More than just a Tom Cruise look-alike

It’s almost cliché but for many young Hollywood starters, the road to stardom isn’t always easy. And it is not so normally difficult either. When one runs into aspiring actors waiting tables at restaurants in West Hollywood, a short chat would surely, inevitably lead into sad tales of rejections and frustrations.

The four young actors who play prominent supporting roles in Columbia Pictures’ Yours, Mine & Ours are no different. They too have their share of the story.

Recently, this writer shared a very interesting round table conversation with the young cast of promising actors during the press junket for the movie held in Beverly Hills. They work in an unforgiving business where the highs could reach dizzying levels and the lows are invariably painful.

Take the case of Drake Bell, who has experienced the embarrassment of rejection when he was just starting out.

"Sometimes there are projects you really like and the rejection is really hard," he starts. "One time, I am all set to do a movie and I really wanted it. They called up my agent and they said they really wanted me but the lead actor (Drake was supposed to play the younger part) had blue eyes. Then the movie came out and the whole part wherein I was supposed to be in was in black and white. It is so ridiculous!"

"You come in to the audition prepared to be rejected. You have to learn not to take it too personally," echoes co-star Katija Pevec.

Drake Bell started out in the business when he was 10 in a little-seen film called Drifting School. He wouldn’t say what movie it was that he got rejected for except that it was a big blockbuster. That initial rejection however did not dampen the spirit of the very articulate Bell. He starred star in the hit Nickelodeon show Drake & Josh and has appeared in several blockbuster movies such as Jerry Maguire and High Fidelity with John Cusack. He also has released an album with his band Telegraph.

Katija Pevek starred in the teen movie Sleepover and has appeared in "one of the million Air Bud movies" (her own words, referring to the movie with a dog as lead star.)

Their co-star Danielle Panabaker echoes Bell’s sentiment but couldn’t single out a particular incident. Rather, she insists on trying to draw from every failed audition and just move on. She has built a TV career appearing in the hit CBS crime series CSI and in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls with Paul Newman among others. The only other film she has done was Disney’s Sky High, released in 2005.

Of the four young actors in the movie, Sean Faris seems to be the luckiest.

Within a month after arriving in LA from Ohio, he landed a small part in the blockbuster Pearl Harbor.

But that was just it. After this initial success, it was back to starting block for him.

"I just fell into it back in Ohio," he says. "One day I met an agent and the idea was brought up and when I realized I could make money and have a career and do this (referring to the junket), I said, ‘heck yeah, that’s an easy ride!’ Little did I know that nothing was easy about it."

The Ohio transplant, who grew up in Texas, joined his co-stars, Bell, Panabaker and Pevec to promote Yours, Mine & Ours during the junket.

In the movie, he plays William, eldest son of Frank Beardsley (Dennis Quaid), who aspires to follow in his father’s footsteps. His leadership skills are tested when he and his seven siblings are forced to live with the ten kids of the woman their father hastily married.

"The best way to describe working with 18 kids is chaos," Faris says. "I’ve been doing this for only two years and I am seeing it now in their innocent little eyes. They take it to a different level because to them, it is just fun."

A highlight in the movie shows the entire family of 20 plus one dog, gather in front of the phone to record their voice mail greeting. It proved difficult to shoot.

"It took us five times to do the voice mail recording scene. It was difficult because the kids would forget their character names and instead use their real names. We have to record it in particular order and have to be fast enough for it to fit the 20-second time gap in between beeps."

Faris, who has handsome blue eyes and a remarkable resemblance to Tom Cruise, was a good conversationalist. He unintentionally grabbed the interview away from his co-stars and started discussing his childhood.

"I shared a room with my brother all my life until I was 12. He used to beat the crap out of me not because I was the younger brother but because I would always antagonize him. We hated each other until I was 15," Faris discloses.

After the initial blast of success, Faris found himself scrambling for film roles just like thousands of other hopeful would-be actors.

"When I was starting I used to share a house with five of my buddies who all turned club promoters on me," he recalls. "All night long they party while I prepare myself for an audition in the morning. I moved out of there about a year ago and I have been booked solid for the next two years. It was fun to be in the house but it was going nowhere. Some of them are my best friends but a lot of them are still in the same boat. That’s the difference. I wanted more, I want to work. You’ve got to put up time to get to work."

"I don’t really care about the Hollywood lifestyle. I just really love what I do. I don’t necessarily want to be the center of attention or anything like that because I feel that my life is for me. All I really care about is the work. I love acting," he continues.

Not that he dislikes the attention from fans because he actually likes to entertain them.

"In my opinion, it’s a setback," he explains. "If you look at what happened to most celebrities, their careers are great but it’s not about it anymore. It’s more like what’s going on in their lives. You see them in magazines with headlines like ‘oh, they chew bubble gums’ and ‘they walk their dogs’ and they do this. I am like, there’s no "they." They are like regular people like everybody else. I grew up in Texas, I go fishing and drink beer. I am just a normal guy. I am not some separate person from reality."

He goes on: "I really love acting, I love creating. Right now I am doing a TV show but I feel I won’t be satisfied until I have more creative control. I am starting to produce films now."

He currently headlines the hit Fox series Reunion.

Since he was 10, people have constantly reminded Faris of his uncanny resemblance to Cruise. But Faris is not afraid people may just dismiss him as a mere look-alike.

"I am not worried about that one. I’ll be on a completely different path, there’s no way I am worried," he contends.

Yours, Mine & Ours opens today.