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Sep 20, 2004
Kevin Zegers is doing alright in Hollywood, starring in Dawn of the Dead and others.
You may not know his name, but you definitely know his work. Starting off in 1997 in the Disney’s Air Bud movie series as Josh Framm, the 12 year old boy who has no friends so ends up playing basketball with his dog, Canadian born Kevin Zegers has come a long way.
Born in St. Marys, Ontario , a small town west of Stratford , in 1984, Zegers has accomplished a lot in his twenty years. In the past few years, he has starred in Aaron Spelling’s Titans on NBC which lasted only half a season. His credits also include Fear of the Dark, (which he claims he hasn’t even seen yet, and you can’t really blame him after watching it on DVD), Wrong Turn, (starring with Eliza Dushku), and more recently, the remake of Dawn of the Dead.
Zegers plays Terry in the cult hit, one of the mall security guards. "Dawn of the Dead was cool. It was something small, but something I am very proud of. All you can do with that job like that is do a good job, and not be bad. I thought I was fairly successful at that."
Coming up for Kevin includes Transamerica, the indie drama about a transsexual woman who finds out when she was a man, she fathered a son. Zegers plays the son, who is hustling on the streets of New York , dreaming of the meeting the father he never knew. "We are hoping it gets into Sundance [Film Festival.]"
Next for him is a guest starring in an episode of the new upcoming medical
drama House on FOX. The show premieres November 16.
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by cpps90
(NOTE: The following is a transcript of the RealPlayer video obtained from the www.starsentertainment.com site. The interview is no longer available on http://www.starsgeneration.com/article28/)
The cool thing about an independent film is that you're working a lot, and you're actually...it's really dependent on you doing your job really well and working really hard. With a feature, with a larger feature, there's a lot more sitting around, so you have to be a little more selective about, you kinda just have to be on when they tell you to be. You know, they're both actually quite difficult. And you also feel a little bit more pressure on a larger studio film because there's more people that are involved financially. I would say, an independent film feels a little more like theater. I haven't really done theater. I've watched theater, and I know a lot of people who are in theater. I guess it's that kind of environment where everyone is working together to get a project done instead of just, you know, people just doing their job. Everyone from the crew is fairly involved in making the best project possible.
I mean, I try to never, I mean within the span of time, never repeat something, one after another. So I mean, Transamerica was pretty hardcore, and the characters were so, I mean, just something different at this point. I mean, everyone gets bored;I get bored really easily. And after I finish something, I generally want to do something that's completely different than something I just did.
Umm, the one I just finished in Transamerica, was probably the most fulfilling. I felt as if after the three months that I had actually, like, really done something, I felt like I had something I could be really genuinely proud of. But Dawn of the Dead was cool, too. It was small, but it was something that I was proud of. I felt, like, you know, all you can do in a movie like that is just to kinda do your job, and not be bad. And I think I was fairly successful in that, I guess!
And then I did an episode of a show called House, Brian (City?) directed. I just finished that a few days ago. Which should be coming out this fall, it's a new show on Fox. And now there's a couple of things brewing, but nothing that I've completely signed on to yet. But things are going pretty well; they're starting to run themselves together and everything.
I had worked here a little bit before, moving here actually, so it was a little bit more bearable. But it's difficult at first. It gets a lot easier as time progresses
Um, you know, it was difficult. It's, I mean, it was great. It's something that has allowed me to be financially stable, and able to look for things and not have to work in order to make money to support myself. But I mean there was a lot that - and I have a great manager, Paul Nicholls, who's also (?) - he's unbelievable; he's kinda been helping me be really (he?) stuck to what I do and what I've done, and the timing of everything, and getting out of that because, uh, the way he's worked it, so, people, especially the people I'm meeting with now are in a different level than that group that I was in prior to this. A different class of director, not that they're any better, but like a totally different span of people that didn't really know me before. So it's just kinda like starting over again. But it's been good. I feel like everything is kind of heading the right direction at this point, so...
