Monday, November 12, 2012

Kellan on the Cover of Essential Homme (Nov/Dec 2012)


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.”

BTS Pics

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