The Verge: Matt Lanter

Ever seen a striking new actor and wondered, "Who's that?" Now you'll know before you even have to ask. Welcome to The Verge, Movieline's weekly interview with up-and-comers on the verge of a serious career boost.

As Liam on the rebooted 90210, 26-year-old Matt Lanter gives the series the bad boy it's long needed (and fulfills the franchise quota of late-twenties actors playing high schoolers -- bonus!). Tapping into that dark side isn't foreign to Lanter; he first gained notice when his football star assaulted Hayden Panettiere on Heroes, and he voices the ultimate fallen hero, Anakin Skywalker, on the Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars. "A lot of times, the stereotypical asshole jock looks like me," the self-effacing actor explained to Movieline as we grilled him on his dark roles (though we couldn't resist asking about his very first credit: Bravo's 2004 male model contest Manhunt).

Alright, Matt. Manhunt. Is it the show that will haunt you forever?

[laughs] You know what? It's a part of my past, and it happened. It actually hasn't been brought up in a real long time.

Clearly, then, you've been interviewed by a lot of straight men.

You know, it was fun. I actually had a good time! It was about four or five years ago, I was living in Atlanta, and that was just an open call I went down to for shits and giggles. I'd never modeled or anything like that and I ended up getting cast on the show. That's actually how my manager saw me -- he saw me on that program. It was the catalyst, I'm not gonna deny that.

In Manhunt's first episode, you jumped out of a plane in your underwear. Is that still the biggest stunt you've ever done in your career?

It is. And I'll tell you, it's not in my deck of cards in the future. [laughs]

You're being sold as the "new Dylan" on 90210. Would you agree with that?

Well, I think that's one of those things that's commonly said, but honestly, I'm not trying to reincarnate Dylan with Liam. But there are some similarities. They're both independent guys, very smart, they do their own thing. They're not told what to do or who to be with.

This version of 90210's been in dire need of a "bad boy" since it started.

Yeah. A lot of the guys we've seen so far, their characters had been written very nice and a lot of them were just kind of the boyfriends in the background. I think we can break out of that with Liam -- he's on his own path and doing what he wants. I know that we're going to get into his layers and what drives him in season two. We kind of see why he acts the way he acts.

90210's brought on a new showrunner, Rebecca Rand Kirshner Sinclair, and it's currently in the middle of a major behind-the-scenes shakeup. You're no stranger to that sort of thing -- you played Geena Davis's son on Commander in Chief, where Steven Bochco was pressed into service to replace showrunner Rod Lurie. How does this compare?

You know, Commander in Chief was a really good experience for me. That was my first show, and since obviously Geena and Donald [Sutherland] were the stars of that, I wasn't directly feeling all the shakeups. But you know, that stuff happens all the time. Jeff [Judah] and Gabe [Sachs], the old 90210 showrunners, I got to work with them for a short period of time and I love those guys. I guess the network just had a bit of a different idea on where they wanted the show to go. And of course, Rebecca is a veteran and she knows what she's doing and I'm definitely excited to continue on with her. The episodes lately have been really, really good.

Is it awkward to come onto the show and be pushed as one of the main characters at the same time one of the male leads, Dustin Milligan, is being let go?

Well, by any means, I don't really think that I've taken Dustin's place. I've seen that written on the internet and heard it, and I don't think that at all -- and I've talked to Dustin about it, and I know he doesn't think it. We're two completely different characters. It's what Rebecca said: the character [of Ethan] just had no place to go. But I can definitely second that everybody loves Dustin. He's a really talented, awesome guy, and he's definitely going to work after this. I think everyone knows this kind of business. He will be missed.

Clone Wars is your first voice credit. How'd you nab that role?

Lucasfilm is so secretive about everything, even now! We get scripts with our names stamped all over them the day before we record, and they're taken away the next day. When I was going in to audition, they said it was for a role called "Deak Starkiller." I had to do some internet research just to find out who this guy was, and I couldn't find anything. So I walk in and they tell me to do a combination of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, and I did that and evidently they liked it. I got the call a couple days later saying I got the job -- "And by the way, it's Anakin Skywalker." So it was a pretty amazing experience and I'm having such a blast with it.

How well-versed are you in all that Star Wars lore?

I'm OK. I'm getting better. When I first signed on, I'd seen some of the films but I didn't really know the Star Wars world. I've gone back and watched them a lot, and honestly, it really helps -- sometimes we'll be recording, and Dave, our director, will reference, "Do you remember when Harrison Ford was running down the hall and he said blah blah blah? We're looking for that kind of tone." It's actually really helpful to know that stuff.

Do you feel like you have to base your performance on what Hayden Christensen has already done?

You know, it's actually very similar to 90210 and the whole Luke Perry thing. When I was first jumping into Star Wars, I didn't really know what to do -- it's such an iconic character, and Star Wars is all about Anakin. We've obviously heard the comments about Anakin in the films, but Hayden did something very specific with that and something that needed to be done to portray the downfall of Anakin. And in a rather short time -- roughly four hours of film, I guess. But what we're doing with this Anakin is sort of getting away from that: we're showing him at a time when he really was a hero.

You've got the horror movie Sorority Row coming out later this year, featuring the very eclectic cast of Rumer Willis, Carrie Fisher, and Audrina from The Hills. Are you a good guy or a bad guy in that?

Um, well...I don't want to give too much away, but...

You just did! You're totally a bad guy. Admit it, Matt.

I could be both! My character's a powerful character, that's for sure. He's the son of a wealthy senator and he's dating the queen bee of the sorority. They're a power couple.

You seem like a polite guy. Why do you think you keep getting cast as bad boys?

You know, you're right -- I do! I don't know why. I'd like to think I'm a nice guy, but then I get cast and I'm trying to rape cheerleaders. [laughs] I guess I just give that off. ♦