The Lads Most Likely To - Peter Sarsgaard, Chris Klein, Shane West - Brief Article

Interview, March, 2000 by Elizabeth Weitzman

When you're a talented, good-looking young actor with unique qualities of your own, how do you deal with a film industry that's currently so enamored of its young men that they're all in danger of becoming interchangeable? That's what we asked these theree

Shane West

As Eli, the cute but sensitive jock on the acclaimed TV drama Once and Again, twenty-two-year-old Shane West is one of the few young actors of the last decade to be part of a show whose primary appeal is to grown-ups. However, he's no stranger to the gilded-youth game. He's about to star in a teen version of Cyrano called Whatever It Takes, and he'll readily admit the title could describe L.A.'s demanding culture as well as high school's. West has fielded all sorts of bold requests, from an increased workout schedule to a nose job. "They're always looking for new faces, and the chances of being discovered and sticking around aren't that great. I know I may not be here tomorrow. I went through a lot in my head, over whether I should [succumb to plastic surgery]. And in the end I was like, 'I'm not about to change myself of this business.'"

Chris Klein

More thoughtful than his sweet but slightly awkward characters, Chris Klein may look like a locker pinup, but he doesn't sound much like one. As a pragmatic son of the Midwest, Klein adapted beautifully to Hollywood without adopting the rules of L.A. He was discovered by director Alexander Payne, who was scouting Nebraska high schools for Election, and he quickly moved up the ranks by landing parts in American Pie and the upcoming Here on Earth, with Leelee Sobieski and Josh Hartnett. But he's currently a junior at Texas Christian University and continues to pepper conversation with words like "super duper." He has no objections to all the press that helps propel each crop of kids to the next level, though he doesn't believe it matters in the end. "I love doing interviews. It's another opportunity to try something cool. But the reason actors get popular is because they've done [work] that people respond to, and that's the only reason." Extremely satisfied with the way things are going, the twenty-one-year-old has but one concern about all the fellow students who stop him on the way to class. "It's a pretty neat compliment to be recognized. Unfortunately, sometimes I'm in a hurry. I wish I could always take the time and just say, 'Gee whiz, thanks a lot.'"

Peter Sarsgaard

Until he was twenty, Peter Sarsgaard had never acted a day in his life and didn't particularly care to. His idea of a perfect career was trout fishing. But after he saw Shelley Winters and Ellen Burstyn speak at his university, he was moved to start an improv group. When graduation came and he didn't know what else to do, he headed for New York. Despite his relative lack of experience, he impressed playwright Harold Pinter right off the bat and landed a series of plays and films that led up to his recent, raging turn as Brandon Teena's conflicted killer in Boys Don't Cry. He's realistic about the need for cute boys in movies, although, at twenty-seven, he's also ambivalent about it. "Film is about fantasy, and a lot of times people live through the lead character. When that character looks in the mirror, they want to see an ideal." But that doesn't mean he has to be the one with the beautiful reflection. "That slot's pretty well taken," he demurs. "If I were to get really coiffed and hit the gym and get a different pack of abs than the ones I have now, I'd look like everybody else. And honestly, I think I'd work a lot less."