful and strong -- and I just heard very exaggerated versions of that. It's so not true. And it was intimidating with everybody, the night before I would meet them. And it was such a fleeting thought upon the handshake, everything was fantastic. And it paid off. Kim and I have a wonderful friendship. I've spent time at her house and she'll cook me dinner.

Is this your biggest role to date?

Hands down.

What else have you auditioned for?

I auditioned for The Social Network.

Which role?

For Mark Zuckerberg.

What was that process like?

It was very professional. Sadly, I didn't make it too far. I had a perfect impersonation of Mark Zuckerberg. Have you seen Mark Zuckerberg? [Does a brief Zuckerberg impression] It's not really what Jesse does...

No. And yours does sound a little more like what Zuckerberg sounds like.

It was much better. And I guess that's not what they wanted. What else have I auditioned for? Sadly, they always want names for the bigger movies. Oh, Superbad, I did pretty well in Superbad for the McLovin guy.

He was an unknown, too.

He was an unknown, yeah. His audition, he went in right before me and you could hear everything through the door. Those are the worst auditions, when you can hear everything. Or the best.

When they're not doing well?

Right. So, Seth Rogen was in there with everyone and... on the floor laughing. Hysterical, hysterical, hysterical. And you could tell that by the time I got in there they had come down off of that high and I was either going to have to do 20 times better -- but he's just that kid. That was a tough one to follow. It was a terrible experience. I'm glad I didn't book it, though. That kid got pigeonholed quite a bit.

So how do you become a name? Is that why you do a film like this?

I hope!

Have you thought about this?

A lot. I'm really hoping work begets work. I'm hoping that not only will this have its limited release but it will do well. Because, you know, limited releases kind of come and go. Which is very scary to all of us. Especially to Keith, too, because this is his child. I'm hoping it will be in the public eye, people will enjoy it, see what I have to offer and, hopefully, not only see Tobe anytime I come into the room to read something. Which is on my shoulders, too. But hopefully they've seen enough diversity in me that they will call me in, in the first place, and I can prove to them I'm not Tobe.

Does it help that your appearance, especially your hair, in the film is different than your actual appearance?

Absolutely. The one thing that didn't help were and are the comparisons to Napoleon Dynamite. It's the hair and the glasses and the tall, skinny, lanky thing. Tall actors don't work, that's a problem, too. I'm six foot three and a beanpole, and there just are not a lot of tall actors who work, and I'm not sure why. I'm trying to figure it out, and it's an ongoing battle.

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