Adam Devine on Ghosting, Rom-Coms, and the Romantic Fail He’s Still Embarrassed About

The one thing all romantic comedies have in common? They celebrate the two things everyone wants in life—rom and com, of course. To honor that, we’re devoting a whole week to the genre. More on the rom-coms we love, past and present, here.

Chances are you first fell in love with Adam Devine after watching him in Workaholics, the slacker series he cocreated for Comedy Central that ran for seven seasons. Sure, a sitcom about three stoners who work at a telemarketing company doesn’t scream “romance” on the surface, but the actor exhibited the kind of charm and witty timing we look for in our rom-com heroes. So it’s only natural that since the show ended, the 35-year-old has become something of a millennial rom-com boyfriend thanks to roles as a love interest in movies like Pitch Perfect, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, When We First Met, and Isn’t It Romantic.

Currently he stars in Jexi as Phil, whom Devine describes as “a phone-obsessed loner.” The film, in theaters now, follows Phil as he gets a strange new phone that—long story short, just go with us here—falls in love with him. Naturally, the phone doesn’t react well when Phil meets a woman that he likes IRL. (“Jexi tries to murder me, as one does,” Devine quips.)

It’s a romantic comedy, but also a timely commentary. “It’s definitely a thing nowadays,” Devine says. “One person [will be] just absolutely addicted to their phone and refuse to engage in normal social interactions. I mean, my girlfriend and I argue all the time over how much we spend on the phone. We’ll be out to dinner, and suddenly a basketball game will be on and I’ll just be watching it underneath the table. She’ll yell at me, and rightfully so!”

And so we invited Devine to answer our Inappropriate Questions, Glamour’s column that asks all the cheeky, slightly off-kilter stuff best saved for a second (or better yet, third) date. Find out his favorite romantic comedy of all time, the big romantic gesture he’s still embarrassed about, and more.

Glamour: You’ve played the romantic lead in several movies. Which character is the most like yourself and how you are in a relationship?

Adam Devine: Probably Josh in Isn’t It Romantic is the closest to me as a person. I’m just a regular guy. I’m not trying too hard to be extra in love, but also I’m not a cynic either. I just want to find love. Luckily, I think I have.

Who is the most different from you?

The most different from me is probably Phil in Jexi. Because he doesn’t have any friends. He’s a total loner. He has a hard time meeting new people, while I’m trying to shed some friends at this point. [Laughs.] I’m trying to weed out some of these friends. It’s an overgrown friendships garden that I have, and I need to take a Weedwacker to it a little bit.

So do you like rom-coms?

Yeah, I do. I never really watched what people consider, like, the dregs of romantic comedies in the early 2000s, when every movie just seemed kind of the same and they all starred Matthew McConaughey. To me, romantic comedies are When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, classic great movies. Even movies like The Wedding Singer, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. That’s a romantic comedy. Basically, when you boil down any comedy, it’s a romantic comedy because there’s always some elements of, Will they or won’t they fall in love? I think it’s weird that romantic comedies as a genre are having a resurgence when, in fact, I feel like they never really went away.

If you had to pick an all-time favorite, what would it be?

I think it would be The Wedding Singer. I feel like sometimes romantic comedies lean too heavy on the romance, and they’re not funny. So I like when they strike a great balance between the romance and the comedy. I think The Wedding Singer is perfect when it comes to that.

Let’s move on to real-life relationships: What’s a dating rule that you think is B.S.?

People say you’re supposed to wait, like, three days or something before texting a person back, and I think that’s B.S. If you reach out to somebody after having a great date and say you’d like to see them again, I think that’s absolutely fine. If the person that you’re interested in is turned off by you being excited to hang out with them again, then obviously they’re not in a place in their life that they’re looking for a real relationship anyway.

Totally. Fill in the blank: I love when my girlfriend...

Showers.

[Laughs.] Can you explain why?

Not to say that she’s stinky! She just smells so good. She smells infinitely better once she comes out of the shower than I smell when I come out of the shower. She smells like an entire field of flowers just bloomed at once.

Thank you for clarifying that. Okay, you have a full day to binge-watch whatever you want. What do you pick?

I’m, like, pretty much caught up on every show that I’ve been watching, but I keep wanting to go back and rewatch Breaking Bad. I know that’s not a romantic comedy. Well, I feel like Walter and Jesse have a weird bromance that could be considered a romantic comedy at some point. A very dark, very twisted romantic comedy.

