PRINTSpeeding to the top
Emile Hirsch emerges from the wild
Katharine Johnson
23-year-old Emile Hirsch is rounding out his diverse career with the lead role in the Wachowski brothers’ adaptation of the ’60s anime show, Speed Racer.
May 22, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Like many of the characters he plays on the big screen, 23-year-old Emile Hirsch is packed with contradictions. He is a wide-eyed old soul, dorky hunk, a serious goofball.
Hirsch kicked off his career with unmemorable guest-starring stints on TV shows such as NYPD Blue and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. But discontent with minor roles on the small screen, he made a smooth jump to film with 2002’s The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, in which he played a conflicted, rebellious teen. That same year, he starred opposite Kevin Kline in The Emperor’s Club, in which he played — surprise, surprise — a conflicted, rebellious teen.
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, 2002
The Emperor’s Club, 2002
The Mudge Boy, 2003
The Girl Next Door, 2004
Imaginary Heros, 2004
Lords of Dogtown, 2005
Alpha Dog, 2005
The Air I Breathe, 2007
Into the Wild, 2007
Speed Racer, 2008
When offered the lead role as a straight-edged high school senior in the 2004 comedy The Girl Next Door, Hirsch told about.com he was hesitant to take it because he’d spent his career dabbling in drama flicks. Although it only made $14.66 million at the box office, people finally started to learn Hirsch’s name — and how to pronounce it.
What followed was an impressive performance as Jay Adams, a surfer-turned-skateboarder in 2005’s Lords of Dogtown. Two years later, he was cast in Alpha Dog as a character based on the drug dealer Jesse James Hollywood, the youngest man ever on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
Then came Hirsch’s career-changing role as Christopher McCandless in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild. Hirsch lost 41 pounds for the role but gained a SAG nomination for Outstanding Male Actor in a Role. His acting didn’t please all, however. He was snubbed by Oscar and received some negative reviews.
“I’ve tried to like Hirsch in the past,” wrote film critic Stephanie Zacharek in a salon.com review, “but I just can’t see much in his eyes. He has a pouty adolescent quality that’s serviceable, though it’s the sort of thing an actor has to get over, not try to pass off as an acting style.”
This year, Hirsch went from the wild to the racetrack in the Wachowski brothers’ adaptation of the classic cartoon Speed Racer. The flashy flick flopped at the box office, but it helped cement his star status over other up-and-coming boys; he received the coveted driver’s seat in the Mach 5 over Zac Efron, Shia LaBeouf and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Hirsch isn’t like many other rising stars in Hollywood. He lacks the charming innocence of Michael Cera, the boyish vulgarity of Seth Rogen and the blinding sparkle of Efron. Instead, he reveals a Brando-eqsue brooding optimism. Although he might not reach the star status of Marlon Brando, he takes himself seriously as actor.
And we probably should, too.
