screening

Close-Up: Josh Peck

Rob Ortenzi on 10/28/08 @ 12:55 PM

PECKING ORDER
Interview: J. Bennett

As one half of a step-fraternal teenage duo, JOSH PECK won over an entire middle-school generation (2004-2007) by playing his churro-eating, Oprah-loving namesake on the popular Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh. Meanwhile, he lent his voice to such kid-friendly fair as Ice Age: The Meltdown and the Cartoon Network's What's New, Scooby Doo? and Codename: Kids Next Door. But as a weird, chubby kid earlier in his career, Peck transcended standard-brand Disney-fiction in darker films like Spun and Mean Creek. This month, he'll play a hapless New York City weed dealer circa 1994 alongside Sir Ben Kingsley and Olivia Thirlby in The Wackness.

Was your role as a drug dealer in The Wackness especially appealing because it's the polar opposite of your Nickelodeon reputation?
I'd probably be lying if I said that wasn't a bit exciting for me, but it definitely wasn't the main appeal of the part. I guess I realized that with a show like Drake & Josh-or any show where you play the same ongoing character for months or hopefully years-you run the risk of being seen as only that character you're portraying. I'm really lucky in that I was able to make kids laugh and entertain families for a bunch of years, and yet doing this-real acting with real actors-had always been my interest. I feel the The Wackness accomplishes that. So, if anything, yeah, it's hopefully helping to demolish the typecasting.

You could always do a Larry Clark movie.
[Laughs.] True, true. But at the end of the day, no one's gonna leave the movie theater [after seeing The Wackness] and be like, "Well, the movie wasn't great, but that Peck kid showed us a side of himself we don't see on TV," you know? I think it has to be the full package. Between Sir Ben's character and being surrounded by a cast of my peers and Jon [Levine], our director, sort of being our guiding force, we made something I'm really proud of.

Does any part of you feel beholden to your younger fans?
I guess I'm taking leap of faith with them and hoping they can take a leap of faith with me. My audience has sort of grown up with me; when I was 14, they were maybe 11; now, I'm 21 and they're 18. Now their younger sisters and brothers are watching the show, but I guess I'm hoping the original crew of kids who grew up watching Drake & Josh are at an age where they're ready to see something like The Wackness. The drug use is very prevalent, but I don't think it falls into gratuitous.

Was there any actual weed smoked onset?
There were no drugs harmed in the filming of this movie. We had six weeks and we were on a hairline budget, so we needed to be on our shit. Had there been real weed onset, we all probably would've been rather lazy. Maybe it would've made for some cool visuals, but we never experimented.

Your character, Luke Shapiro, is kind of unique in that he's a drug dealer who doesn't have a lot of confidence and isn't particularly good with the ladies.
Undoubtedly. I think the common theme with most drug dealers is that they're the product of their surroundings. With Luke, things could have gone so differently for him had his parents been more present and noticed what a good kid he was and the talents he had before he fell into this. Had he not felt so much pressure and cynicism from the world around him, he might've been able to direct his talents elsewhere and felt more self-worth and self-confidence. But at the same time, what made him great was also his downfall. I guess we're sort of slowly veering into describing Tony Montana [Al Pacino's character in Scarface], but people trust Luke, and all his great attributes as a guy also translate to his business. I knew kids like that: Normal guys who sold a little pot on the side to make extra money. But you wouldn't have known them from any other kid.

Kingsley is one of your favorite actors, too...
Absolutely. When I heard he was going to be in the movie, it was the day of my audition. So it was sort of like getting shot, you know? It's not the best of circumstances, but at least [I didn't] have a lot of time to think about it. I talked to my boy about it, and he threw down some of his finance knowledge on me. He said, "If the deal's gonna happen, bro, it's gonna happen-whether it's a dollar or a million dollars." And I guess that works no matter what industry you're in. So I walked into the audition with the swagger I felt Luke has, the way he handles himself in different situations when he's dealing, and the way he has this kind of falsified ego and toughness that he feels he has to put out there.

Was it awkward the first time you were in the room with Kingsley?
Well, I think he knew what he was stepping into. Between our producer and director, who had only made one movie prior, and this being my dream role in my dream city... I mean, our entire crew was running on pure adrenaline and passion for this project, and he was the seasoned professional. We were the hobbits and he was Ian McKellen. He was our Obi-Wan Kenobi. He knew we would be intimidated by him, so he made himself very accessible, which is a testament to the man he is. He came up to me the day we started shooting and said, "You didn't choose this part-the part chose you." That immediately kicked down any walls or sense of nervousness I had and I just wanted to perform. It's like he was our Michael Jordan and I wanted to be his Scottie Pippen.

Right after The Wackness, you filmed another movie with Olivia Thirlby called Safety Glass. You must have a pretty good chemistry with her by now.
We've got a really dope relationship-it's very brother-and-sister. We're constantly challenging each other and never letting each other get too comfortable in any situation. I think you can't get that kind of relationship without some mutual respect and admiration, although she'd probably never admit that on my end. [Laughs.] Of course, I had a pretty bangin' crush on her when we first started shooting, but then I met her lovely boyfriend and that was quickly extinguished.

THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
Just like his character in The Wackness, Josh Peck is a massive hip-hop fan. "Doing the movie has taken me back to my [A] Tribe Called Quest days," he says, "But as far as current stuff, the new Lupe [Fiasco] album is off the fuckin' chain. He just hit money with that shit." Filming The Wackness also put the 21-year-old actor face-to-face with one of his favorite rappers: Method Man plays the Jamaican supplier to Peck's dealer. "He was dope!" Peck enthuses. "That was a dream. Doing the Jamaican accent like that was his idea. He just took it mad serious, man. It's funny-all my boys had, like, a list of questions to ask him when they heard he was gonna be in the movie. But I just wanted to be around his aura. He's the original."

CHEAT SHEET
If you're under 19, you might recognize Josh Peck from his long-running role as Josh Nichols on Nickelodeon's insanely popular DRAKE & JOSH. But the young actor actually made his first tentative steps into the entertainment racket by doing stand-up comedy at age 8. From there, he appeared on eight episodes of Nickelodeon's THE AMANDA SHOW before easing into Drake & Josh and picking up voiceover work on The Cartoon Network and ICE AGE: THE MELT DOWN. This month, he'll play an insecure teenage drug dealer who sells marijuana to his therapist, played by Sir Ben Kingsley, in THE WACKNESS.

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