New York Teen Makes Film Debut In `Finding Forrester'

Jet, Feb 26, 2001

It reads like a Hollywood script--the story on how New York high school student Rob Brown came to star in Finding Forrester, one of the season's most critically acclaimed films.

A teen from Queens with no acting experience sees an ad at school seeking a young Black male with hoop skills for a major motion film. The student needs some quick cash to pay a bill, auditions on a whim and voila! lands the lead role opposite screen legend Sean Connery.

Not bad for a guy whose only prior acting credit is "some Pocahontas thing" in third grade.

"I thought, hey, I kind of fit the bill," says Brown, who at the time had just made 16, knew how to play ball and, more importantly, needed money to pay his $300 cell phone bill. "I decided to go to the casting call. At the very least, I thought I had a good chance of getting hired as an extra."

Instead, Brown so impressed director Gus Van Sant during his reading for the part of Jamal Wallace, a teen prodigy whose talent on the court is surpassed only by his intellectual genius, that Van Sant knew instantly that Brown was the one for the part.

"He handled himself so beautifully that I'm not sure how he did it with no previous acting experience--not even a lesson! We were all amazed," Van Sant recalls. "We felt it at once. Here was Jamal."

Van Sant wasn't Brown's only fan. Sean Connery was equally impressed by his younger co-star. "Rob was a pro," the veteran actor says. Connery plays William Forrester, a reclusive, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who develops a friendship with Jamal after the teen sneaks into his apartment on a dare.

"Apart from the fact that he's a very intelligent kid, he's got very, very good instincts," Connery says of Brown. "The similarities between him and the character of Jamal are quite striking. I really think he's quite amazing."

Brown's story is a perfect example of how life imitates art. Like Jamal, Brown left his neighborhood school after he was recruited by Prep for Prep, a New York City program for gifted students. From there he went on to Brooklyn's Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School, where he currently is a junior.

Also like Jamal, Brown is a top student and athlete. He scores straight As and excels at math and science. While he shares Jamal's knack for basketball, off the screen Brown spends his time on the gridiron.

Thanks to the success of Finding Forrester, which ranked in the top 10 at the box office, Brown may have a very bright future as an actor. Already movie execs are pushing more scripts his way and comparisons have been made between him and actor Matt Damon, another young breakout actor whose role in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting (also directed by Van Sant) launched him as one of Hollywood's hottest new stars.

But Brown is careful not to let the stardust from his sudden fame cloud his vision.

"I just had a great experience," he says of his debut, USA Today reports. "I don't know if it is what I want to do with my life. I want to go to college and possibly study engineering."