Part 1

From Superteen Magazine



"My full name is Alex James McLean. I was born January 9, 1978 in Bethesda Memorial Hospital,
it was a big 'ole pink, Pepto Bismol-colored hospital in Palm Beach. I was born with a hernia.
Here's a bit of trivia: I'm not sure, but I think four out of the five Backstreet Boys, everybody but
Nick, were born with hernias. It's really strange!

Anyway, I lived in a complex on Rosemary Circle in Boynton Beach, a subdivision of West Palm
Beach. Most of the friends I grew up with lived on the corner or accross the street. I went to Unity
Elementary School in Boynton through sixth grade. At the time my father was working for
IBM---he was a genius when it came to taking apart computers...he was brilliant. He'd fix them
and deliver them back to their owners. My mother was working with my grandmother, Ursula, at
the Breaker's Hotel right on the water of West Palm. My parents got divorced when I was about
four.

Back then I would try to mow the lawn, but I couldn't actually do it until I was six or seven. The
lawnmower was the kind where you pull the lever and it would go by itself and you'd just direct it.
And it would take me for a ride and I'd be like, 'Woooooah'! So I'd fix the hedges,clean the
pool...I never cleaned my room though, that was my mom's job. I'm an only child, and it's fun,
fun, fun! I had more privileges than I would if I had any brother or sisters. I was spoiled, they
spoiled me rotten, but I never did get an allowance.

When I was around five, my mom got me into modeling and I started doing J.C. Penny's Catalogs
and runways. I was seen at a runway show at a mall. There was a director there who worked at the
Royal Palm Dinner Theatre. She asked my mom if I was interested in doing any plays. So my first
part was Dopey, as in the Seven Dwarfs. I had no lines, but I was the biggest hit of that show...I
ended up doing about twenty-seven plays in the course of two years. Sometimes it was chorus stuff
and sometimes it was leads.

Around the end of my 6th grade year, my mother and my grandparents decided to move to Orlando.
They had heard that actors do very well there, so we made the move. At that time I was going into
7th grade and I really wanted to go to a performing arts school for drama. A couple of people we
met in the community told me about this one school called the Masters Academy. I was only there
until 8th grade. At that time we were living in Fern Park.

My first audition was at Nickelodeon and I got the part of a character named Skunk on a sitcom
called Hi Honey, I'm Home. The character I played had his head shaved and hair dyed blond down
the middle; they shaved my head and I had a Mohawk, a rat tail and bleached blond hair. Now this
school I was going to, you couldn't have hair past the collar and I come in with this wacked-out
hairdo. They were like, 'What's up with your hair?' So that show lasted about two weeks, and then
I got fired because I was too tall. Basically, I made some money and got exposure.

Then, I moved to Kissimee, Florida and went to Denn John Middle School. Nickelodeon kept
calling me back for extra work, so I did Welcome Freshman, Fifteen and then I started auditioning
for the Mickey Mouse Club. I never became a Mouseketeer, but I may have appeared as an extra. I
had known Howie since the 8th grade, and auditioned for Disney too, but he was too old. I was too
close to the age where they stop signing kids, which is 17.

When I was younger, I wasn't quiet----I had a big mouth! I was constantly running my mouth and I
was also a big-time flirt----I'm still one! Since my mom raised me, I was always taught to treat girls
with respect. In fact, I would always treat every girl with the utmost respect. That's why I was
always hanging out with girls when I was younger. Girls don't bore me: I love shopping, they love
shopping. I love clothes, they love clothes. They're more interesting. With guys it's just like
sports. I would always talk to girls, pull their chairs out and get them things in the cafeteria. Some
girls would get jealous, because I would do it for everyone.

The first time I really started dating was in 8th grade, and that didn't really work out too well. Then
in my freshmen year, I did a commercial for MGM and I became really close to the producer. His
neice came down to visit and we hit it off. The problem was she lived in Ohio. That didn't work
out, because she couldn't accept the situation."

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