Nick Stahl Makes His Move

PARADE – JUNE 10, 2008

Nick Stahl got his big break at 14, when he was handpicked by Mel Gibson to co-star in Man Without a Face. Even with all the attention he got, Stahl’s career didn’t exactly take off despite films like Larry Clark’s Bully and The Thin Red Line. It seemed Stahl was getting a second chance at stardom when he scored the coveted role of John Connor in Terminator 3.

Now, after co-starring in HBO’s Carnivale, Stahl is being seen in a pair of strong performances in low-budget indies: Sleepwalking, produced by Charlize Theron and now Quid Pro Quo, in which he plays a radio reporter confined to a wheelchair who discovers a bizarre group of fetishists afflicted with a desire to become disabled.

It may not be his shot at the big time, but Stahl proves once again he’s honing his talent with every big screen appearance he makes.

Did you actually get in a wheel chair off the set?

“I went around New York in one just to try to get used to it physically and also gauge people’s reactions. I felt like there were two main types—people that really avoided eye contact with you or ones that were overly helpful almost to the point of sometimes being annoying. I was going up uphill and some stranger started pushing me without asking me if I wanted help or even saying hello. It was really bizarre.”

Did people recognize you?

“It only happened a couple times mainly I think because people just didn’t want to look at me in a wheelchair. I think it scared them and made them really uncomfortable. But it wasn’t as bad as someone looking at you with pity. In just the brief time I was in the wheelchair I got feelings of isolation. I can’t imagine what it would be like to confined there for a lifetime.”

How do you feel about getting great reviews and still being somewhat on the fringe?

“I’ve been lucky to be able to do some intriguing movies like this. I’ve had to do a lot of movies for money as well because I was broke, and some of them weren’t my favorites. I certainly thought that after Terminator 3 that I would be doing more commercial movies. And that wasn’t the case. There weren’t a bunch of big movies that came knocking on my door.”

You’ve delivered some very intense performances in dark roles. Does that affect you?

“I’ve learned to make a real conscious effort to separate it from my personal life, which is hard to do sometimes. I obsess. I’m a perfectionist. If I don’t do a scene right, it keeps me up at night. But in a way, I’m glad that I have that because it makes me want to be better.”

Any memories of working with Arnold Schwarzenegger on Terminator 3?

“He’s a big chess player and he loved to play chess on set. He kept trying to get me into a game because I play a bit as well. But I was kind of scared to play him. He had in his trailer a board that had his name on one side and whoever his competition was on the other side. And it was all these slashes for wins. His side was filled completely and there was like two marks on the other side. So I held off on that.”

Another Trip To The Dark, Strange Side For Nick Stahl

NATIONAL LEDGER – JUNE 12, 2008

Nick Stahl gained a whole new understanding of life as a disabled person while prepping for his role in “Quid Pro Quo,” opening tomorrow (6/13), in which he plays a partially paralyzed investigative reporter for public radio. “I went around the city in a wheelchair to see what it was like,” he tells us, referring to New York.

“My first impression was how hard it was, how physically taxing it was. You don’t really realize, the city is kind of on a slant. The sidewalks, you consider them flat, and they’re really not … I got to gauge people’s reactions as well. There were two kind of main reactions. One was just avoidance — not making eye contact … The other was people who were overly helpful.”

The actor known as savior-of-the-world John Connor from the “Terminator” series, and as the star of HBO’s eerie “Carnivale” series of a few years ago, found that the chair made him suddenly incognito. He was only recognized twice, he says.

“Quid Pro Quo” marks another trip to the dark and strange side for Stahl, whose character gets lured by a mysterious beauty (Vera Farmiga) into investigating the story of a subculture of people afflicted with a perverse desire to be disabled.

“I really didn’t (know) anything about this,” he says. “I read the script and thought it was so well written, and the character was so complex and interesting, and the twists in the script were so genuinely surprising and weird I was really caught off guard by it. These types of roles, complex roles like this, I’m always attracted to as well.”

However, “I’ve never shied away from the mainstream — ever,” says Stahl, who plays a telepath in the forthcoming thriller “Speed of Thought.” “If people see you in a certain light, they’re going to want you for other movies like that. The fact is that I tend to have done more independent, experimental, darker, edgy kinds of things since I was younger. But I’m open to any kind of story.”