The Daily Helmsman
By: Johanna Edwards
Arts and Entertainment Editor
Issue date: 11/28/01 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Actor Nick Stahl likes to do things differently.

While many stars his age — Freddie Prinze, Jr., for instance — go for teen comedies and big budget fare, actor Stahl has chosen to avoid popcorn flicks, sticking with smaller, more critically praised films.

“I guess I have a different idea of success,” Stahl said in a phone interview. “I mean, I just haven’t really been that into a lot of these commercial scripts that come along because they seem to be really repetitive. It’s just nothing new or interesting. It’s a story that doesn’t really need to be told.”

Luckily for him, that hasn’t been a problem.

“I’ve been really fortunate in the past couple of years to get some good quality film work. I’ve been pretty lucky in the roles that I’ve been getting I just hope to continue that. I don’t really have a set pattern for myself,” Stahl said. “I really like variety and just doing something completely different than the last thing I’ve done. That’s really one of the biggest things that I look for.”

A native Texan, Stahl jump-started his film career at the age of 12 with a starring role in the Mel Gibson film The Man Without a Face. He followed that up with roles in The Thin Red Line and Disturbing Behavior. Though both films were ill-received, they gave Stahl some much needed publicity, and helped him land future gigs like his lead part in the dark drama Bully.

Stahl can be seen next romancing Marisa Tomei in the acclaimed drama, In the Bedroom, which opens Friday.

“It was a lot of good people coming together for a good script,” Stahl said of In the Bedroom, which is already drawing Oscar buzz. “I guess it might have given me some kind of hope that really good films can be made. “

Sometimes they have trouble getting made, if the studio doesn’t think it’s going to make a ton of money — that stuff. The relationships with the cast and crew were really great. I keep up with all of them.”

In the Bedroom gave Stahl the chance to work with some of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors, including Academy Award-winners Sissy Spacek and Tomei.

The film centers around a doomed love story between Stahl’s character, Frank, and an older woman, Natalie (Tomei). In the beginning, Stahl found his love scenes with Tomei to be a bit daunting.

“It was a little intimidating at first,” he admitted. “She’s not only older but she’s an extremely beautiful woman and quite talented. My voice might have dropped a couple of octaves.”

But in the end, Tomei — as well as the rest of the cast — put him at ease.

“It was intimidating until you actually meet these people, like Sissy who’s the coolest, most normal person you’ll ever meet,” he said. “They were all really great people. It was a great working atmosphere. With that type of cast it really puts you at ease.”

Stahl said the strength of the script attracted him to the project.

“I felt like there was a real transformation to the character, which I really liked. It seemed like it could be somewhat challenging for me, something different,” he said. “I’ve never done a role like that before. It was more of an adult role than I’ve done before. I think really the biggest thing for me was just that the script was so good, the story as a whole. I think it kind of took precedence over the character itself.”

Stahl took full advantage of working with such skilled actors, and tried to soak up as much advice from them as possible.

“I really just spent as much time with them as I could,” he said. “I just listened to these people’s stories. I don’t think you could go in and not learn from people who have been doing this for so long. They’re just real professionals.”

A native of Texas, Stahl said he really hasn’t been influenced by his origins.

“I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas. You’ll find in Texas this real pride for the state, which I for some reason seem to lack a little bit,” he said. “Perhaps because the suburbs I grew up in were just generic really. I didn’t grow up out on the plains or anything. I love the State and I love stories that take place in the state, but I don’t think it really dominates my pursuits.”

While Stahl didn’t have a laundry list of whom he’d like to work with, he summed it up: “I’d like to work with people who are serious about film and want to do something interesting.”

What he isn’t as keen on doing is television.

“I definitely like film more than television. I haven’t done that much TV, just a couple of guest-spot things when I was younger,” he said. “Acting in film is a great job; you’re able to travel. It’s a real sort of creative outlet for me. I love theater as well. Sometimes it’s kind of tough to pay the bills when you do theater. Film pays quite a bit more,” he said with a laugh. “I guess that would be another plus as well.”

