'Perks Of Being A Wallflower' Stars Still Have Battle Wounds From Filmingred band evil dead and evildead trailer

'Perks Of Being A Wallflower' Stars Still Have Battle Wounds From Filming

Johnny Simmons tells MTV News he and co-star Ezra Miller didn't hold back during their cafeteria fight scene.
By Fallon Prinzivalli, with reporting by Eric Ditzian

Johnny Simmons at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards on Sunday
Photo: Christopher Polk/ Getty Images

The long-awaited "Perks of Being a Wallflower" trailer finally made its debut at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards pre-show on Sunday. The sneak peek showed many of the key moments in Stephen Chbosky's story, including a glimpse at the characters' adaptation of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and the "epic" tunnel scene.

The most powerful moment, however, came when Patrick (Ezra Miller), a flamboyant thespian, engaged in a physical fight in the high school cafeteria with Brad (Johnny Simmons), the head jock. When MTV News spoke with Simmons, he described the scene as one of his favorites to shoot, despite its intensity.

"For those who haven't seen the movie, there's two characters, a quarterback and kind of the more artist crowd and the more indie crowd, and they end up going head to head with each other," the actor explained. "I thought it was a really neat scene to shoot and we really actually went for it, me and Ezra."

Brad and his friends on the football team cause tension in the film as the typical school bullies, while Patrick, his sister Sam (Emma Watson) and Charlie (Logan Lerman) are the "misfits" — labeled by Sam in the trailer — happy to keep to themselves. When the two cliques finally clash, they don't hold back on the force of their swings.

"It's both physical and emotional, but Ezra's incredible and he kind of stuck there with it the whole day. We both kind of agreed that we were gonna go for it and really fight it out," Simmons continued. "I jacked up my knee, which was a battle scar. It was fun and worth it. I think it turned out good from what I've heard."

Miller agreed, telling us that he and Simmons had to fight to make the brawl look realistic. "Johnny Simmons and I, you know, [that scene] was everything for both of our characters. You have such a collision of really what Johnny and I started deciding was like, these two people's self-loathing attacking each other's self-loathing. So when the stunt choreographer said, 'We don't want this to be too dangerous,' we got angry."

Despite the warning to keep the fight safe, Miller said that the cast walked away with their fair share of bruises: "That's how you make a fight. I've made fights before in movies and it happens the same way. You plan something with the stunt choreographer, it's all well and good and then you get to it and it's like whatever happens, it's [still] a fight. To make a fight happen, you can do it quarter speed, but you're still tumbling to the ground."

Jaw-dropping, heart-pounding, gut-busting moments galore. See what went down at the 21st annual MTV Movie Awards!

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