Natasha Lyonne Tells Drew Barrymore She Turned Down ‘American Pie’ Because She Had Already Lost Her Virginity

Though Poker Face actress Natasha Lyonne has been acting since the 1980s, her role as Jessica in 1999’s American Pie was her first blockbuster film… but it was a job she resisted taking. Lyonne revealed to Drew Barrymore the surprising reason why she hesitated to play the acerbic and wise Jessica during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show today.

Lyonne explained that she was asked several times to join the cast of American Pie before finally accepting the offer. Why was she so hesitant? Well, she didn’t exactly identify with the students in the film and their quest to lose their virginity. For her, “it already happened,” she told Barrymore.

“I think I just sort of saw it on paper and I didn’t identify with this sort of like, very white, very normal high school experience. Kinda like, ‘Oh! We’re gonna lose our virginity!’ I was like, ‘Honey, it already happened,'” Lyonne told the host. “I just don’t think I understood the movie. And then they gave me money and I began to understand.”

Lyonne would go on to reprise the role of Jessica in 2001’s American Pie 2 and American Reunion in 2012.

Later, Barrymore and Lyonne gushed over Lyonne’s American Pie co-star Eddie Kaye Thomas, who played Finch, the character who ultimately, unforgettably had sex with Stifler’s mom (Jennifer Coolidge).

Barrymore, explaining that she had a crush on Thomas, told Lyonne, “I always went for the avant-garde one. I never went for the popular all-American. Tom Green, Eddie Kaye Thomas…”

“The ’90s were a whole thing,” Lyonne agreed.

The Drew Barrymore Show airs on weekdays on CBS. You can check the website for local airtimes. Watch Lyonne’s appearance in the video above.