While most people in their early-”20s face a very difficult time in their lives, usually involving college and deciding their future profession, 22-year-old Nick Stahl, who is co-starring in the film “In the Bedroom” with Marissa Tomei, also leads a challenging life that of an up-and-coming new actor.

Stahl began acting as a young child, doing theater in his home state of Texas before moving onto commercials and then films.

“For me, (my childhood) was sort of a dual life. I was, like, a normal kid in Texas, and then I would fly off and do a movie and come back,” Stahl said. “It was different wasn”t what the rest of my friends were doing.”

Stahl earned the breakthrough he needed when he was hand-selected to star opposite Mel Gibson in “The Man Without a Face.” Stahl was 12 during its filming, and has since endured the obstacles of overcoming childhood success in the film industry.

“It was difficult at times. You have, like, a certain set of roles that you”re up for as a kid, and as you age it really changes. When I was (around the age of) 14, I didn”t work for almost two years, just because that”s a really awkward age to begin with.”

With a recent surge of roles, including the films “Disturbing Behavior” and “Bully,” he feels like he is finally playing more mature characters, especially in Todd Field”s upcoming “In The Bedroom.”

“It”s definitely tricky for me still, but this movie, I feel, is one of my first more adult roles.”

Stahl acknowledges that there were many factors in his wanting to be a part of Todd Field”s directorial debut. “I think there was a real transformation in the character that was interesting. And really, I just loved the script and the writing.”

Stahl portrays Frank Fowler, the only son of a seemingly perfect couple, who spends his summer before college on a lobster boat, while also engaged in a relationship with a much older woman (Marisa Tomei). Stahl actually prepared for the movie by being a real lobster fisherman for a few days.

“It was really great. I wish I had had more time to do it actually. We got to go out a couple days, but it was a real discovery for me, because it”s a real different world. And it helped me physically to sort of acclimate to the role, and I came away with a real respect for the profession as well. I mean, these guys that do this for a living it”s a real tough job and sort of a lonely job as well.”

Stahl admits being “really excited” at the early Oscar buzz for the film, as he also responds to the claim that “In the Bedroom” is not for the emotionally squeamish.

“If people don”t want to go to a film to experience emotion then I guess they should just go see the newest teen flick. The film attempts to make a statement that is more than a lot of films that I have seen attempt to do.”

Stahl is currently in Germany shooting a movie called “Bookies,” about three friends attending college together, which is due out sometime next year.

As for Stahl”s own personal education plans, he is just enjoying his acting career right now.

“Its kinda hard to say what I”ll be doing down the road. I really like what I do now. I don”t know if I will go to school or anything like that, because that”s really not my goal right now it”s to keep working.”

Marisa Tomei, star of In the Bedroom, had no idea what she was getting into.

“I didn’t really think it was going to be as much as a challenge as it was when I got there,” Tomei said. “I would do a scene where it was emotional and would require a lot of concentration and think, ‘Okay, that’s out of the way, the hard scene is out of the way,’ but the next day there would be another hard scene. I didn’t really realize how much I immersed myself in that world.”

While the Academy award-winning actress has had plenty of practice preparing for roles in major movies such as My Cousin Vinny, What Women Want and Untamed Heart, Tomei had to spend time with a woman from Maine who was similar to her character, Natalie, in background and personality. Tomei spent several days learning new habits, speech and body language.

“I didn’t have anything or anyone to really draw from personally,” Tomei said. “I had asked [Director Todd Field] if there was someone that he knew, if he could find somebody who might be similar to my character’s background … he found someone who was willing to befriend me.”

Tomei’s co-star, Nick Stahl, last seen opposite Katie Holmes in Disturbing Behavior, also spent days at sea as a fisherman to prepare for his role as Frank. While he grew a deep respect for the way of life, he admits it was grueling work.

“[Fishing] is a really different world,” Stahl said. “I came away with a real respect for the profession. It’s a really tough job, kind of a lonely job as well. I had really done nothing like that before.”

Stahl started acting as a child and has had to adjust with changes in roles as he matured, while juggling a normal boy’s life and acting.

“It was difficult at times. You have a certain set of roles that you’re up for as a kid, but as you age, it really changes,” Stahl said. “When I was 14, I didn’t work for almost two years. It’s an awkward age to begin with.”

