Cam Gigandet

Interview, Sept, 2008 by Kaleem Aftab

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So far, the life of actor Cam Gigandet has been dictated mostly by fear. The 26-year-old Auburn, Washington, native admits, "It's the fear that everybody has, be it fear of failure or whatever. It drives me." Fear even got Gigandet down to L.A. in the first place. Worried that he'd end up living in a small town for the rest of his life, he bolted straight after high school. "I left on a whim and was hanging around for a couple months before someone said, 'You should try acting,'" Gigandet explains. The irony is that Gigandet has made a fast Hollywood career out of playing the courageous guy with the six-pack abs to back it up. His determination helped. So did his deep-blue eyes and '80s bad-boy look. Gigandet won recurring roles on The Young and the Restless, Jack & Bobby, and The O.C., before really kicking ass and turning heads as a fight-club champ in 2008's Never Back Down. Further evidence that this frightened bird is a serious actor arrives in December when he plays a villainous vampire in director Catherine Hardwicke's upcoming horror romance, Twilight. "I've played so many jobs where I'm fearless, but it's far from me," he insists. "I wish I were like that in real life."

SUIT: THOM BROWNE SKIN PRODUCTS: YSL BEAUTE. HAIR PRODUCTS: FREDERIC FEKKAI. STYLING: RYAN HASTINGS. HAIR: PATRICIA MORALES/ TRACEY MATTINGLY. MAKEUP: DARLENE JACOBS/FRANK REPS. SPECIAL THANKS: SMASHBOX STUDIOS. FASHION DETAILS PAGE 263.

Photography MARK SEGAL