A Teen Idol Outgrowing His Image
By Justine Elias
The New York Times
Published June 29, 1997
INSIDE AN OLD-FASHIONED TELEPHONE BOOTH near Savannah, Ga., the star of ''Wild America,'' an adventure story for young audiences, was filming a pivotal scene. A willful 12-year-old boy, having stowed away on his older brothers' cross-country trip, calls home to beg his mother's permission to travel with them as they shoot their first nature documentary. Without her support, the boy will have to spend a boring summer down on the family farm.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas, a small, wiry figure in jeans, sneakers and a torn sweatshirt, braced the door with his legs and tried to concentrate. It wasn't easy.
''We were there maybe two and a half hours,'' says William Dear, the film's director. ''There was nobody around when we started -- it wasn't a spot you could necessarily walk to -- and by the time we finished, there must have been 40 or 50 girls hanging around. That's what happens when you're shooting on location with a teen idol.''
Mr. Thomas, the idol in question, says he wasn't surprised that the town's female pre-teen-age population had discovered his whereabouts. ''I don't know how they know, but they always know,'' said Mr. Thomas, who looks younger than his ''nearly 16'' years and sounds much older. Having just completed two weeks of final exams, he has the raspy, wary voice of an overtired college student who fears that he might be asked to provide his answers in the form of a 10-page essay.
After six years with the hit television series ''Home Improvement'' and numerous appearances on the cover of girl-oriented magazines like 16 and Bop, Mr. Thomas is accustomed to such avid support from fans. But, he said, ''it's sometimes distracting to look over and see a whole group of girls staring and giggling.''
''You are a part of their life, and there is a lot that is owed them,'' he went on. ''But it's difficult because you want to make everyone happy, but if you try to do that, you're setting yourself up for failure.''
Lately, Mr. Thomas has been building a film career: he has spent his summer vacations starring in the Chevy Chase comedy ''Man of the House'' (1995) and last year's ''Tom and Huck.'' The modest success of these films has put Mr. Thomas in an unusual and precarious position: he has become a box-office draw for young teen-age audiences just as he is on the verge of outgrowing the type of roles that made him popular.
''There's only been one bankable child star since Shirley Temple, and that was Macaulay Culkin,'' said Judy Savage, president of the Savage Agency, which has represented child and young adult actors in Los Angeles for 19 years. ''Jonathan Taylor Thomas is a perfect example of what the industry loves: a smart, outgoing kid, small for his age, who has a very distinctive voice, a voice with texture.'' Unlike some male actors now in their teens, like Mr. Culkin, Brad Renfro (the youth who witnesses a crime in ''The Client'') and Edward Furlong (who plays the young hero in ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day''), Mr. Thomas has worked steadily in high-profile projects with the support, but not the interference, of his family.
The sandy-haired young actor also possesses what Ms. Savage calls ''blendable'' good looks: since adult actors are usually cast first, the young actors playing their children must bear them a passing resemblance.
But in ''Wild America,'' it was Mr. Thomas, not his adult co-stars, who was cast first. ''He is the linchpin of the movie, the name who could get the movie made,'' said the film's director.
Mr. Thomas, who will be a sophomore at a private Los Angeles high school, has been a professional actor half his life. Born in Bethlehem, Pa., he is the younger son of Claudine Thomas and Stephen Weiss. In 1986, when the family moved to Sacramento, Calif., young Jonathan broke into the business by acting in local theater and modeling for print advertisements. His mother, a former social worker, submitted his photograph to a television casting agent.
A few auditions later, in 1991, Mr. Thomas was up for a role on a new sitcom starring the stand-up comedian Tim Allen -- a job he won, the story goes, when one of the series producers told his colleagues, ''That kid's going to be a star.'' Mr. Thomas's entry into feature films came in 1994 when he was chosen as the voice of the young Simba in ''The Lion King.''
When he was younger, he says, it was his mother who guided his career, helping him select scripts that were appropriate for his age and for the expectations of people who knew him as the sensible clean-cut middle son on ''Home Improvement.'' In ''Tom and Huck,'' Mr. Thomas played a subdued, well-behaved Tom Sawyer opposite the flashier, more rebellious Huck Finn (Mr. Renfro), who looked as if his next adventure might be robbing a liquor store.
''Tom is more of a muted character,'' said Mr. Thomas. ''He thinks, 'What's going to work for me?' He's the ultimate manipulator, if you can say that in a good way. He's not malicious. He's a deal maker, and he knows how to get things done.''
While he was making that film two years ago in Tennessee, his mother showed him the script for ''Wild America,'' the story of Martin, Mark and Marshall Stouffer, three brothers from Arkansas who started making nature films in their teens and later became the producers of the PBS series ''Wild America.''
The film, which is set in the summer of 1967, when the brothers made their first movie, is told through the eyes of Marshall Stouffer (Mr. Thomas), the youngest brother, who was usually cast in the role of stuntman or wild animal bait in the filmmaking schemes of his older brothers, played by Scott Bairstow and Devon Sawa.
''We had to tone things down,'' says Mr. Dear. ''The Stouffers did things like fire 30-30 rifles into the swimming pool, while Marshall swam around beneath the surface, catching the bullets as the water slowed them down.''
Mr. Thomas says the movie is ''a coming-of-age story that's not just one of those blatant, slap-you-across-the-face movies that says, 'I'm older and now I've got a better understanding of life.' ''
''It's a maturing process,'' he added. ''Marshall is a bit more knowing, a bit more intuitive than anyone else in his family. He learned to be the consummate observer, always watching and taking things in. He has a lot more understanding than people give him credit for, which is often the case with kids, who are actually quite bright.''
THESE ARE QUALITIES that the actor shares, as demonstrated by his reaction to a studio executive's suggestion that the film be narrated by an 18- or 19-year-old actor rather than by Mr. Thomas.
''When they came to me and talked about that idea, I said, 'You've got to be kidding.' The voice-over is a big part of the performance. I wanted to do it.''
Mr. Thomas says he is not in any rush to cash in on his youthful fame. He opted not to make a movie this summer, he says, because he wanted to concentrate on his studies -- including a lengthy, required summer reading list -- before he starts work later this month on the next season of ''Home Improvement.''
''I'm trying not to procrastinate on my reading,'' he says. ''I won't have the luxury, when doing film or television, of finishing a shot and then going back to my trailer for a half an hour. I have to study or knock off 10 or 15 math problems before I go back to work.''
Unlike some actors his age, Mr. Thomas has never played brats or juvenile delinquents, and he says he never sought out such roles. By all accounts, the actor has a professional, no-nonsense attitude that is much admired by his colleagues. But this straight-arrow quality may limit his choice of young-adult roles, says Ms. Savage, the talent agent.
''It's very hard to make a teen idol type into an edgier type as he gets older,'' she said. ''It's not in their souls. The only clean-cut, wholesome-looking young star right now is Chris O'Donnell.'' Mr. Thomas's career could stall, she says, if he doesn't reach his adult height fairly soon. ''Short kids have an advantage, but short adults don't,'' she explained. According to Mr. Thomas's publicist, the actor is five feet three inches tall.
Ms. Savage compares Mr. Thomas to former child stars like Jodie Foster and Ron Howard, who took breaks from acting by attending college or exploring other aspects of the entertainment business. It is a path Mr. Thomas seems likely to follow.
''I would like to do edgier material, because that's what seems to be respected,'' he says. ''Maybe this will last forever. Acting will get you to a lot of places, but there are a multitude of things I can do later on. Acting is just one of them.''
(Photo: Getty Images)
