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By the time he was 9, Vincent Kartheiser was well on his way to becoming an actor. But, hey, it's not his fault, swears the 18-year-old Minnesotan. Blame his chronic case of talent-itis on genetics.
"My family is a little strange," Vincent admits during a phone call from Toronto, where he's filming The Hairy Bird with Gaby Hoffman. "My sister Elise wrote her first concerto when she was 11. Theresa was painting by the time she was 9, and Andrea was playing cello in the symphony by 15. My brother, Nathan, plays guitar, saxophone and clarinet, and my other sister Collette has been acting her whole entire life." [His parents are, well, parents.]
As for Vincent, after years of studying at the Minneapolis Children's Theater, he decided at age 14 that it was high time he got his career going. "I came out to Los Angeles to try and break into movies, but the business side of this industry didn't appeal to me in the least ," the actor recalls. "You find out real quick there aren't a whole lot of people you can trust."
Today, with a bunch of movie roles in the bag, including last summer's cool adventure flick Alaska, Vincent's still not sure if he's ready for stardom. "A while back I was at this talk show, and when I came out of the dressing room, there were literally a hundred teenage girls standing there screaming at me," he says, a twinge of fear in his voice. "Having someone say 'I think you're hot' is so bizarre. I'm not flattered by that. All it does is make me scared."
Scared and confused. "I don't understand most of the girls I meet," he admits. " I haven't been on a date in six months!" Instead, Vincent (don't call him Vinnie, or else) would rather hunker down over a cup of java in some dark coffee shop with one or two buds to talk about, you know, life. "My problems go way beyond who my girlfriend is. I have other rocks to push up the hill." Not the least of which is trying to figure out just who the heck Vincent Kartheiser really is.
"I analyze myself way too much," confesses Vincent, who expects to graduate in December from a California high school. "I was such a nerd when I was younger and I may look different now and girls may like me, but I still feel like that nerd."
One thing is for certain: This lanky, blue-eyed actor is nothing like Ozzie, the cybergeek he portrays in his new movie, Masterminds. "Patrick Stewart (a.k.a. Star Trek's Captain Jean-Luc Picard) is this villain type who's taken my high school hostage," Vincent explains. "I'm what you would call the hero--the guy who foils the plan and saves the day. But I'm nothing like that, really. I'm just a little dude, I swear. Problay the most heroic thing I've ever done is said to someone on the street: 'Hey, buddy, you dropped your wallet.'" Yo Vincent, you've got to start somewhere.
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