Joseph, now a high school student of 16, lives in a small town outside of Chicago. His acting career, so far, consists of three independent, direct-to-video films made by independent filmmaker Tim Richardson.
It seems that Richardson is also a scoutmaster, and Joseph was one of the boys in his troop. After watching Joseph appear in a few Boy Scout skits and several short subjects, Richardson cast him as the star in "Boys In Black," a strangely disturbing film about a young boy who watches his abusive father die in a fire and then is abducted by the cult member who started the blaze. In "Revelations," made a year later, Joseph again stars, this time as a boy who finds himself the object of a centuries-old curse and under the spell of a demon who drives his victims to suicide. In this year's "Bloodlines," Joseph plays a supporting role as a street smart teen who provides a helping hand to the protagonist, an Amish boy who has run away from home to find his long-lost father.
Produced with a miniscule budget, all three films have their flaws, including some painfully amateurish acting. The one constant is Joseph Scheibelhut's performances. As they used to say in Hollywood, the camera loves him; his screen persona is always natural and believable, no matter what the role.
Joseph is also an extremely good looking young man with a wholesome, boyish grin and a trim athletic body. According to his mentor and director, Tim Richardson, Joseph is very comfortable with his looks and body, perhaps because of his experiences as a high school athlete. Richardson says that Joseph remains very down to earth and thinks of himself as "a skinny teenage boy," not a buff teen idol.
Nonetheless, Joseph's fans have noticed him growing up and filling out in his three films, made at ages 14, 15, and 16 (he has had shirtless scenes in each movie, and in his next project, Taking The Plunge due to start filming this fall, he plays a high-school diver and will appear for much of the film in nothing but a speedo.)
Tim Richardson said that Joseph, unlike many teenagers who go through an awkward phase, is very comfortable with his body and never had a problem with any of those scenes; when it comes to his image, Richardson added, Joseph would worry much more about a role that called for him to use drugs on camera than a role that required him to take his shirt off.
Richardson, who has an intuitive genius for promoting his films, came up with the idea of advertising them on Usenet groups like alt.fan.teen-idols - newsgroups that appealed to the giggling teenybopper fans of heartthrobs like Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Hanson. With Joseph as his ace in the hole, Richardson found this an extremely effective way of marketing his movies. Because of the limited availability of these video-only films, this Internet exposure has brought Tim's films - and Joseph's acting - to fans across the country who otherwise would never have heard of either. And thanks to this web presence, Joseph now has his own Internet fan web page, and has been a featured artist on the YMS (Young Male Stars) teen-idol website.
Joseph's Internet exposure also included posing for shirtless pinup photos as the fictional "Brat Renfro" on the hilarious "Brat Renfro Web Page," a parody of teen idol websites for the teenybopper fans of young stars like bad-boy Brad Renfro.
We've gathered together everything we could find about Joseph on the Internet, and Tim Richardson was good enough to help out by arranging this interview. So here, in his own words, is Joseph Scheibelhut.
Q: You've established yourself as a fine actor in the feature films by Richardson Productions . So, is acting a hobby or would you like to pursue it as a career?
JOE: Well, I'd really like to pursue it as a career, but realistically I know it's a hard thing to achieve, so I consider it more of a hobby than a career.
Q: Do you see yourself getting into it someday if you get the chance?
JOE: If I get a chance or a "big break" I can see myself getting into acting, yes, but otherwise I just consider it more of a hobby.
Q: Do you go to a regular school?
JOE: I attend a public school. It's pretty large.
Q: What kind of grades do you get?
Q: JOE: I maintain a 3.7 grade point average since I entered high school, and that's been two years.
Q: What kinds of sports do you play?
JOE: I'm a diver. I used to be in track and wrestling, but right now I'm focusing on diving.
Q: How did you get into acting? Did you audition or simply get asked to play a part in Tim Richardson's films?
JOE: I first got into acting when I was in Boy Scouts. One of my scout leaders, Tim, asked me if I'd be interested in a short film, so pretty much I auditioned and got the part.
Q: How old were you when you started?
JOE: I'd say, I think eleven. I was doing skits at age eleven, and then acted in a parody movie, and ever since then I've done a feature-length movie every year like Boys In Black, Revelations, and Bloodlines. I'm going to be in an upcoming short film called Taking The Plunge about a high school diver this fall.
Q: How do your parents feel about all this?
JOE: My dad's thrilled. My mom, she likes it a lot, but she really doesn't like me to think I'm going to be a famous movie star someday, so she tears me down a little bit.
Q: What do you think about that?
JOE: I like acting a lot. It's a great hobby. Like I said, I'd like to pursue it as a career, but it's break that only so many people actually get.
Q: Who are some of your favorite actors or actresses?
JOE: I really like comedians, so I'm gonna say like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley are probably my two favorite actors.
Q: Who is your role model or inspiration for acting?
JOE: My biggest role model when I was younger used to be Jim Carey, I liked to impersonate him a lot. But other than that, I don't really have any right now.
Q: Finally, what would you like to be doing ten years from now?
JOE: Ten years from now, if I'm not a famous movie star, I think I'd like to be a pilot, something to do with aeronautics.
Interview by Lisa Boink with help from Tim Richardson
The Joseph Scheibelhut Fan Club
Here's how you can support Joe's career,
help a great charity, and get your own autographed photo!
The Joseph Scheibelhut Fan Page
Joseph's interview on the YMS site
Tim Richardson Productions
This is where you can order video tapes of Joseph Scheibelhut's films and follow the status of his next project, "Taking The Plunge."
Check out Joe's interview on the TEEN SPOT web page.
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