Sunday, March 9, 2008

The Ides of March have yet to arrive, and already it’s been a tough year for former child stars. Before Heath Ledger’s accidental drug death, Brad Renfro was found dead. Substance abuse is the suspected cause.

Nick Stahl, who already was a stage veteran when he made his first movie at age 10, worked with Renfro on “Bully.”

“There was a lot of recreational drinking and things like that going on during the shoot,” Stahl said. “For someone like me, who has been through drugs and drinking, it was pretty easy to spot that Brad had problems.”

He says he didn’t try to help Renfro “because we didn’t have that kind of a relationship. We weren’t that close.”

At 28 and with leads in “Sleepwalking” this month and “Quid Pro Quo” in April, Stahl appears to have escaped the demons of other child actors. He arrives right on time for an interview at the St. Regis, his hair freshly washed and sticking up in the fashion of the day and wearing a crisply ironed checkered shirt.

Stahl has given a great deal of thought to what pushes young people over the edge when Hollywood beckons and decided part of it comes from living in two worlds and not belonging in either.

“It warps your ability to find a certain identity. You are in a strange limbo. You are working in an adult world but being very young, you are not a part of it. You can’t be included in it really. Then you go home and because you’re with your friends not all that often, you’re not fully a part of that, either.”

He was impressed by AnnaSophia Robb, 14, the actress who plays his niece in “Sleepwalking.”

“She is much more well adjusted then I was at that age. She has more of a solid foundation and is more together,” he says of the young star of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Because of Winn-Dixie.”

Charlize Theron handpicked Stahl to play her brother in “Sleepwalking,” which she also produced. She told him she had seen some of his work.

“It was very nice not to have to audition,” Stahl said.

The brother is a little strange – one of the other characters tells him, “You creep me out.” Stahl said he didn’t see him that way.

“He’s a pretty complex character who has suffered trauma at the hands of his dad,” played by Dennis Hopper. Although Theron disappears through the whole middle section of the film, her face is still prominent on the poster.

“Of course she’s prominent. I mean, it’s a business, and given that much space, she will sell some tickets. She’s a movie star.”

Stahl’s movie career began playing opposite another movie star, Mel Gibson, in his directing debut. He had seen an audition tape Stahl did for another movie and asked him to do one for “The Man Without a Face.”

“I was kind of overwhelmed being in every scene,” said Stahl, who considers himself fortunate to be directed by Gibson so early in his career – he was just 13. “Mel was not demanding in the least bit. He has the energy of a kid, so he was really suited to directing. He made it fun.”

A few years later, Stahl, his mother and two older sisters moved from Dallas to Los Angeles. His mother gave up her jobs as a brokerage assistant and part-time seamstress – she did the costumes for the children’s theater where her son got his first taste of acting – to help him with his career. Stahl, who grew up without a father, suddenly found himself the breadwinner of the family.

The move to Los Angeles can be rough on fledgling actors.

“When you are young and you move to Los Angeles, you have time on your hands and you might have some money,” Stahl said. “But you still have the same problems in your life you had from before you moved there.”

This was the period when Stahl started experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

“It is very easy to happen,” he said. “Like I said, everybody has a share of family problems. Just because you have some success and you make some money and people start to know who you are, your problems are still there.”

Sometimes the fame makes it worse.

“There are certain superficial elements of the business – kind of putting on a good face even though you might be in pain,” he said. “That’s suppression to me.”

The requirement of three hours of school work on every movie set “was just getting really hard to keep doing. It kind of became a nuisance,” said Stahl, who satisfied the requirement by earning his general equivalency diploma.

The move to be closer to casting agents didn’t immediately pan out for him. As a teenager, he did “a whole handful of awful TV movies just to make money.”

He thought his luck had changed when maverick director Terrence Malick tapped him to be in “The Thin Red Line.” His role started out bigger than it wound up after Malick’s editing.

“Everyone seemed to get cut. Next to Adrien I can’t complain,” Stahl said, referring to Adrien Brody, whose starring role ended up almost completely cut.

Stahl’s character in the prestige art film “In the Bedroom” gets killed fairly early on. He landed a continuing role on HBO’s “CarnivÀle,” only to have the plug pulled on the series after two years.

He caught a break when Edward Furlough, the actor who originated the role of John Connor in “Terminator,” had to be replaced. But in the easy-come-easy-go trajectory of Hollywood, Stahl found out that he is to be replaced in “Terminator 4″ by Christian Bale.

“I would have loved to have done the next one,” said Stahl, who would have made big bucks compared to the salaries he gets for the indies he often does. “But they changed the franchise. My character is older in this one. I think it is more of a futuristic thing.”

He can look forward to “Sleepwalking” and, almost immediately afterward, “Quid Pro Quo,” in which he plays a paraplegic NPR reporter who investigates a strange subculture of people.

His most recent films were completed a while ago, and Stahl has had a lot of free time since. With no significant other at the moment, he lives alone in Southern California.

“It’s pretty nice. I’m just selfish and enjoying my own time,” he said. “I’ve never been a worrier. I’ve always found work when I really needed to, so I have faith.”

SLEEPWALKING (R) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.

E-mail Ruthe Stein at rstein@sfchron icle.com.