Q: You're known for playing the everyman really well. Where does that come from?

KEVIN KEVIN: From this body. I think when you have this body you wanna just use it that way. Not everybody's gotta look like Will Smith in “I Am Legend”. It's not all that when you go across America and beyond. So I try to connect with the everyday guy and bring them on the journey with me and see themselves in my character, as opposed to watching the James Bond character and seeing things they could never do.

Q: But in this movie you get to do a lot of physical things with that body.

KEVIN: Yes, that was the intent. I would really push my limitations. We had fun doing it. I've always loved doing physical comedy. We thought it would be funny to do a “Die Hard” type of thing but it's not Bruce Willis, it's me.

Q: Did you use a stunt coordinator?

KEVIN: We did have a stunt guy. My original stunt man, the guy who doubled for me on “King of Queens” all nine seasons, first day of practicing a stunt really hurt his knee and couldn't do it. We had to find someone quick, so we ended up finding this guy Jeff Gibson who looked just like me, I thought… this was heartbreaking. I thought, “this guy's just like me, he moves unbelievable,” and then he takes off like 40 pounds of padding and he's actually in great shape and I was just like, “Oh.” I was just so, you know, dismantled at that point. But he was a great fit, we dressed him up like me, but I did most of ‘em. I did everything I could. I hate heights, but I tried to do as much as I could.

Q: Did you always intend this to be a PG family movie?

KEVIN: As we went along we realized it could be a family movie and kids would be psyched to see it. I know when I go to see a kids movie and it's not for the parents and they just check out. I wanted to make it for everybody so everyone could have fun things to take away from it and that felt like the best home for it.

Q: What sort of training did you have riding the Segway, because you were phenomenal on it?

KEVIN: We did a promotion for “The King of Queens” where I rode one. They came and taught me how to use it. I remember it being such a funny vehicle and I realized it would be great for this. I found out mall cops actually use these in a lot of malls. It takes a little bit of practice. I was very nervous, ‘cause you have to really trust it. You lean forward and that's how you control it, and lean back… it's with your body weight, so you have to be careful when your bodyweight's heavy. I got very confident on it, I could whip around on it, then during the dog chase scene I hit a curb and I ate it hard, so I got a little less confident. It's pretty nice in a mall ‘cause it's pretty smooth floors.

Q: How about shooting in a mall that's actually working?

KEVIN: Yeah, yeah… that was tricky for everybody because they didn't shut down during the day, obviously. We just shut down sections at a time and it was fun. We had a good energy, everybody psyched to watch it, and we'd use a lot of people in the movie who were actually just shopping that day.

Q: This was your first time producing a film. What was that like? What did you learn from it?

KEVIN: Scary. It's scary not only producing but writing it and putting myself out there. Eventually it was gonna come out where you wanna take a chance, and I had to be alone, without Will Smith, without Adam Sandler, I'm sick of carrying those guys. (laugh) On my own. I wanted to be sure that I could be my funniest and really connect with material and really put something out there that everyone could have fun with and this was it, definitely.

Q: Was it difficult to separate your roles as writer and producer and actor?

KEVIN: They all kinda tie-in together, a lot of them do, because when you're on the set you're writing and working and producing by saying we could bring certain things in. I drew the line obviously at budget. We didn't have a big huge budget on this movie, it wasn't that expensive, so we really had to keep tight on schedule. We had great line producers for that. I didn't worry about money so much, we just continued to shoot. We worked a lot at night, too. They shut the mall down at night and we had to keep shooting ‘cause we didn't have time to hang out. It was tough, it was a very pressing schedule, but we got through it. It was fun.

Q: How did the whole story come together?

KEVIN: I thought I would be funny in a “C.H.I.P.S.” way where if I'm some kind of motorcycle cop, something in a uniform. I always swagger up to people. Then I thought it would be funny if I had less authority, and we thought about mall cops. I almost don't wanna make fun of them because I respect them. They have to enforce the law with no weapons, and no one respects them. You see how it is. It's a tough life.

Q: How did you feel when you heard about “Observe and Report”, the Seth Rogen mall cop movie that's coming out later this year?

KEVIN: Oh. You know what, I love Seth Rogen too and I think it's gonna be such a funny movie and I was just devastated when I heard there was gonna be another one. That might have been another reason we geared things away from what he was doing. I heard he was going “hard ‘R'”… I think it's that way, I don't want to speak for him… I'm sure that'll be a great movie. I'm just glad they separated our movies. I don't think we're the same that way, and I got less worried as we went along with it.

Q: Could you see doing more ‘R'-rated fare in the future?

KEVIN: As far a ‘R' movies, you know, I've got two kids… I'm not against doing them, and I love going to see ‘em and I laugh so hard, but I'm trying to do movies where I would be okay with my kids going to see it or in the future when they grow up seeing it. So it's not bad at all that way. It's a tricky thing and I like being in that world of wanting to make it for everybody, where it's fun for kids and they can love it and then adults can take something away from it to and not be bored to tears watching it.

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” is in theaters everywhere Friday the 16 th .