Justin Long on Facebook creeping, texting and confused fans

In an age when the term “Facebook creeping” is commonly accepted vernacular, it’s hard to find someone who isn’t guilty of doing a little romantic online detective work. You know, just to see what someone’s all about. Nothing weird, right? Right?

Actor Justin Long’s newest film, a romantic comedy called “A Case of You,” explores the topic of how social media and some mild online stalking have become part of today’s dating landscape and how the relatively new technology can be used, or in this case, misused.

Long (“Waiting,” “Accepted, ” “Dodgeball”) kicked off the new season of the Ringling College of Art and Design’s Digital Filmmaking Studio Lab Saturday, Nov. 2, with a screening and discussion of the film, which he wrote and produced with his brother, Christian Long, and friend Keir O’Donnell.

The movie follows Long’s character, a writer named Sam who meets and falls for Evan Rachel Wood as quirky barista, Birdie. Unable to impress her the old fashioned way, he gleans information from her online profile and manipulates his own personality in an attempt to become the man of her dreams. His plan backfires, though, when she begins to fall in love with this less-than-genuine version of Sam.

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Long says the screenplay is based in a lot of personal experience, but that he isn’t exactly versed in online dating.

“I’m not really into it, personally,” he says of social media. “Mostly, because I’m not technologically savvy enough, but also, because I’m just on the cusp of another generation that didn’t have that starting out in the whole dating and relationship world, so I just never got used to it.”

He says the script — his first foray into writing — began as a sort of cathartic experiment for him and his brother, and though the film isn’t necessarily a social commentary, Long says he’s seen the impact of technology on social interaction in general, and the topic seemed to be relatively uncharted territory in the romantic comedy genre.

Long uses a personal experience to illustrate his point. He recalls wanting to read a book to a friend’s then 2-year-old child, who insisted he not only read it from his phone, but that he also let the automated Siri-esque voice do the narrating.

“I literally just sat there holding the phone, and it went through ‘The Cat in the Hat’ on its own,” he says with a laugh. “I was offended, not only as someone who likes to read, but also as someone who wanted to do the voices. My ego was hurt.”

“It’s a world that scares me and intrigues me, mostly because I’m unfamiliar with it. Texting is scary enough, with the disconnect that can sometimes cause problems — oh my God; how many exclamation points do I put? How long do I wait? And emoticons are an entire Pandora’s box.”

Long says writing the film with his brother, as well as producing and funding it were learning experiences, and he hopes to continue to explore new creative outlets and character types, but he doesn’t shy away from the roles that helped earn him success. During the student Q&A session, he happily discussed his popular (and not so popular) roles with a good sense of humor — even breaking to sign one student’s dodgeball: "Casey, thanks for not throwing it at my scrotum.” – Justin Long.

FAN ENCOUNTERS OF THE CONFUSED KIND:

• "I've done enough different types of movies that I can usually guess what somebody is going to mention, based on certain superficial qualities. Sometimes it's really hard to tell. After "He's Just Not That Into You" came out, I was getting a lot of moms and women in their mid 30s who would approach me. One day, this huge Samoan guy with tattoos —he was this terrifying, enormous biker kind of guy — he came up and said, 'Hey man, I know you. I've seen you in a movie. Damn, what was it?' I almost guessed another movie, but then he said, 'Oh, it was 'He Ain't Feelin' You No More.' It took me a minute to figure out what he meant, and I never would've guessed that's what he would know me from."