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Ben Foster, as Ben Kurtzman, talks with his film mother (Bebe Neuwirth) and
grandmother (Frania Rubinek) in a scene from "Liberty Heights.
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"Iowa is a great place to live and grow
up, and we experienced very little anti-
Semitism." Although he and his par-
ents currently each have apartments in
Los Angeles, Foster still pays a visit to
Iowa at least once a year to see the rest
of his family. His father, Steve, 51,
owns a nationwide chain of night-
club/billiard parlors called Jillian's,
named after his mother, Gillian, who
designs the establishments.
Foster celebrated his bar mitzvah in
Iowa — in an old church that the
small number of Jewish families there
converted into a synagogue. "They put
a Star of David on it and turned it into
Congregation Beth Shalom," he says.
His first taste of show business was
at the age of 6, when he performed in
the usual school plays. But he really
learned dramatic acting when he
attended Michigan's Interlochen Fine
Arts Camp for two summers, starting
at age 13.
His roles there included a crack
addict in the play Voices 2000 and a
mentally handicapped teenager in
juvenile prison in the play juvie.
Bitten by the acting bug and
admittedly not being much of a stu-
dent, Foster dropped out of high
school, hired an agent and started
auditioning for the TV roles he even-
tually secured. But his parents certain-
ly are not the typical stage parents.
"They never wanted me to be a
professional actor, and they keep
reminding me I can quit any time I
want to," says Foster. "It's a tough
business, and it's tough to get good
work. Acting even keeps me from dat-
ing a lot. It's hard to meet girls when
you're always on the set.
Foster topped a host of other actors
I)
Bill Carroll is a West Bloomfield-based
freelance writer.
to win the Liberty Heights role, but
its difficult to do auditions because
losing is psychologically damaging to
your mind," he says. "I still can't
believe I won this part. I've been fly-
ing high ever since."
He earned his "Dr. No" nickname
because he only wants "parts that
interest me. I can't participate in any-
thing I don't like, so I'm very picky,"
he says.
"Playing the lead in a Barry
Levinson film as my first movie has
been an unbelievable experience,"
he adds. "It's especially flattering
because I play a mixture of his
cousin and a younger version of
Barry. He's an extremely focused
and generous person. And Bebe
Neuwirth and Joe Mantegna were
great to work with; no egos there."
Filmed in Baltimore last fall,
Liberty Heights examines the fabric
of life at a pivotal time in American
social history, the mid-1950s, cover-
ing a variety of issues, including
race, class, first love and religious
distinction.
"Any one of those issues alone
could have carried the entire movie,
but it's amazing how Barry wove all
of them together and balanced them
out brilliantly," said Foster.
His character is obsessed with
Frank Sinatra, so he got every
album Sinatra recorded from 1940
to 1954, researched all of the news
magazines from that period and
grilled his father and grandmother
about the era, poring over old pho-
tos and zeroing in especially on
anti-Semitism.
His grandmother, whom he calls
"Nana," now in her 80s, was espe-
cially helpful. Says Foster, "I even
took her to the film's premiere as
my date.