Joey Guerra
Entertainment Editor
The print and TV ads for the oft-delayed Suicide Kings, which finally hits theaters nationwide Friday, look and read like something Tiger Beat would devote a special, glossy double-issue to.
Heading up the cast are five pull-out-poster-worthy dreamboats, including E.T. child-actor Henry Thomas, also currently on the big screen in Niagara Niagara; Jay Mohr, former MTV host and Jennifer Aniston's recent Picture Perfect romance; Johnny Galecki, Darlene's lovable doormat of a boyfriend on Roseanne; Sugarland native and Powder boy Sean Patrick Flannery; and Jeremy Sisto, Cher's snobby, love-'em-and-leave-'em date in Clueless.
With so many sleepy-eyed heartthrobs sharing space on the big screen, it seems inevitable that rivalries would rear their pretty-boy heads.
"We had a lot of fun," Galecki said over the phone. "I kind of expected it to be much more competitive. The competitiveness that did exist was very healthy, considering that we're all in the same business and the same general age range and probably go up on a lot of the same roles. There was none of that competitiveness there whatsoever. That was all left at the door."
Galecki plays Ira, a nerdy rich kid whose home is used by the gang to hide a kidnapped ex-crime boss, played by Christopher Walken, after one of their sisters is kidnapped. Armed with that seemingly valuable bargaining tool, they hope to get the girl, who also happens to be dating one of the group, back as intact as possible. (One of her fingers was initially sent as a sort of we-mean-business warning from the perpetrators.)
For Galecki, working with the Oscar-winning Walken was a prime reason for taking the part.
"I certainly tried to absorb as much as I possibly could from him and learn what I could just from observing him and the way that he works," he said. Galecki added, though, that he had a few other reasons for taking his talents to the big screen.
"I was doing the last season of the Roseanne show, and I was really looking and needing to do a role that was different from the quiet, passive role I played on the show," he said. "I wanted something bigger and broader and louder and more neurotic, just for my own frame of mind at the time."
"It's a great story, and it's really well-written," added Sisto, who plays an upper-crust, conflicted medical student in on the caper. "The director really had a good vision for it, and it was all intact when I came aboard."
Sisto, who's probably most notable for his role in the surprise hit film Clueless, lists credits as broad as extensive theater work and serving as the current Levi's It-boy. He's also a bit of an aspiring musician, as witnessed by a clever, impromptu serenade I received over the phone.
"Some people say I could have an album and stuff, but I don't know if they're bulls----ing me," Sisto said. "I like to play for myself and for my friends, though, and if everyone knows your music, it gets a little weird. I just like doing what I like doing, and if everyone hears it, I would have to start, like, thinking about it."
"It's not like being an assassin or a sniper," he joked. "I mean, you get paid a lot of money, and you get to do something really fun, so I don't think I'd have to think about it that hard."
For now, though, Sisto's first love seems to be making movies.
"Theater you get to do, and it's actually, I think, more fun to do, but it's great to be in a film. It's so much fun. It's great to watch it," Sisto said. "I've done a lot of theater, and I'd like to do more theater, and I might like to do some TV. I think TV could be very good and enjoyable, and I'm excited about the possibility of doing that at some point."
While Sisto may explore boob-tube possibilities in the near future, Galecki has earned his keep there, playing the lovable David on the successful ABC sitcom Roseanne, which now lives forever in syndication. It's a point in his career he looks back on with fond memories.
"(TV) is a great opportunity to be able to explore every element, every aspect, every iota of the same character in every given situation, if you have a long enough run," Galecki said. "I miss that, although right now, at this point, I'm much more interested in variety of characters than exploring the deepest depths of one."
"Doing (Roseanne) was great because there was a live audience, for one, and that's kind of my background. That's just the best place to learn as well, in front of audience, 'cause you know exactly and immediately what works and what doesn't."
Casting apparently worked on Suicide Kings. Both actors agreed that shooting the film was a great experience.
"Jay Mohr's a comedian, so we were all insulting each other all the time and having fun," Sisto joked. "It was a very fun set. All the actors really are interesting."