Scott Caan's Horse Different Color Than Dad's

Reuters

August 15, 2001

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It's not easy being the eldest son of a movie star, especially when Dad is Oscar nominee James Caan -- Sonny Corleone of 1972's "The Godfather" and a Hollywood bad boy of his day.

So how does Scott Caan, who stars in the Western "American Outlaws" that opens nationwide on Friday, try to live up to the expectations created by being the son of a tough guy?

He doesn't.

"I used to trip on that. It used to bother me, but now I'm like, 'You know what, I don't care,"' Caan, 25, told Reuters in a recent interview.

"I'm not concerned with breaking out of it, anymore," he said. "I just feel like if I do good work, then people should respect me for the work I do."

It wasn't always that way.

A read of Caan's news clippings spotlights a self-described "scam artist" in high school, a cocky teen-ager who couldn't act his way out of bad B-movie, 1995's "A Boy Called Hate," and a young adult arrested for barroom brawling in 1998. But Caan, it seems, is a quick study in the do's and don't's of career-making and celebrity profile building.

The scamming, he quit. His work in "Hate" led to years of acting lessons, and the scrutiny over the fight helped get him off the booze and onto an increasingly successful career.

"I want to focus on things that are important," he said. "All the other stuff -- the partying, the drinking and drugs ... going out, having a good time, creating an image -- is bull."

AN EASY CAREER? YEAH, RIGHT

People might say: "Well, he's had it easy. He's James Caan's son. Every door in Hollywood must be open to him."

Not so, said Caan.

"I never asked for any help. I never asked for a meeting," he said. "But, if it helps, it helps. At the end of the day, I'll take it because once my foot is in the door, I've got to show them proof. And if I don't, then I'm not going to get another job."

Increasingly, Caan has been getting those jobs, starting with little-seen movies like 1997's "Last Resort" and quickly moving up to 1998's "Enemy of the State" opposite Will Smith.

He strutted his stuff (quite literally, naked) in 1999 teen hit "Varsity Blues" and made it into high-action "Gone in 60 Seconds" in 2000 as part of crew of auto thieves.

For the first time, in "American Outlaws," audiences find his name above the title and his picture plastered on the movie's posters.

He portrays Cole Younger, partner to legendary gunslinger Jesse James in this fictional story that uses the mid-19th century James-Younger gang to tell a Wild West tale of gun-fightin,' hard-drinkin,' good lovin' and bank robbin.'

The real-life Younger and James were guerrilla fighters for the Confederate states in the Civil War, and afterward they, along with brothers Bob Younger and Frank James, joined up to rob banks and railroads throughout the American Midwest.

But that is about where reality ends and Hollywood concocts its own version of Jesse James lore.

HOLLYWOOD FICTION

In "American Outlaws," Younger, Jesse (Colin Farrell), Frank James (Gabriel Macht) and Bob Younger (Will McCormack) return to Liberty, Missouri, after the war to lead a humble life as God-fearing Christians and hard-working farmers.

But progress and the railroad stand between them and a peaceful life. The Rock Island Railroad, and its powerful owner Thaddeus Rains, are buying all the land around the railroad's right-of-way through Missouri at less-than-market prices.

To bully the farmers into selling, Rains has hired the black hat detectives of the renowned Pinkerton Agency, but James and Younger aren't intimidated by the Pinkerton thugs.

When Rains' men blow up their farms, resulting in the death of the James brothers' mom (Kathy Bates), Jesse mounts his own sort of guerrilla war against the railroad by robbing banks in which they've deposited their money.

Instead of keeping all the cash, however, they give some to the poor farmers and churches of the community, and in that way "American Outlaws" paints Jesse James as a sort of Wild West Robin Hood. Younger and the gang are Jesse's Merry Men.

Taken as a whole, "American Outlaws" seems to be the kind of fast, fun, "popcorn" movie that fits well in a summer that began with high-action "The Mummy Returns" and "Pearl Harbor," another piece of Hollywood fiction set around real events.

CAAN FACT

But for now Caan is less worried about whether he appears in a popcorn flick or an Oscar-nominated drama like "The Godfather." He's not concerned about being typecast as a tough guy just because his dad was. Many of his roles, so far, have been hardened characters like Cole Younger.

"If you want to hire me to act, I love it and I'll do it," he said. "If you want to hire me to play a tough guy, I'll do it. If you want me to play a sensitive guy, a lead, a gay guy or a black guy, I'll play whatever you want. I dig it."

He's not stopping at acting, either. Caan has written a play called "Almost Love" in which he stars and co-directs. The story about a young man obsessed with a former lover debuts in a theater in North Hollywood this month.

"Hollywood is sort of a small, little town, and doing things like that -- like writing a play or selling a script -- those are the little things people see," Caan said. "People in Hollywood -- the real deal people -- they look at that stuff and respect it. They think it's worth something, worth getting involved with somebody like that.

© Reuters