Plaza, with Jake M. Johnson and Karan Soni, in Safety Not Guaranteed.   (Photo: Courtesy of Film District)

Plaza’s second starring role will be in The To Do List, which comes out next year. She’ll play a high-school valedictorian ­determined to master sex, starting with hand jobs, before college. Co-stars Andy Samberg, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Donald Glover “get lucky,” she says, but Friday Night Lights’ Scott Porter “hits the jackpot.” No spoiler there, she says. “It’s pretty obvious.”

She’s just as excited, though, about her small part in Roman Coppola’s upcoming A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, in which she got to work with her idols Charlie Sheen and Bill Murray. “[Sheen] had the best stories,” she says. “He’s like, ‘One time I punched a supermodel on a boat, then I fucking did this.’ I wanted to listen to him all day.”

As for Murray, he and Plaza shared a “deep connection,” and even tore down the divider between their adjoining trailers. “Whenever I went to my trailer, he would be sitting there making a gin and tonic and looking at me. I was, like, ‘Honey, I’m home.’” Her boyfriend, screenwriter Jeff Baena, was aware and approved of the ­relationship. “We didn’t consummate it or anything,” she says, “at least not physically.”

Plaza says her dream is to do a real ­middle-of-the-road romantic comedy, ­specifically one with Ryan Gosling, who once approached her in a juice bar to tell her he loves Parks and ­Recreation. “I’d work in a flower shop and be insecure. And he’d work in real estate—sorry, I’m pitching a movie to you.” She’s not sorry. She keeps pitching. “And there’s always cupcake batter on my face, and I’m like, ‘I just made these cupcakes, but I don’t know how I feel!’ And he’s like, ‘Let me get that cupcake batter off your face … with my dick.’” She’s cracking up. “Cut to me giving him a hand job. Sorry, I’ve had too much caffeine.”

Related:

• Articles by Jada Yuan
• Table of Contents: May 28, 2012 issue of New York | Subscribe!