Despite Tomei and Stahl’s combined experience in film, they both said working with director Todd Field was rewarding.

“I’d say it’s exciting to work with someone who has no preconceived ideas, with a lot of fresh energy, clean point of view, ready to express himself or herself,” Tomei said. “I only had the script, which I thought was really good, and a couple of conversations with Todd which showed that we approached work the same way.”

Stahl said he was not only drawn to the film by Todd Field, but also by the script.

“Todd Field did an amazing job but it was more the story as a whole that was kind of the dominating force in wanting to do [the movie],” Stahl said. “If people don’t want to go to a film to experience emotion, I guess they should just go see the newest teen flick out. [In the Bedroom] really attempts to make a statement, which is more than a lot of films that I’ve seen attempt to do.”

While the film’s full plot was a secret, In The Bedroom won the Special Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and several nominations for Best Film by numerous film associations, including the 2002 Golden Globes.

In the Bedroom gave Tomei a chance to work with Sissy Spacek, one of her favorite actresses, as well as an entire cast of experienced actors.

“I was blown away (by each actor),” Tomei said. “It was like a certain trust that we had with each other. We knew we all cared very much about our craft.”

Spacek, who plays Frank’s emotionally-charged mother, has also been nominated for several awards.

Spacek was voted Best Actress by the 2001 American Film Institute, 2001 Los Angeles Film Critics Association, 2001 New York Film Critics Circle and 2002 Broadcast Film Critics Association.

Despite all the attention being given to “In the Bedroom,” its lead actor Nick Stahl is in danger of being forgotten. The film, which opens in Boston on Tuesday, already has won the L.A. Film Critics prize as Best Picture, the N.Y. Film Critics’ Best First Film award and, for leading lady Sissy Spacek, Best Actress honors from both groups.

Somehow, even with an actor’s healthy ego, the 21-year-old Stahl doesn’t mind. “It’s exciting to me to challenge myself with different kinds of roles and Sissy is just amazing to work with. You meet her and she’s incredibly grounded and unaffected. “She lives on a farm in Virginia with her family and there’s an innocence to her that’s amazing, and a workmanship. Just very inspiring I’d say, so normal and fun.

“I was really just trying to hold my own with these great actors, it was such an accomplished group. It wasn’t competition, I was just trying to survive.”

Stahl plays Frank, a promising collegiate destined to be an architect who finds a summer romance in his Maine fishing village with the slightly older Natalie (Marisa Tomei).

Ultimately “In the Bedroom” is not a warm romance but a wrenching study of a family – Spacek and British actor Tom Wilkinson as upright small town Maine parents – coming undone when a beloved son is murdered by his girlfriend’s out-of-control ex.

For Stahl, “In the Bedroom” is his second buzzed-about flick of the year, following Larry Clark’s “Bully,” in which he played a murdered sexual predator. “`Bedroom’ was pretty simple,” Stahl said. “Once I read it, that was it. Every movie is different in one way or another, but this was one of the better experiences I’ve had, I would say.

“Frank’s a great role for me, I was just fortunate. I saw him as old for his age, I don’t think he’s more than 21. He’s mature for his age and kind of wise.”

When it comes to acting, Stahl, too, has been mature for his age. “I’d been doing children’s plays since I was about 4,” he said. “At 10, I got a role in `Medea’ with a professional theater group as her son, so I started off with death at a young age.”

That was when he was growing up in Dallas, where he soon had an agent and did TV movies. At age 12, Mel Gibson changed Stahl’s life.

That’s when Stahl was cast to star in “The Man Without a Face,” directed by and co-starring Gibson. “He’s a good guy to be around,” Stahl said of Gibson. “He had his hands full with directing. He had a great sense of humor and fun, so it made it easy for me.

“I was just in awe, my first movie and such a big thing to start on. It kind of blew me away.”

Stahl continued to work, appearing in “The Thin Red Line” and “Eye of God,” but only now are his roles finally changing. “I look pretty young for my age, I have this baby face,” he said. “`In the Bedroom’ is the first role really where I’ve played an adult.”