Actor takes his success in stride
Tom Cruise once told Josh Peck he was naturally funny. While this isn’t like hearing it from Jerry Seinfeld, it’s still a compliment to be savored.
Cruise was on the set of “Red Dawn,” an action picture that he’s producing, and watched Peck play an untrained guerrilla fighting a surprise attack by North Koreans on American soil.
“Tom said to me, ‘You are funny in real life, Josh, so when you have the opportunity to be funny, do it, because it will always endear audiences to you,’ ” recalled Peck, who has followed this advice in upcoming movies including “Red Dawn,” which is far from a comedy.
“To have someone with as much experience as Tom be really generous with his insight is a gift,” he said.
Peck, a boyish 26-yearold, is seated on a very formal stiff couch in a conference room at the Ritz-Carlton. He’s wearing a casual blue shirt, denim pants and what look to be house slippers. The overall effect is of a young hotel guest who has strayed from his room.
Cruise is right about him being funny. It’s an endearing part of Peck’s personality. He even has fun with that sacred Hollywood ritual: promoting your new movie. “Red Dawn” is a remake of the 1984 cult film that boosted the careers of stars Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey.
In production notes for the new version, Peck says of Sheen, his predecessor in the role, “I’ve always wanted his approval, in a big way. Charlie and I don’t know each other, like person to person, but we have some kind of connection. If you want to label that, I would call it soul mates.”
Asked about his freeform comments, he said he was just being “silly” and that “I’m a fan of Charlie’s.”
Joking on set
On the set Peck joked around with Chris Hemsworth, who plays his older brother, a Marine who becomes the leader of the ragtag patriots. The “brothers” look absolutely nothing alike, “so the joke was that one of us is adopted for sure. Like there is no question about it,” Peck said.
Everybody would join in on break fostering a camaraderie that shows in their scenes together. One cast member, Connor Cruise, fit right in although as the teenage son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, he is Hollywood royalty.
“Connor is an average guy absolutely, and that was what was so fabulous about him,” Peck said.
Connor wasn’t eating filet while the rest of you had craft service? “We were all eating filet,” he quipped.
Peck uses humor to deal with what has to be a deeply emotional issue for him. Born in Manhattan to an unwed mother, Barbara Peck, he has never laid eyes on his father. So his dad didn’t step forth even now that Peck is enjoying some degree of fame? “Not that I know of. Have you heard anything?” Peck said with a laugh.
He also joked about how it would be “pretty awesome” to learn that Gregory Peck was his father.
He credits his mother, a retired headhunter, with always supporting him. When he was 10 and got interested in acting, “she was there. But if it had been soccer or science, my mom would have supported that.”
From stage to TV
Peck started doing children’s theater, then commercials. At 13, he was cast in Nickelodeon’s “The Amanda Show.” It was shot in Los Angeles, and so his mother gamely moved there with her ambitious son, who continued to do television throughout his teens, most notably as Josh Nichols opposite Drake Bell’s Drake Parker in the Nickelodeon sitcom “Drake & Josh.”
The acting gigs “gave me confidence,” Peck said. “I think that was a big reason why my mom supported me. She didn’t know whether it would be a career for me, but she knew it gave her son confidence.”
He considers himself very lucky “to have the mom that I do,” even though these days “sometimes she gives me a little too much girl advice.” He admits to having a girlfriend but won’t identify her. (Speculation on the Internet is that her name is Paige O’Brien.)
He had arrived
Peck knew he had arrived “when people laughed at a performance. If people didn’t want me to keep doing it, it would have become apparent.”
His most high-profile film so far is “The Wackness,” in which he stars as a high school senior who sells marijuana and
is treated by Ben Kingsley, as a psychiatrist who trades his advice for weed.
Peck considers this his transition from child actor to young adult — a difficult shift for many actors to make.
“The fact that Sir Ben Kingsley was in it was huge for me. He has been my favorite actor since I was 13 and saw him in ‘Searching for Bobby Fischer.’ I remember especially his performance sticking out in my mind. I didn’t know that I really loved acting yet, but I knew whatever he was in, I loved,” said Peck, who got to hang out with his hero.
Best experience
Making that film was “like one of the best experiences of my life.”
In 2004 Peck, who had always been on the chubby side, made a decision to seek out his thinner self. He lost a lot of weight and started working out with a trainer. At the same time his height shot up from 5 foot 7 to 6 feet. He said he did this for himself but also for the kids who are fans of his TV show.
“Sometimes I hear from them that they were able to gain a little inspiration from me. I like to be a role model in this sense.
“I think it is important as an actor to find healthy ways to focus your downtime, whether it is going to be a couple of weeks or a couple of months.”