Justin Long

Justin Long (birthname: Justin Jacob Long) has sustained a solid film career, particularly in comedies, with a guileless, likable persona. While training in sketch comedy at Vassar College, his rather meta feature debut was playing a Galaxy Quest comic book fan in the movie version of Galaxy Quest (1999), with Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman.

A year out of Vassar, Long landed a co-starring role in Victor Salva’s horror movie, Jeepers Creepers (2001), with Gina Philips, leading to a sequel in which Long had a cameo. Long had a supporting role in Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), with Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, and Rip Torn, earning $168 million. Another hit for Long, co-starring with Lindsay Lohan, Matt Dillon, and Michael Keaton, was Disney’s Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), earning $144 million worldwide.

Long joined then-unknown co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Anna Faris in writer-director Rob McKittrick’s indie comedy, Waiting… (2005). Long starred in Tim Skousen’s well-liked indie comedy, The Sasquatch Gang (2006), which won the audience award at the Slamdance Film Festival. Long starred in the Universal Pictures college comedy, Accepted (2006), with Blake Lively, Anthony Heald, and Lewis Black, followed by a supporting role (with Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, and Terry Crews) in Mike Judge’s cult classic, Idiocracy (2006), which received rave reviews despite being abandoned by distributor 20^th Century Fox.

In a departure from his usual comedy movies, Long played opposite Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, and Cliff Curtis in Fox’s fourth Die Hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard (2007), earning Long a Best Supporting Actor nomination for the Saturn Awards. Long was a voice actor (voicing lead character Alvin) in Fox’s hit animated feature, Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007), earning $361 million worldwide, and leading later to the sequels, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011), and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015).

After a few uncredited and deleted roles (including in David Gordon Green’s 2008 cult favorite, Pineapple Express), Long was part of the ensemble of Ken Kwapis’ rom-com, He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), followed by a starring role in Lionsgate’s comedy, Taking Chances (2009), with Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rob Corddry, and Nick Offerman. In a then-unusual case of a movie written and directed by two women actors (Cheryl Hines as director, Adrienne Shelly as writer), Long co-starred with Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, and Kristen Bell in Serious Moonlight (2009).

Joining writer-director Sam Raimi, Long co-starred (with Alison Lohman) in the horror film, Drag Me to Hell (2009), then co-starred with Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci in the widely panned horror-thriller, After.Life (2009). Long co-starred in one of his more durable comedies, the now-iconic comedy, Youth in Revolt (2009), with Michael Cera, Jean Smart, Fred Willard, Ray Liotta, and Steve Buscemi. Long re-teamed with Drew Barrymore for the Warners’ rom-com, Going the Distance (2010), with Jason Sudeikis and Christina Applegate, and then joined the cast of director-producer Robert Redford’s Lincoln assassination drama, The Conspirator (2010), with James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Huston, Colm Meaney, and Tom Wilkinson.

After a string of underwhelming box office performers, as well as a quirky Funny or Die spoof of Steve Jobs after Job’s death titled iSteve (2013)—Justin Long made a splash as a paid spokesman for Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad campaign—he starred, co-wrote (with brother Christian), and produced the rom-com for IFC, A Case of You (2013), with Evan Rachel Wood, Brendan Fraser, and Vince Vaughn. In the dark comedy-drama, Ask Me Anything (2014), written and directed by Allison Burnett, Long joined the ensemble of Britt Robertson, Christian Slater, and Martin Sheen, followed by writer-director Sam Esmail’s feature debut, Comet (2014), with Emmy Rossum.

Long’s relationship with filmmaker Kevin Smith continued with Smith’s horror-comedy, Tusk (2014), as well as Smith’s second, widely panned film in his “True North” trilogy, Yoga Hosers (2016), which starred Smith’s daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, Lily-Rose Depp and her father, Johnny Depp. Long produced and starred in the Richard and Michele Gray crime thriller, The Lookalike (2014), followed by co-starring in Matthew Ross’ acclaimed psycho-sexual drama, Frank & Lola (2016), with Michael Shannon, Imogen Poots, and Emmanuelle Devos, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and released by Universal Pictures. Along with a string of poorly performing and reviewed films during this period, Long co-starred in director Vincent Grashaw’s drama, And Then I Go (2017), with Melanie Lynskey and Tony Hale.

Once again, Justin Long joined up with Kevin Smith for another project, this time the reboot titled Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), continuing Smith’s characters from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), with Jason Mewes, and distributed in a roadshow-style engagement. Long starred in the well-reviewed Daniel Schechter comedy-drama, After Class (2019), with Fran Drescher and Richard Schiff, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. Long received good reviews for his starring role in The Wave (2019), with Donald Faison and Bill Sage, premiering at Fantastic Fest. For the first time in his career, Long took on the chores of co-star and co-director/writer/producer (with brother Christian Long) for the Lionsgate-distributed comedy, Lady of the Manor (2021), with Melanie Lynskey, Judy Greer, Luis Guzman, and Ryan Phillippe.

In 2022, Long had a supporting role in Lionsgate/BuzzFeed Studios’ supernatural thriller, Dear David; another supporting role in pal Kevin Smith’s sequel, Clerks III, with Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, and Rosario Dawson; and more prominently as a co-star in Zach Cregger’s horror movie for 20^th Century Studios, Barbarian, with Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård, as well as co-star in Neil LaBute’s thriller, House of Darkness, with Kate Bosworth. Long co-starred in the holiday movie, Christmas with the Campbells (date to be announced), with Brittany Snow, Julia Duffy, George Wendt, and Alex Moffat.