People don’t recognize Aaron Ruell on the street. In fact, he looks almost nothing like the 32-year-old braces-baring nerd who chats online with babes all day.

“I get it maybe once a week,” Ruell says. “But the other cast members get it quite a bit because they look closer to the characters they played in the film than I do.”

Efren Ramirez, however, laughs in response to the question of whether or not he is ever recognized.

“I don’t know if I should walk around with a mustache and a wig or what,” he says. “I have an identical twin brother — people look at him and look at me, and because my brother’s hair is short, he looks much more like Pedro than me. So they go to him.”

Ruell, who played Kip, and Ramirez, who played Pedro Sanchez, starred in the 2004 independent film “Napoleon Dynamite.”

Ruell’s film career has not been limited to just acting — he’s also a director, writer and photographer. He was also the only director to show two short films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Jared Hess, director of “Napoleon Dynamite,” wrote the role of Kip specifically with Ruell in mind. It’s no surprise — Ruell says the two have been good friends and collaborating partners ever since they met in film school at Brigham Young University.

Ruell says many of the events that take place in “Napoleon Dynamite” are taken straight out of his life, and parts of the role of Kip are based on his younger brother.

“Jared wrote it so it’s his character, and parts of it are based on him and his brothers,” he says. “But definitely parts are taken from the stories I would always tell him about my brother.”

For instance, Ruell says the time machine Uncle Rico orders through the mail was inspired by the time machine his brother actually ordered when they were younger.

“The time machine — that happened with me and my brother, I mean the whole thing, the whole scenario,” he says. “My brother got shocked.”

The wedding song Kip sings to LaFawnduh was also taken from Ruell’s brother.

“I freestyled the song, but that tune was from a song my brother had written,” he says.

“My brother’s online everyday talking to girls.”

Although many amusing events happened in the film, one tragic event took place while filming on the set.

“Haylie Duff’s dog was eaten by a hawk,” Ruell says. “That’s always a good one. She had this little tiny dog. It ran away but we’re pretty sure that it was later eaten by a hawk.”

“That’s what I like to say, anyway.”

Ruell was responsible for designing and creating the film’s food-worthy opening title sequence.

He says he wanted to create something that was associated with each of the characters in the film, and that’s when the idea of food came about.

“Each of those plates has a very specific food and that food is eaten by each of the cast members whose names appear on those select items,” he says.

Ramirez, who says he is used to shaking hands with people only to hear, ‘We vote for you, Pedro,’ says at the time he was offered a role in “Napoleon Dynamite” he was also offered a role in “The Alamo.”

“I didn’t know what to do,” he says. “I asked my father about it and my father’s, like, ‘You know, just follow your heart,’ and when he said that I kind of freaked out.”

Ramirez’s next film is “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. He says he got to do a couple of scenes with the actress and put the rumors of a Brad and Angelina romance to rest.

“I got to tell you all the rumors about Brad Pitt and Angelina are not true,” he says. “It’s actually Pedro and Angelina. I’m building her a cake. I showed her my Sledgehammer. Pedro has got shocks and pegs.”