By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Mar 2, 2009
Those hot, dorky guys can't seem to catch a break! Luckily for Jonathan Bennett, he's found a perfect role in the newest "Van Wilder" film hitting theaters March 13. "I don't see myself as the hunky guy. I'm more of a dork trapped in this body," says the good-looking actor, who first turned heads in his breakout role in Mean Girls.
"It's the hardest thing ever. They always tell me I'm too dorky to play the hot guy and too hot to play the dorky guy, so I'm somewhere in between. Van Wilder is, too, which is why I was so happy to play this role. I was born to make people laugh. If I can make people forget about their day for 10 minutes, then I'm doing my job."
The role was originated by another hunky dork, Ryan Reynolds, who has become more of a hunk than a dork as of late. Stepping into his shoes left Bennett a little apprehensive. "Yeah, you're a little nervous at first, but I actually met Ryan in passing just a few days before I went to shoot it, so I introduced myself, and he was really nice. I apologized in advance if I butchered the character. He laughed and told me to just have fun with it. I feel like I was able to make it my own in some way."
The movie, which goes back in time to Van Wilder's freshman year, also stars "Laguna Beach" reality star Kristin Cavallari. "We had so much fun, and she totally held her own acting-wise. She came to set prepared, and that was more than I got from a lot of my other co-stars."
Those hot, dorky guys can't seem to catch a break! Luckily for Jonathan Bennett, he's found a perfect role in the newest "Van Wilder" film hitting theaters March 13. "I don't see myself as the hunky guy. I'm more of a dork trapped in this body," says the good-looking actor, who first turned heads in his breakout role in Mean Girls."It's the hardest thing ever. They always tell me I'm too dorky to play the hot guy and too hot to play the dorky guy, so I'm somewhere in between. Van Wilder is, too, which is why I was so happy to play this role. I was born to make people laugh. If I can make people forget about their day for 10 minutes, then I'm doing my job."
The role was originated by another hunky dork, Ryan Reynolds, who has become more of a hunk than a dork as of late. Stepping into his shoes left Bennett a little apprehensive. "Yeah, you're a little nervous at first, but I actually met Ryan in passing just a few days before I went to shoot it, so I introduced myself, and he was really nice. I apologized in advance if I butchered the character. He laughed and told me to just have fun with it. I feel like I was able to make it my own in some way."
The movie, which goes back in time to Van Wilder's freshman year, also stars "Laguna Beach" reality star Kristin Cavallari. "We had so much fun, and she totally held her own acting-wise. She came to set prepared, and that was more than I got from a lot of my other co-stars."
