You’d think that a guy whose first movie is opening against a Will Smith superhero movie would be nervous, but Jonathan Levine is as relaxed as can be when he sits down with a roomful of New York journalists to talk about The Wackness. He admits the 1994-set story about a high school kid dealing with life by dealing marijuana is true to life, but wants to specify that he never sold drugs. Well, and he probably never palled around with Ben Kingsley. More reminiscent of his teenage star Josh Peck than you’d ever imagine (are they long-lost brothers somehow?), Levine talked about his attachment to the rap of the early 90s, making modern New York look grittier, and what the hell is going on with his actual debut feature, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.

The first thing to talk about is the soundtrack. Where does all that love for rap come from?
The music that defines your childhood is always kind of the music you go back to throughout the rest of your life. For me, that was the soundtrack of my growing up. It inspired me in a way that music has not since. To have the opportunity to be one of the first people to look at it that way, with that nostalgic lens, is a very amazing thing. I’m glad we were able to do it right. I’m glad we were able to get the right songs, and some seminal songs from that time.

When you were picturing the movie in your head, did you have certain songs in mind already?
I did. I had known how hard it is to clear music [rights], because I’ve worked on a couple of other movies. The songs I wrote into the script actually wound up being the songs I thought would be easier to get. We ended up getting songs that were way better than the songs I wrote into the script.

1994 was a big period of change in New York, but there’s also change going on today. Was that something in your mind?
I just picked that time as the last time of innocence in New York City. And I’m sure that someone 10 years from now will look at this time as the last time of innocence in New York City. But it really feels like that was the start of a trajectory where you’re seeing New York becoming a lot like any other city. I wanted to look at that time and juxtapose it with that time, ask questions about where are we going and where do we come from. It’s interesting that we still continue on that trajectory.

How did Ben Kingsley change the part when he took it?
He didn’t! He didn’t change anything. He just decided the way he wanted to do it, and he very strictly adhered to the text. I asked him—of course, I’m a young director, I wanted to create an environment that was as comfortable as possible for him. He said, ‘No, I want to do the movie that you wrote.’ And that’s kind of awesome. What he did do, was he translated it through himself and his personality and his physicality. He created that character. The words were mine, but he created he character. The only thing—when we first started talking about the character, the first thing he said was ‘I don’t think this guy is bald.’ He was working on another movie at the time called Elegy, and he had the hair people for that movie make him this wig. And he would send me pictures.

Why should we care about or like these characters?
I can understand not liking them certainly. A lot of what we tried to do was not judge them. The greater question is, what do you want to be? How do you get through the day? What we were trying to say was everyone has their own coping mechanism. Let’s not get bogged down in the fact that it’s weed, or the fact that he’s doing something illegal or “wrong.” I’m just hoping that it transcends those details and allows us to connect to the emotional things that they’re going through. This is a kid who is very innocent, despite the fact that his job is something [illegal]. And he gets his heart broken because of his innocence. I can certainly identify with it, so I hope that’s what people connect to.

The movie doesn’t apologize for any of its characters. It’s really hard to find movies that don’t idealize the characters, or gloss over certain aspects that might not be so pretty.
We knew the kind of movie we didn’t want to be, as much as we knew the kind of movie we wanted to be. We didn’t want to have everything work out nicely in the end. It was really about asking questions and not providing answers.

Besides the costumes and hair, how did you make 2008 New York look like 1994 New York?
It’s very much about what you don’t show. First of all, we didn’t want to do a New York travelogue—show the Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, all that stuff. We wanted it to be a more personal New York. Central Park obviously hasn’t changed very much. But the streets of New York have changed so much, sometimes we had to go to Brooklyn. We went a couple blocks off in Williamsburg to do one of the SoHo streets. Putting a pay phone on the street, or a couple pay phones covered in graffiti, will go a long way. The combination of these little things is what paints a picture of the world. It’s amazing to me, because the audience fills a lot of it in themselves.

I’ve heard you deny the film is autobiographical.
No, it’s autobiographical. Well, what it is, is personal. I certainly was a lot like that kid at the time, and I certainly shared a similar worldview to him. I think when I say it’s not autobiographical, I’m just trying to specify that I never sold weed.

How do you approach directing your own writing?
You want to be respectful of the writer, who happens to be you, but you don’t want to be scared. It’s a fine line to walk. I think that I was very conscious of not over-directing it. I really liked the material, and I wanted to let the actors do their thing. If you go into it with a plan, and you’re very hyper-prepared, that’s the best thing. There’s always a danger of being too safe. I think that as a director, it’s your job to translate and do justice to the writer’s script. It’s an interesting challenge. I like them both. When you write something, it just comes from such a personal place. As conscious as I was about not messing it up, it’s hard to mess it up because so much of me is in it. I just had to be me.

We keep reporting on release dates for All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. Can you give us an update?
You’re going to have to give me an update. No, I mean. To be honest, I’ve kind of separated myself from it. Just like you guys, I don’t want to keep being like ‘Oh, it’s coming out now, it’s coming out now.’ It’ll be hopefully before the end of the year. They just released a poster online. But I’m not really in the loop, by choice. All I want is them to pick a date and call me, and I’ll do everything I can to promote it. But now I have no real update, except that I saw the poster and I think it’s really cool.

Is it weird that The Wackness is coming first?
Yeah, it’s totally weird.

Do you have anything for after this?
I’m writing a script for Sony, a book adaptation called Echelon Vendetta. It’s kind of like Bourne Identity on acid. Then, I don’t know. I think I might have a little vacation, like one week off somewhere. But I’m going to write.