Get your own Free Home Page
In the dark new dramatic comedy 'American Beauty,' 21-year-old Wes Bentley plays a drug-dealing teen-ager who writes his beloved's name in gasoline on her front lawn and ignites it in order to win her attention. In real life, Bentley has gotten similarly creative when angling for a date. "In high school [in Sherwin, Ark.], I was interested in this girl, so I borrowed a friend's cheerleading uniform, made myself up and went in front of the whole school at an assembly," he says. "But we never got together. I guess when you try too hard..." If the son of two Methodist preachers seems an unlikely cross-dresser, what seems even more unexpected is that his parents would whole-heartedly support his decision to become an actor, though Bentley does call them "pretty liberal. My mother picked up a Juilliard application for me, pushed me out of the car at the audition and pushed me onto the plane when it came time to go to New York. Most of the preachers I know wouldn't have done that." Financial difficulties kept Bentley from staying at Juilliard, but he did score an agent and a few small roles (a rapist in Beloved and a serial killer in the upcoming White River Kid) before moving to Los Angeles, where he lives in a "crazy" house with three roommates, and landing the part in American Beauty. The film's director, Sam Mendes, says, "I saw over 50 young Hollywood men for this part. I needed someone who sat between a potentially dangerous guy and a poet, and Wes combined those attributes effortlessly. He defined the role for me. In three years, I'll be begging him to do my movies."
--Darcy Lockman
back to Articles
back to main page
Get your own Free Home Page