Patrick Fugit - Brief Article - Interview

SEX, DRUGS, ROCK 'N' ROLL--NOT BAD FOR A KID'S FIRST BIG PART

Working with Cameron Crowe on the director's much-anticipated new film from DreamWorks, seventeen-year-old Patrick Fugit felt he was in experienced, if eccentric, hands. In the film (which has had almost as many titles as Mike Tyson, including Stillwater, Untitled, and [currently] Almost Famous), Fugit played Crowe himself in this autobiographical tale of a high school journalist who covers a rock band for Rolling Stone. Adding to Fugit's whirlwind initiation was the presence of Jason Lee, Kate Hudson, Peter Frampton, and Frances McDormand. We asked Billy Crudup, who became close with Fugit during the shooting, to call the precocious leading man at Fugit's home in Salt Lake City, where he spent his summer "skateboarding, mostly."

BILLY CRUDUP: I'm gonna start off with a couple of easy questions, Fuge. All right, at what point did you start acting?

PATRICK FUGIT: That'd have to be around seventh grade.

BC: And what did you do?

PF: I auditioned for the school play and I got to play the shoemaker in The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

BC: That's an incredible role for you.

PF: Yes, it is.

BC: What was your next project after that?

PF: Well, you know, I liked acting so I said to my mom, "I wanna act, I wanna get an agent," and my mom said, "Well, if you get good grades this year I'll let you get an agent." So I got good grades and I got an agent and the day after I got my agent I got my first project ever. I played this kid who got eaten by ants in a FOX TV movie with Mitch Pileggi called Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!

BC: Another stellar role for you.

PF: Yeah, and I was basically onscreen for about five or ten minutes, and I was just a jerk to the main character. And then I got eaten by ants.

BC: That's a seminal moment; I'm glad we captured that. [both laugh) Now, describe Cameron Crowe; and if you could possibly allude to his raw animalistic sexuality that would be great.

PF: Animalistic sexuality? He's a stud, man.

BC: Nicely done. In this film you essentially play Cameron as a young man. Was there a responsibility that was hard to deal with in having Cameron present all the time?

PF: Yes, I definitely didn't wanna make him look like an ass. I really sometimes felt bad about, you know, how dorky the character would get and how dorky I'd make him look.

BC: You carried several different themes on your shoulders; one is love of music.

PF: Well, that's funny, because before the movie I was rock-illiterate, basically.

BC: You were born in what, 1983, 1984?

PF: '82.

BC: In that case, here's a multiple choice question for you. Steely Dan is: a) popular seventies band; b) Asian cooking instrument; or c) sexual device.

PF: I think I'd have to go with "c."

BC: Good choice!

PF: Anyway, during the movie, Cameron said "I want rock and roll just coming out of your pores." I was like, "All right, I can do that, I'm an actor," and I started listening to some music and I was like "I don't know--I'm not feeling it." And then I started listening to it more and more, and now that's what I do. I fall asleep listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

BC: You've made the crossover.

PF: Yes, and now I play the guitar, and I love learning new stuff on the guitar.

BC: Good man. By the way, your performance in Almost Famous is one of my favorite in recent memory. You were stellar.

PF: Aw. Have you seen it?

BC: When you get to be a top-notch box office draw like myself, you'll get to see new movies well before anyone else. That's the benefit of starring in films that gross in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

PF: I wish I could do that.

BC: Some day my friend, some day. In any case, I saw it. You were spectacular.

PF: Thank you very much.

Billy Crudup plays a rock star in Almost Famous.

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