Adam DeVine: Bringing Bumper back

Adam DeVine didn’t initially think much of 2012’s “Pitch Perfect,” which he totally owns up to. “Just because I’m generally ill-prepared and smoke too much weed, I thought the first movie was a baseball movie when I went to the audition,” he remembers. “And then I get there and there’s all these super-handsome dudes with abs in their cheeks, and they’re all singing.” He managed to wing it well enough to earn the role of Bumper, the first film’s sort-of villain, but any antagonism is gone for “Pitch Perfect 2.”

What do you think of how Bumper’s life is going in the sequel?
It was fun playing Bumper being a total egomaniac sociopath [in the first film], but just all about a cappella, but it was cool to have him come back and play, like, the sad version of himself, the guy who was that high on life in college that now life hit him and now he’s kind of a shell of himself. It was fun to put some different stank on it.

He’s working as a campus security guard. Did you do any ride-alongs to prepare?
A campus security ride-along? (laughs) Well, the campus security part of the movie isn’t that detailed. I basically just wear a T-shirt, I’m not really securing much. You don’t delve into that back story too deeply. But to answer your question, no. Not at all. I did make out with Rebel [Wilson] several times before just to see how well our lips worked together. That was our ride-along. She’s a killer smoocher. That girl has big old full lips, like little pillows.

I’m sure she says the same about you.
I hope so.

You have a weirdly detailed Wikipedia page.
My Wikipedia page is super-weird. When I first moved to L.A. I needed to have a bio, and I hadn’t done anything besides a few high school plays and hosting a pep rally or whatever, so I just cut and pasted Denzel Washington’s bio as a joke. So it was like, “Adam DeVine, star of ‘Man on Fire’ and ‘Training Day,'” and then it said stuff like, “went to Fordham University, studied at the American Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in San Francisco.” Everything else they caught eventually, but somehow the Fordham and American Conservatory stuff have stayed, so people think I’m, like, very well educated. (laughs)

But the part about you getting hit by a cement truck?
I was hit but by a cement truck when I was a kid, and I couldn’t walk for a couple of years. That was a huge turning point in my life. I’m glad it happened because I don’t think my parents would’ve allowed me to move to L.A. when I was 18 and pursue my career.

According to the Wikipedia page, next month is the 20th anniversary of the accident. What are you doing to celebrate?
I need to celebrate with these legs — climb something, jump off things. Maybe I should get a cheap cement truck and blow it up. Happy anniversary, me!

Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter:@nedrick