Jon Foster: Fostering Talent

"I'm definitely not going to be the type of person who is gung-ho about my job," says actor Jon Foster. "Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy it." It's just that for the 19-year-old, who stars in this month's twisted relationship tale The Door in the Floor, with Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger, acting has never been a dream as much as it just became his reality. He spent childhood summers tagging along to acting camps with his older thespian brother Ben (The Punisher), and when the family relocated to L.A. from Iowa so the elder Foster could pursue his career, Jon simply followed suit. "I just started going to auditions and eventually grew to like it. And here I am."

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Here he is--sitting at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Hollywood just a few blocks away from the apartment he shares with his brother, anticipating the release of The Door in the Floor (based on the John Irving novel A Widow for One Year), his entrée into leading man-dom. Foster plays Eddie, a shy Exeter prep student who interns for the summer with a famed children's book author (Bridges), but ends up spending more time in bed with the author's sullen and estranged wife (Basinger). Though nothing could prepare him for the explicit sex scenes with Basinger--"I don't care who you are, it's an uncomfortable thing to do"--he more than fulfills the task. In the end, his naive yet endearing portrayal of an awkward teen, along with his presence in almost every scene of the movie, should make a lasting impression on audiences.

With that under his belt, Foster can spend some time doing what he loves--fixing up muscle cars (he's almost done refurbishing a '69 Camaro) and meditating (he's been doing it since age 5). He's also hoping the pilot he just shot, Doing It, gets picked up. In the comedy he plays a teenager who (surprise) has an affair with his teacher. Foster claims that's just a coincidence. "It's funny because now everybody's sending me their scripts with older-woman romances," he says. "I'm going to try to steer clear of that for awhile."

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Lauren Lyster