\n<\/p>\n
Never stop learning! The movie Accepted<\/em> wasn\u2019t a massive hit when it was released<\/a> in 2006, but it helped kick off the careers<\/a> of several actors who became huge stars.<\/p>\n Directed by Steve Pink<\/strong>, the comedy follows a mischievous high school senior named Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long<\/strong><\/a>) who decides to create a fake college after all the real ones he applied to reject him. The prank balloons out of control after Bartleby\u2019s friends get involved, with Sherman Schrader III (Jonah Hill<\/strong><\/a>) creating a functional website for the school that actually accepts applicants. Bartleby also leases an abandoned psychiatric hospital near his town\u2019s real college and renovates it to look like his made-up school: the South Harmon Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n When Long first read the script, he was surprised that the writers were aiming for a PG-13<\/a> rating rather than R, especially given the involvement of Lewis Black<\/strong>. The comedian played Sherman\u2019s uncle Dr. Ben Lewis, who the boys recruit as the \u201cdean\u201d of their fake college.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my college experience, just personally, to say it was R-rated would be sugarcoating it,\u201d the Going the Distance<\/em> actor told Radio Free Entertainment<\/em><\/a> in July 2006. \u201cIt was NC-17. If you\u2019re making an accurate, realistic college film, I felt it was sort of necessary, not only because of the sexual stuff, but just the ease with which college kids say the F-word.\u201d<\/p>\n After he saw the final cut, however, he was relieved that producers stuck to a PG-13 script<\/a> because it made the movie accessible to a wider audience. \u201cMore people can watch and it has more the tone of, like, an \u201980s comedy, like a John Cusack<\/strong><\/a> or Michael J. Fox<\/strong><\/a> movie,\u201d he explained. \u201cThose were movies that I grew up with, and I loved, that inspired me.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dodgeball<\/em> star later said that working with Hill was one of his favorite parts of doing Accepted<\/em>, but the Superbad<\/em> actor almost didn\u2019t get the part. After Long was cast as the lead, he pushed the studio to bring Hill back in for another audition \u2014 and the Oscar nominee nailed it.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember when he left that audition, everyone was like, \u2018Well, he\u2019s definitely in the movie somewhere,’\u201d the Ed<\/em> alum recalled in a September 2021 interview with CBS News<\/a>. \u201cWe laughed a lot making that movie.\u201d<\/p>\n