Transcript Done by Us
Risky Business
KELLAN
LUTZ HAS NEVER BEEN ONE TO SHY AWAY FROM A CHALLENGE. WITH ACTING—AND MODELING
AND PAINTING AND DESIGNING AND SKYDIVING—THAT ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT HAS PAID OFF.
Kellan
Lutz is a guy who likes to take risks. He’s talked with Ellen DeGeneres about
his love of gambling, with ESPN.com about “extreme” skateboarding, and he
tweeted about skydiving last summer on the Fourth of July. He lives for the
adrenaline rush. “I think that’s what life is for,” the 27-year-old actor says.
“You’re supposed to get outside your skin and learn about yourself.”
It’s
a principle that has guided him in most of his pursuits throughout his life.
He’s never hesitated to dive into whatever interests him, regardless of whether
it was previously in his plans or not. It’s what lead him from studying
chemical engineering at Orange County’s Chapman
University to starting in one of the biggest film franchise of the past
decade, The Twilight Saga, based on Stephanie Meyer’s bestselling young adult
vampire novels.
“My
whole career, this whole acting thing, for me, has been a journey. And a fun
journey, because I fell into acting.”
Lutz
isn’t one of those actors who grew up dreaming of winning an Oscar. He didn’t
know from an early age that he wanted to act. He began modeling at 14 with
Ford/Robert Black, landing campaigns for Levi’s and Abercrombie & Fitch.
But even then he had the sense that modeling wasn’t a sustainable career. “My
dad lost his hair when he was younger, so I knew I wasn’t gonna be pretty
enough or handsome enough to model for the rest of my life,” he says. What he
realized, however, was that he loved being in front of the camera. “I never did
theater growing up, I never did anything in front of the camera. But I liked
it. I learned a lot about myself doing it. And then I realized—I have more
personality than I have looks. Modeling you can’t really express your
personality, but in film you can.”
While
in school at Chapman, Lutz put in time at his father’s L.A. real estate firm,
where a few of the partners—men in their forties and fifties—regularly
submitted headshots for commercials and work as extras in films and TV shows.
“I saw that they were very passionate for it and I decided to give it a try.”
Almost immediately, Lutz says, he was in love—which acting class, with working
as an extra, with auditioning. He’d found something he was passionate about.
“And once I found that passion, my heart was just beating for it!”
With
the release of Breaking Dawn Part 2
this month, the Twilight series draws to a close, and Lutz puts behind him the
role that has made him a household name for legions of fans of both novels and
films. It’s a turning point, but one that he’s more than ready to embrace.
“It’s
one of these roles in my life that I’ll always remember,” he says, “But I’m
ready for something new. Would I do more movies if there were more books? Of
course! I love my character so much. I love working with all these great
directors. I love our cast.”
Playing
Emmett Cullen, the strapping fraternal counterpart to Robert Pattinson’s
gloomy, Byronic Edward, has certainly boosted Lutz’s profile. But he’s very
aware that Twilight is bigger than him. “A lot of it is a bit undeserving,
because we’re playing these characters. Whoever would play these characters would get famous,” he points out. “But
again, I’m thankful for it. It’s opened up so many doors for me to allow the
pursuit of my action career. So now I can produce movies and work on action
movies that I wanna do.”
Lutz
recently wrapped the dark comedy Syrup,
and stars alongside Mickey Rourke in the action thriller Java Heat. But probably his most anticipated upcoming film is next
year’s Tarzan, in which he stars as the title character in
Reinhard Klooss’ contemporary update of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, pitting
the ape man and Jane against an evil CEO. Lutz says he never expected to land
the role, but it was his competitive nature—the side of him that still finds
the uncertainty of auditioning thrilling—that inspired him to actually throw on
a long brown wig and strip down to his underwear to get into character. And it
paid off.
To
capture the King of the Apes’ uniquely fluid, simian body language, Lutz had to
go through intensive movement training with Peter Elliot, who has previously
brought primates to life for Congo,
Gorillas in the Mist, and 1984’s Greystoke:
The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. It was, Lutz says, more work than
the two weeks of boot camp he underwent to play a marine in Generation Kill. “I’m a stocky guy and I played football growing up. And I don’t
do yoga. I’m not very flexible or agile. With Tarzan, it’s like taking ballet
class. Picture a football player taking ballet class!”
Shooting
the motion capture film also took Lutz out of his comfort zone. It’s a style of
filming he was unfamiliar with, but true to his nature, he embraced the
challenge. “It felt very fresh. And that’s why I love this industry, because
each new day I can be a doctor, I could be a jet fighter, I could be a boxer, I
can be a baseball player. It’s great to be in a profession where you can play
dress up.”
Dressing
up is something Lutz know a thing or two about. In the past year, he’s become a
fixture at New York Fashion Week, appearing in the front row and backstage at
nearly every high profile menswear show. He credits his older brothers for his
early introduction to fashion. As a kid he tried to emulate their style, often swiping
clothes from their closets and wearing them to school to impress the girls in
his class.
He
also picked things up from his time as a model, paying attention to the
stylists and designers around him and absorbing what they had to teach. “I just
always knew that I had an interest in [fashion],” says Lutz. “I never went to
any fashion design school, but in the modeling world, it’s its own education
through experience.”
That
education has served his well as the co-founder—and face—of his own casualwear
label, Abbot + Main. Unlike other celebrities with endorsement deals, if Lutz
was going to be involved with a fashion line, he really wanted to be involved. “I
wanted to do it right, I didn’t want to just put my face on something if I wasn’t
gonna be able to have the chance to create a line. I wanted to create a ‘Kellan’
line.” He insists that that the casual basics in Abbot + Main’s men’s
collection are all pieces he would—and does—wear.
When
he attends shows at Fashion Week, Lutz says he still approaches it as an
educational experience. He’s become great friends with Simon Spurr and Joseph
Abboud creative director Bernardo Rojo, and as with his older brothers, as with
movement coach Peter Elliott and the designers and stylists he worked with as a
model, Lutz makes sure he absorbs whatever wisdom and experience they have to
convey. “They are experts at it and geniuses at it,” he says. “I love seeing
what they’re coming up with next. And it gives me time to ask questions. I’m
just one of those who likes having a wise counsel. By bringing the best of the
best into my world I can take in all information I can and then I make my own
decisions after that.”
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