T
Arts & Entertainment
DREAM CAREER / ON THE COVER
A Star Is Born
Farmington Hills native James Wolk stars in a dramatic new TV series
and in a movie comedy, both debuting this month.
it In the TV series
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
0
n a break from acting out
romantic interludes and comedic
conflict for the feature film You
Again, two emerging screen stars shared
some Vernors ginger ale in honor of the
area where their artistic interests took hold.
James Wolk, who grew up in
Farmington Hills, and Kristen Bell, who
grew up in Huntington Woods, hadn't met
before the filming began, but they became
friends while also getting to know the
other cast members in the movie premier-
ing across the country Sept. 24.
Wolk portrays a groom-to-be whose
sister (Bell) hates his fiancee (Odette
Yustman) and whose mother (Jamie Lee
Curtis) hates his fiancee's aunt (Sigourney
Weaver).
The bad feelings stem from high-school
traumas and lead to some slapstick with
the help of other family members played
by Victor Garber and Betty White.
Four days before the release of You
Again, Wolk debuts at the center of an
intense television series, Lone Star, which
casts him as Robert/Bob Allen, a Texas
conman taking on two identities and seri-
ously in love with two women.
The show, which airs 9 p.m. Mondays
starting Sept. 20, also features Adrianne
Palicki (Cat Thatcher), Eloise Mumford
(Lindsay Holloway), David Keith (John
Allen), Mark Deklin (Trammell Thatcher),
Bryce Johnson (Drew Thatcher) and Jon
Voight (Clint Thatcher).
Wolk, 25, has had to apply some strong
time management skills as his talents have
given him two big-time opportunities.
"I feel blessed to be able to do both
types of projects this early in my career:'
says Wolk, a 2007 graduate of the
University of Michigan School of Music,
Theatre & Dance.
"The film is complete comedy, a fun
movie that families and young couples
can see. It was a joy making it, and I loved
working with Betty White, the 'it' girl right
now. Betty is an inspiration, being in her
80s with vitality and a work ethic going
through the roof."
Another acting inspiration has been
Voight, whose professionalism unfolds
with the series.
"My character in Lone Star is a great
challenge because his actions can make
him come across as unlikable although
there is a lot of inner turmoil and conflict
about those actions:' Wolk explains.
`Although he's a conman, his psyche is
more interesting."
Wolk developed his early acting expe-
rience on the stages of Warner Middle
School and North Farmington High
School, both in Farmington Hills.
"North Farmington had an incredible
theater department run by Dean Cobb,
and he was instrumental to my continu-
ing interest:' says Wolk, whose religious
education was at Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield. "High school was a great
time for me because I was doing tons of
theater and working as a party emcee for
Star Trax:' the event production company
based in Southfield.
During the year after college and while
living in New York, Wolk found an agent
and appeared in episodes of the soap
operas As the World Turns and the Guiding
Light. He accepted some commercial
assignments before being cast in Front
of the Class, a 2008 TV movie about Brad
Cohen, a teacher confronting the vocal and
motor tics of Tourette's syndrome.
Wolk and Cohen have maintained a
strong friendship since working on the
Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. Wolk serves
as a director of the Brad Cohen Tourette
Foundation, which sponsors summer
camps and programs for young people
with the illness.
"Brad is a giving, caring person who is
very intelligent, and we hit it off imme-
diately," Wolk says. "Playing Robert/Bob
Allen has been more challenging than
portraying Brad."
Because of the long-term commit-
ment to Lone Star, