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| Every few years, a new generation of actors begin to make waves, catching the eye as they surface on Hollywood's ever-watchful
radar. It's been just four years since Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were the new kids on the block; now they're veritable veterans, with Oscars and
franchises under their belts. Such rapid growth in the industry is commonplace: already the likes of Heath Ledger, Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon
and Thora Birch are no longer newcomers but old hands. So, here is our pick of this year's crop of stars-in-the-making: |
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Erika Christensen
BORN: Seattle, Washington, USA
AGE: 20
She's often confused with Julia Stiles for her looks, and Hayden Christensen for her name, but despite such identity problems Erika is one young actress who has managed to stand out from the crowd: thanks largely to her breakout performance in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, as Michael Douglas' crack-addict daughter. Neither as quirky as Christina Ricci nor as bland as Sarah Michelle Geller, Christensen seems comfortable in both mainstream and independent fare. Blessed with a butter-wouldn't-melt smile, cherubic face and crystal green eyes, you might have expected Christensen to become just another brat-packer, destined for gross-out comedies and love scenes with Freddie Prinze Jr. Fortunately, this is one actress with good advisors - her mother and father gave up their jobs to manage her career. Far from restricting her to saccharine roles, Christensen has been allowed to play the rebel: a teen-stalker in Swimfan, a student who cheats on her SATs in The Perfect Score and rock'n'roll wild-child in The Banger Sisters. Never fear, though. "I've always kept it separate between me and whoever this other girl is," she says.
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Jake Gyllenhaal
BORN: Los Angeles, California, USA
AGE: 21
A poster-boy for disenfranchised teenagers, Jake Gyllenhaal is the epitome of geek-chic. Who else could convincingly play - as he does in The Good Girl - a love-sick supermarket cashier who renames himself after J.D.Salinger's angst-ridden anti-hero Holden Caulfield? This year alone has seen him star in a variety of instant cult-hits - most significantly in the title role of Richard Kelly's time-bending fantasy romance Donnie Darko. Becoming the object of desire for both Catherine Keener and Jennifer Aniston (in, respectively, Lovely and Amazing and The Good Girl), Gyllenhaal fulfils the fantasies of every male teen who can't get a date. Unkempt in his appearance, with scarecrow hair and bright blue eyes, he has the ability to switch from doe-eyed to dangerous in a flash. Witness his work as a small-time drug dealer in a London production of Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth. Soon to be seen opposite Dustin Hoffman in Moonlight Mile, the fearless Gyllenhaal seems to have just one equal at the moment: his sister Maggie.
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James Franco
BORN: Palo Alto, California, USA
AGE: 24
Despite features that would make most male-models gnash their pearly whites in envy, James Franco started acting to overcome his shyness while he was studying English at UCLA. Quitting after one year, much to his parents' dismay, he undertook fifteen month's of study at Robert Carnegie's Playhouse West before landing himself a gig in the cult TV series Freaks and Geeks. It wasn't until he won the tricky role of James Dean, in a made-for-TV biopic, that he began to turn heads - including that of Robert De Niro, who requested Franco be cast in cop drama City By The Sea. He also came a close second to Tobey Maguire for the role of Peter Parker in Spider-Man, eventually settling for the part of Parker's best friend Harry Osborn. Demonstrating an intensity that Dean and De Niro would've been proud of, Franco is set to inherit the mantle of main villain in the proposed Superman sequel. In the meantime, he has completed the lead in Nicolas Cage's directorial debut, Sonny, and can be seen in gang-drama Deuces Wild.
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