What would you say is the sexiest thing about yourself?

I would hope my personality. That’s what you hope people like about you. But if not, I’ve got a badonk. I’ve got a real juicy buttocks. So if it’s not my personality, it’s definitely my butt.

What’s the weirdest thing you do in your alone time?

You know what I do that my girlfriend has caught me doing, and it’s always weird? I’ll shout out positive affirmations to myself. I’ll be thinking about something, trying to figure out a problem if I’m working on a script or a story or something, trying to break a story, and out of nowhere I’ll yell, “You got this, Adam!” I’m like, “Come on, you can do it!” That is so weird to hear from another room when you think your significant other is just in another room writing, and they start yelling positive statements to themselves.

At least they’re positive! On a less positive note, have you ever ghosted somebody?

Have I ever ghosted…well, I guess, what is the definition of ghosting?

Depends on the person you’re asking, but the general idea is that someone just fades away and stops texting someone they had been dating without closure.

Well, not someone I’m dating-dating, if I have hung out with them more than a handful of times. But I’ve definitely gone on a date, and it just didn’t feel right, and then didn’t hit them back up. For the most part, I feel like it’s mutual when stuff like that happens. We both just kind of felt like, Nah. If she ever texted me and been like, “Hey, let’s hang out again or something,” I will text her back. I wouldn’t just not text someone back.

I’d say you probably haven’t ghosted then—if you respond to someone texting you.

I think so. I mean, sure, sometimes I think people are just being dicks. They think they’re too cool to respond or they think it’s a good look to just totally shade someone like that, but I don’t. If you took the time to take someone out and you’ve been hanging out with them, you owe them at least a response back. You don’t need to keep dating them out of guilt, but you definitely need to say, “Hey, I don’t think this works.” It’s also, I feel, polite to give a white-lie dismiss. I feel that’s fine too, where it doesn’t hurt people’s feelings. You could say, “I’m so busy right now. I don’t have time to be in a relationship blah, blah, blah.”

What’s your hangover cure?

Oh, I got a room in my house that has blackout curtains. It gets pitch black, and it’s the coldest room in my house. So when I’m hungover I crawl in there and play video games and watch movies and try to ride the storm. Ride that wave out.

What’s the most surprising place you’ve ever hooked up with someone?

Probably at the side of a house, during a house party. That was pretty surprising, even to myself. I was like, “Oh, I’m being a bad boy!”

Who was your first celebrity crush?

Cindy Crawford. I mean, obviously she’s beautiful. Also Jennifer Aniston on Friends. When I was a kid, I thought she was the queen bee and turns out I was right because she’s still absolutely stunning. I had great taste in the fifth grade.

Yeah, you really did. In dating, what’s your type?

I’m a sucker for a pretty smile and genuinely nice people with a good sense of humor. I don’t like when people are mean for meanness sake. I like it when people are engaged and laugh at funny things. When something’s funny, we should laugh about it! And not taking themselves or anything too terribly seriously. I’d say that’s probably my biggest turnoff: when someone takes themselves way too seriously.

What’s the biggest romantic fail you’ve experienced?

I don’t know if it’s a fail, because she liked it, but in hindsight I’m pretty embarrassed by it. For my high school girlfriend, I sang an a cappella song and videotaped it—a song that I made up myself. I gave it to her for Valentine’s Day, and she still has that video. Someday that thing’s going to surface, and it’s going to be 15- or 16-year-old me just singing with so much compassion and no sarcasm. Like, sincerity level 10, singing this Valentine’s Day song. I’m just hoping it isn’t somehow leaked, and I have to relive that embarrassing childhood moment.

That’s so sweet. It’s so earnest.

Oh, God. It was too earnest.

Last question: What’s the most inappropriate thing a fan has said to you?

I’ve had my butt cheeks grabbed by at least 25 women.

What?

Yeah, constantly after shows. If I’m in a huge group, women just grab my butt as if it’s a thing that’s okay. And I’m here to say: Ladies, I know it’s a meaty handful and I know it looks scrumptious, but keep those paws to yourselves.

How do you react when that happens?

I mean, I feel like I react how a lot of women might react when something weird like that happens: You just awkwardly keep it moving. I’m not going to scream at some girl who just grabbed me, but I don’t know what they thought they were going to get out of that exchange other than a handful of my rump.

Anna Moeslein is a senior editor at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @annamoeslein.

Originally Appeared on Glamour