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You know, it was really cool. It was nice to work with a director who's really passionate about something. And [Dawn of the Dead director] Zack [Snyder] was just kind of, uh, he's like all about the zombies. And, like, that was his thing, and it made him really kind of great at what he was doing because he was so passionate about it. He came to work (early?), he wanted to blow stuff up, and wanted to, like, shoot zombies in the head. It was great, and it was a cool work environment. And we, they had, not low expectations, but it was kind of a, if it's good, it's good; and if it's not, it's not. And I think that they kinda got a good product out of it, and I think that's why Universal sold it so much, and, um, why it did so well. I mean, that's...the formula to making a good movie is not as hard as people kinda make it out to be. It's, I mean, if you have a good product and you sell it, word of mouth kinda comparing the rest of it. Whereas if you have a bad product, and the market beats the hell out of it, it really doesn't matter because people will eventually hear that it's not that good, and people will eventually stop going. So, um, it's...And we knew that we had a good movie when we finished it, so I was pretty confident that it was gonna do well.
Yeah, I mean, there's a huge difference. With animals, you just kinda have to do your thing, and just be reactionary to whatever they're doing. I think it's just a totally different situation. They're two totally different, in terms of acting; it's just, you know, apples and oranges, so. You just kind of, I could not draw one comparison between the two other than the fact that there's a camera pointing at you and it ends up being released in the movie theaters...
I just...you know, I think a great example of somebody that I, like, aspire to be, and he has kinda the same motto as I do which is, who is Matt Damon who's hugely successful, but at the end of the day, doesn't really care or really pay attention to the fact that being famous or any of that kinda stuff. And the reason why I don't generally do that much press, and the reason why I'm not very interested in going to, like, premieres and parties because I have a much better time hanging out with my friends and, you know, having a good time, or else doing whatever it is, something that I, when I can be a little bit more selective. And I think that in order to just do stuff like that, just so that people can see you and so that you are visible, I think, if anything, it just kinda, after the initial bang of everyone going "Who's that?", you kinda just look st... you kinda just look dumb, and you kinda just...unless you have something to stand for, unless you have something like an opening, like a movie or something, um, I just don't...I think people are smarter than to buy the fact that, like, just going everywhere and showing your face will get you famous more than five minutes. I kinda wanna be in for the long haul. Actually gen... - everyone says this - but I actually do like the work more than anything else. That's why I try to work as much as possible, but... And just kinda keep your head on straight, it's not that big of a deal. It's just a job like anything you do. You get paid more money usually than the average man, but you know, I see my dad go to work every day, and I can...it's hard for me to distinguish between the two, as in, like, I can't say that I deserve more money than my dad because he works ten times harder than I do. So, it's just kinda about keeping things in perspective, and knowing who you are, and not getting too caught up in what other people think you are, because you're still - I don't know whether I can say this - but, you know, you take a shit, too; every, you know...every...we're all people. We all...it's kinda, it's kinda what happens, so...
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I mean, I just think growing up...I don't know whether it's Canada, although I do think it has something to do with that. Most of my friends here are Canadian; the friends that I hang out with a lot are also Canadian actors. I don't know, you can develop a little bit of a family of Canadians. I don't know, it's kind of...I think there's something bred into Canadians that's a little, umm...we don't...I... from the people that I know who are Canadian there that I know, nothing really kinda...it's hard to get caught up in anything because of where we come from. I mean, I'm from such a small town. It's not such a big deal to, you know, whether I make twenty million dollars (?). I'm doing something I like, I guess.
Umm, I think there's a general pressure just to ki...not be thin or anything else. I think there's a, just living here in general, I don't even know if this is the reason. Los Angeles kinda breeds, umm, self-awareness. Everyone kinda feels the need to kinda spend an extra five minutes making sure everything looks right before they leave, and it's something almost unavoidable because...but it kinda happens, and, uhh..but it's...it is part of my job as (?), you know. As much as I don't wanna think that it's the case, you know, a lot of the reason why I work is because of the way that I look or whatever. If I don't look a certain way, then I don't get ninety-five percent of the jobs that I've gotten. So, you could be blind and forget, and not think about it like that. But you kinda have to be at least aware of the fact that, like, this is what people see when they're watching a movie, and I kinda have to take care of it. So more than anything, I just try to take care of myself.