Jason Biggs Says“ American Pie” Avoided an NC-17 Rating by Counting His Thrusts During Infamous Pie Scene
Jason Biggs Says“ American Pie” Avoided an NC-17 Rating by Counting His Thrusts During Infamous Pie Scene
Victoria EdelMon, March 23, 2026 at 9:15 PM UTC
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Jason Biggs in 'American Pie'Credit: Vivian Zink/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock -
Jason Biggs opened up about the unrated cut of his 1999 film American Pie and how they secured an R-rating
Biggs explained that it came down to the exact number of thrusts he did in the movie's most infamous scene
Biggs also explained why he was doubting himself before that scene and how filming it changed his mind
Jason Biggs never intended for the unrated cut of American Pie to happen.
Biggs, who starred as Jim Levenstein in the four main American Pie films, opened up about the unrated cut — and how the producers kept 1999’s American Pie from being hit with an NC-17 rating — on the Monday, March 23, episode of Pod Meets World.
Pod Meets World host Rider Strong asked Biggs about how the unrated cut of American Pie came about. “Did you know you were going to do that as you were shooting?” he asked, noting that there were alternative takes of different scenes. “Or were you kind of just making it up as you go along with, like, Let's try you on the desk now with the pie, or was that already planned?”
“We had no idea there was gonna be an unrated version,” Biggs, 47, noted. “And this was right before DVD. Like, the first American Pie, I have on VHS. And then by American Pie 2, there were no VHS.” He noted that DVDs are more likely to have extras and unrated versions.
Jason Biggs in 'American Pie'Credit: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
“So the first American Pie, we just shot it. . . . We decided to do it two different ways, not because we thought, ‘Oh, one way is going to be less scandalous and will get us the R rating, and this version we’ll save you for an unrated.’ That was not on our radar at all. It was simply, which one of these is gonna be funnier?” he said.
In perhaps the film’s most famous scene, Biggs’s Jim comes home to find a warm apple pie on the counter. After considering the pie for a moment, his father Noah (Eugene Levy) walks in and sees him having sex with it.
“It was scripted, I think, standing up, but we said, you know what? What if I was actually on the countertop, mounting the pie? Like, that would be funny. Why don't we try that too?” Biggs remembered. In an early cut of the film, they had him on the countertop. “And that immediately got an NC-17. So then they go to me, standing up against the counter and then turning around holding the pie,” he said. “And this is true story. That also got an NC-17.”
As Biggs understands it, “We got multiple NC-17s. And the way we got it down finally to an R rating was the number of thrusts into the pie. So ultimately, that was the big fight. It wasn't over f words. . . . It was the number of thrusts into the pie.”
He explained, “Two thrusts is an R, but three thrusts is an NC-17.”
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Strong, 46, remembered working once with Cerina Vincent, who had a sensual scene in their 2002 film Cabin Fever. Strong asked her why she was OK being naked in 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie, and Vincent said it was because it was a comedy film. “Were you totally fine with all the nudity and sex stuff because it was pure comedy, or were was there part of you that was also kind of, like, uncomfortable or nervous about any of that?” he asked.
“I love hearing that story because that's exactly how I've always sort of seen it,” Biggs said. “I always sort of thought, ‘Oh, I'll do anything for a joke.’ ”
Jason Biggs (left) and Alyson Hannigan in 'American Pie'Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock
Still, the day of the pie scene, he was “a little concerned.” They had been filming for a few weeks and the chemistry was there among the cast. “Everything was lining up the way it was supposed to line up, but there was still a part of me that thought, ‘Is this pornography? Is anyone gonna see this? Am I gonna make a complete [fool of] myself and never work again?’ ” he remembered thinking.
He called his manager. “I remember calling him being like, ‘I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna do this.' . . . And he's like, 'Yes. You are. You 100% are. You are going to do it and you are going to love it.’ ”
But what really made him believe in going there for a joke was actually being on set that day. “The exact thing where it was totally cemented for me, and I've lived by it to this day, and I've never questioned it again, was I shot the scene. We did one take, and we cut,” he said. “And there was, like, a half-second pause, and then the entire crew burst out laughing. And that was the moment where so many things happened for me.”
He also realized the movie was going to really be something. “We are doing something that I've never seen,” he said. “. . . And I was like, this is okay.I think we're cooking with gas here.”
American Pie, made with a budget of $10 million, made over $235 million and became a major sensation. 2001’s American Pie 2 and 2003’s American Wedding followed, with a fourth film, American Reunion, released in 2012. The movie also spawned five spin-off films, and Biggs has hinted at a fifth installment.
Will Friedle noted on the podcast that when the movie came out, it felt exciting to be young in Hollywood again. “Especially when we're doing something like Boy Meets World, we were very squeaky clean,” he said. “And we're also on a squeaky clean night, and we've got other squeaky clean shows around us. When I saw American Pie for the first time, it was like, ‘Oh, thank god it's back.’ ” He compared it to Animal House and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. “It was like a breath of fresh air again,” he said.
American Pie also starred Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Tara Reid, Molly Cheek, Jennifer Coolidge and John Cho.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
