Emile Hirsch

Emile Hirsch mini-bio:

Early life

Career

Hirsch began acting at the age of eight, appearing in minor roles on television
shows and made-for-television films, including Kindred: the Embraced; Sabrina,
the Teenage Witch and NYPD Blue. He made his film debut with the 2002 drama,
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, where he starred opposite Kieran Culkin in the story of two Catholic school boys. His next role was in the prep school drama, The Emperor's Club, which was released later in 2002. Both films received generally positive reviews, but performed only moderately at the box office.
Hirsch was subsequently cast opposite Elisha Cuthbert in the 2004 teen comedy,
The Girl Next Door, and as a result gained recognition amongst teenage audiences. The Mudge Boy, an independent film that he had starred in before making Girl Next Door, was given a limited release in the summer of 2004. Hirsch next appeared in Imaginary Heroes, a drama about a dysfunctional family, which received a limited release in February 2005 but failed to reach a wider audience, despite mostly
positive reviews.
In 2005, Hirsch starred in Lords of Dogtown; the film, about a number of well-known skaters of the 1970s, was released on June 3, 2005, but ultimately performed
poorly at the box office. He subsequently appeared in Alpha Dog, a dark drama starring Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone in which he played a character based on
real-life drug dealer Jesse James Hollywood; the film was shot in 2004 and
released on January 12, 2007. Hirsch consulted with Hollywood's real life father
before playing the role, and has said that he felt "pretty afraid in my bones most of
the time" while filming because of the film's raw characters and dialogue.
Hirsch next played adventurer Christopher McCandless in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed adventure-drama Into the Wild, released on September 21, 2007. He
lost 40 pounds for the role and was noted in reviews as a potential Academy Award nominee for the film, also receiving a Screen Actors Guild nomination for best actor. Hirsch had the lead role in Speed Racer, which was released on Friday, May 9,2008.
Hirsch plays gay rights activist Cleve Jones in Gus Van Sant's 2008 Harvey Milk
bio-pic Milk starring Sean Penn in the title role as slain San Francisco politician, Harvey Milk. The film is set in the 1970's. The film will be released in the Fall of 2008.
He is presently co-starring in Taking Woodstock, based on a screenplay of Elliot Tiber's memoir "Taking Woodstock", adapted by James Schamus. The film is being directed by Academy Award Winning Director Ang Lee. His co-stars are Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Imelda Staunton, Eugene Levy and Henry Goodman. The
film is being shot in upstate New York and it is reported that it will be released sometime next year.

"James Dean taught me not to speed, River Phoenix taught me not to DO speed, and Marlon Brando taught me to slow down on the cheeseburgers."

VITAL STATS

Personal Quotes:

• Emile: (on how doing "Into the Wild" changed his life) It lit the spirit of adventure inside me, and I hope it never goes away. All the physical aspects stuck with me – I still run a lot, and I never ran before the film.
• "I'm not a ball in a pinball machine. I know what I want."(on the most important thing to succeed as a young actor in Hollywood) I really think it's probably just the courage to take risks. Maybe you will be afraid and maybe you will fail, but the courage to take risks in any part of your life is, I feel, a very worthwhile way to live.
• "The willingness to keep learning is, I think, the most important thing about trying to be good at anything. You never want to stop learning."
• (on choosing roles) I'm pretty selective. I'm not like a prima donna or anything like that, but if I don't like something I'm not going to do it.
• "I've got really cool parents. Certainly, I would think some of the movies I've chosen to do, people would consider as rebellious for a young actor to do."
• "I think I've always been half out of my shell and half in. Sometimes I can be extremely wild and sometimes I can be extremely shy. It just depends on the day."
• (on his most embarrassing moment) I was at the movie theater with my girlfriend, and she got tired and rested her head on my lap. I farted, and she shrieked! I was just like, 'Oh, no!'.
• (about his lap dance in "The Girl Next Door" at the age of 17) They had to put a massive pillow between me and the girl when she was grinding me. It was weird, yet pleasurable.
• "I started acting when I was 10, but I never had a total fascination with it. It was just kind of a fun thing I did. Then I saw A Streetcar Named Desire with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh when I was 14, and it was like a slap in the face. It was a wake-up call."
• "I don't really want to do a teen comedy, you know? I mean, I just didn't want to be in a bad movie, that's all." In reference to his hesitance in deciding whether or not to play his character Matthew Kidman in The Girl Next Door (2004).
• "I learned how to skate vert in pools and stuff. Now I can get on a board and skate a pool. We did three months of skating and surfing. It was surfing in the morning and skating in the afternoon. Tony Alva was our coach. He's not the easiest coach to work with. He's not like a coach. He tells you how to do it, and is like, 'Just do it. Just f-ing do it, dude!'" In reference to his skateboard training for Lords of Dogtown (2005).
• "People would be so intimidated especially when I left the tattoo on and went out to a party. You'd get weird looks from everyone. Big, big macho dudes would be like, 'Oh, excuse me. Excuse me.' I was like, 'Yeah!' I mean, it was very strange for me to have people react to me like that. It's unheard of for me and to have girls going, 'You're crazy.' And looking at you from across the party like, 'You're a crazy one.'" In reference to his shaved head for Lords of Dogtown (2005).
• "James Dean taught me not to speed, River Phoenix taught me not to DO speed, and Marlon Brando taught me to slow down on the cheeseburgers."