Justin Timberlake
Spotlight By: Benjamin Lee
When it comes to making the move from music to movies, the track record is rocky. For every Elvis there's a Madonna, a Britney or even worse, a Mariah.
It was inevitable that fresh-faced boy-band member turned credible RnB star Justin Timberlake would take a crack at the big screen sooner or later. His first real role was up against acting heavyweights Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman in the drama Edison but the film flopped straight to DVD last year causing many to question Timberlake's credentials as an actor.
This month, he makes another stab at becoming a fully-fledged movie star with the true-life teen drama Alpha Dog. Timberlake plays Frankie, a rich Hollywood kid who gets involved in an escalating disaster revolving around the kidnap of a minor. Timberlake admits that he's never once taken an acting class and so his first day on set was a real learning curve.
'I felt somewhat like a fish out of water' he recalls, 'But it was amazing to be around people my age who were so gifted. I learned so much from them, I was like a sponge. I really was a fan of all of them. This was an amazing experience for me.' Timberlake, like many of his co-stars, had to go through a lot of preparation for the movie. In an attempt to bond the stars together, and also to give them the right physiques, director Nick Cassavetes decided to impose rigorous physical training.
'Before we got to our first day of principal photography we trained together for 3 months' Timberlake tells, 'I think Nick wanted us to have a sense of camaraderie. These characters that ours were based off grew up playing baseball together. It was important to develop some chemistry between all of us. Hours and hours of weight-lifting. I've toured since I was 14 and I've never done anything like that.'
After the physical training, it was also necessary to give Timberlake the right look, and that meant a lot of tattoos. 'I created all of them actually' he reveals, 'I sat with the artist for like 2 or 3 days. I based some of them off of my friends. I think my character's tattoos have their own theme.'
When basing a character and a situation in reality, it's important to make things seem as credible as possible. 'I got the script first before I really got the story' Timberlake shares, 'Then when we signed up for this film we got a stack of files that were literally that thick. We had information to research these characters.' Since the character he plays is based on a real-life youth who is currently serving time in prison, Timberlake got the chance to meet him and this meeting changed his ideas on how he wanted to play the character.
'I went to the prison and spoke to him for a couple of hours' he recalls, 'I walked away from that meeting deciding that I could not get through this film by literally basing my character off him because it felt wrong. I told him to his face that it wouldn't be a character based on you.' It was a strange experience for Timberlake, meeting a convicted felon and he was careful not to let him get the better of him. 'He seemed very misunderstood and remorseful' he states, 'But you get one life to do things right and he didn't.'
It's a dark subject matter and one which, by the finale, packs a hefty punch. Timberlake thinks it's a story which everyone needs to see. 'No one paid attention to these kids' he believes, 'I think it's important for all types of people to see this film. It's not just kids that screw up, sometimes it's the parents that screw their kids up.' Despite the terrible things his character is involved in, he also made sure never to add his own morality to the performance. 'I had to remove all judgement to really find the truth in this film' he admits, 'As humans we judge but I had to throw it all out of the window.'
Timberlake also managed to find a level of empathy with the kids in the story. 'My experience growing up was as a kid in middle America' he remembers, 'I always found that in high school it was more of a story of class. If you were born into an upper class family you were considered more popular. I think Johnny Truelove had more at his fingertips than the kids around him.'
The film is directed by Nick Cassavetes, son of John, who has previously directed The Notebook and John Q. He's a director that Timberlake relished working with. 'I can't say enough about Nick as a director' he gushes, 'I think he's amazing. When Nick clued me in on my character, he urged me to find those moments that are unscripted. The off-the-cuff reactions. Nick said to me that I think it's your job as an actor to let everyone know it isn't a big deal up until the end.'
For singer-turned-actor Justin Timberlake, a surprisingly credible performance in a dark, above-average teen drama is a big-screen debut he can be proud of. With upcoming roles in Richard Kelly's much-anticipated Southland Tales plus voice work in Shrek 3, Timberlake's Midas touch looks to be enviably untarnished.
