At age 13, ‘Zathura’ player Hutcherson’s star is on the rise
Josh Hutcherson has his near future pretty well mapped out, for a 13-year-old.
“My goal is I’m gonna graduate high school at 16,” says the home-schooled star of the new movie “Zathura.”
And: “More acting!”
College – film school, to be precise – might figure in there somewhere down the line. But the main idea is to stay in front of the cameras, as he has since he was 9.
“It’s the only thing I want to do forever,” he says.
Since persuading his parents to let him give showbiz a try, Hutcherson has outgrown modeling, TV roles and, now, apparently second-banana movie roles.
The intergalactic fantasy “Zathura,” about a board game that sends its players into outer space, is his first “above the title” starring role.
He also appears in the preteen indie romance “Little Manhattan,” getting rave reviews in limited release.
“Zathura” marks a big turning point, he says, ” ‘cause when this comes out, everything is gonna change. That’s what everybody is telling me. I can’t wait.”
And for the record, he feels no sense of deprivation.
“Everybody asks me, ‘Aren’t you missing out on the experiences of being a kid and everything?’ And I’m always, ‘I’m still a kid, and … I’m still having a childhood. It’s just a little bit different than a normal one.’
“It’s a win-win situation. I either don’t do acting and get all the normal experiences of being a kid at home, or I do, do acting and get all these amazing experiences of getting to go to new places and meet new people and be in movies.”
Separation from his father and younger brother, Connor, while he travels to movie locations with his mother is one of the costs of his youthful career.
“My little brother and dad come out to visit every two weeks, so it’s actually not too bad,” he says. “We try to do all the tourist things and see all the attractions.
“When I did ‘Little Manhattan’ in New York, we did everything – the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, all the museums.”
Hutcherson’s unusual occupation has not changed his relationship with his brother, he says: “We still fight all the time. He’s really mean to me; sometimes, I’m mean to him. It goes back and forth.”
In “Zathura,” he and Jonah Bobo play a similar pair of battling brothers.
“When my brother sees that,” says Hutcherson, “he’s gonna be like, ‘That’s totally like how it is at home!’ “
What happens next is a question the young actor asks himself often, particularly when the subject turns to the sudden end of other child actors’ careers.
“One of the big reasons that happens is they choose to do the wrong pictures at the wrong time,” he says. “That’s really important for me, to pick something that’s really good for my career.”
Next year, he co-stars with Robin Williams in “R.V.,” and in “Firehouse Dog” – two family-friendly comedies.
After that, he says, “I think I am going to do one of the more grown-up roles, because I am getting older and I don’t always want to be known as little-kid movie, little-kid movie, family-movie, family-movie. I need … to start my adult career.”
The birthday bunch
Jazzman Ellis Marsalis is 71. Actor D.B. Sweeney is 44. Actress Laura San Giacomo is 44. Rapper Reverend Run (Run-DMC) is 41. Actor Patrick Warburton is 41. Drummer Travis Barker (Blink-182) is 30.