Children of Paradise

"I really don't have any projects to speak of, right now," Lukas Haas confesses in the spirit of someone lacking quarters for a parking meter. But after some 20 projects, including his idiosyncratic portrayal of the sexually curious Buddy in Rambling Rose, he appears unhurried and peaceful, the kind of person who, short of change, would be content to drive around and find a meter with time on it. Of the three kids I've seen, Lukas appears the most at ease with his profession, a condition that seems to be related to the distance you live from Los Angeles. Lukas lives in Austin, Texas with his father, an artist, and mother, a screenwriter. As both Edward Furlong and Sara Gilbert did, he defines his age by giving the number of months to his next birthday ("I'll be 16 in four months"). He has twin brothers, age 7, one of whom has acted in a TV movie with him. "He played my brother, so it was fun. But we've asked the twins if they want to be in movies, and they don't seem to take it too seriously. They say, 'Oh, I don't want to miss my birthday.'"

If you toast your marshmallows in the child abuse camp, and you're looking for an easy target to blame for the preponderance of dysfunctional child stars, past and present, you might want to start with the ubiquitous casting director. "When I was five," Lukas recounts, "a casting director called up my school in Austin and asked who was the best actor in all the school plays. They said it was me. I got an audition and got the part in Testament." What followed was another biblically titled film, Witness, perhaps his most memorable role to date, although he blanches at being identified as "Lukas Haas ... the kid from Witness." Other film credits include Music Box, Solarbabies, and Lady In White; he's also appeared in TV's "The Twilight Zone" and Spielberg's "Amazing Stories."

On the pitfalls endured by his contemporaries, Lukas is well-informed. "At this point, I'm pretty used to everything. Since I've had so much experience--I mean, I've had the ups and downs. I've worked with good people and bad people, so I'm pretty aware of what's going on around me. Drugs--you just have to be smart enough to stay away from that stuff."

But even the vastness of Texas can't contain the sense of failure and emptiness brought on by a box-office bomb. Lukas takes a Kennedyesque swipe at his bangs and nods. "You gotta take the failures as lightly as possible because there's usually another deal that'll come along. And if you carry your failure into the next project with you it becomes a self-fulfilling thing. You just have to keep going, stay focused. What was that line in Cool Hand Luke? 'Get your mind right, Luke.' The business is riddled with stuff like that--I'm sure you know all about it--I've had plenty of movies that have bombed. If I let it drag me down every time I had a movie that didn't do so well, I'd be in a pit somewhere near the center of the earth."

Despite his near veteran status, Lukas still has the sense that he's not taken entirely seriously. Young actors, he maintains, are "segregated in all sorts of ways. Even now I'm not treated equally and it bothers me. I mean, just in general, I can understand why I wouldn't be treated the same. It's hard enough for an adult to relate to another adult. So, what can I expect? I mean, I feel like I'm an adult and I think pretty much every kid my age feels like they're an adult.. . but I guess I'm ... still a child.

"The problem, as I see it, is that a lot of people have a prejudice against younger actors, in thinking that they have a natural ability to do what they do. Kids don't have to think or do anything. But it's just as hard for us to act as it is for an adult. And there are good young actors out there that are doing just as much work to make a good character out of a role as the adults--and then they have school on top of that which makes it very hard... It'd be nice if people realized that," he adds, thoughtfully. I suddenly feel 150 years old and have the impression that as nice a boy--young man--as Lukas is, he sees me as being no less than half that. What's intriguing here is how much Lukas, who, incidentally, played opposite Robin Williams and Steve Martin in Mike Nichols's stage production of Waiting for Godot, has momentarily strayed from the poise of his Richard Gere-as-the-Dalai Lama meditation to Jack Reed, working class hero: "I mean, it's no big deal, but look at the awards," he continues, pursuing the discriminated young actor issue. "There've been a couple of people who've been honored --Tatum O'Neal, Jodie Foster, Shirley Temple. Very few. And I don't think there's been a male in the bunch. So as far as that goes, they don't think about younger kids." While most people are still trying to forget about, say, Brooke Shields's performance in The Blue Lagoon, Lukas might have a point. River Phoenix got nominated at 18, but where were they when the 12-year-old Anton Glanzelius did My Life as a Dog?

If a fool and his money will soon be parted, Lukas Haas must wear boxer shorts made out of hundred dollar bills. "My money..." he considers, with the offhanded confidence of a poker player sitting on a colorful full house. "I have a trust fund. My mother and father don't manage my money. I have different people who work for me. I could buy myself a car, rent myself an apartment, if I needed to. But I don't have full access to it--I couldn't go and buy myself a boat." Neither could I, Lukas, neither could I. "I'm glad that I have some restrictions on it. When I'm 18, I won't. What's really hard about it is with the money sitting around like that, I kinda want to use it to make more money. I can do money market things, but I'd like to do more riskier things with a higher yield."

The money, however, is not the thing. There is a serene joyfulness in Lukas when he sums up his prospects; if there are any Alamos in his future, so be it. "I'm in it for the experience right now. I've had a wonderful time with just that, met great people and I love to work. My advice? Take it lightly. If you take it too seriously, it'll jump up and bite you on the ass. There are plenty of times when you audition for a role, you don't get it and you think, oh, I'm such a bad actor. I can't do this, I can't do that--you just have to keep on trying. The movie business is a tricky business. It can be a real pain. Shit happens."

There is the inclination to conclude that these three kids made the first cut; the Grim Reaper swaddled in Gap clothes and Reebok pumps has passed them over in favor of a wild boy more willing to party, a darling deceiver with a chip on her shoulder as big as her mama's plans for her to be the next Judy Garland. But even though a string of failures or a three-day wrap party could put their lives in the toilet, one other thing is certain. If someone's gotta play the kid, you'd be hard pressed to convince any one of these three that they'd be better off not getting the part.

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Michael Angeli interviewed River Phoenix for our September cover story.

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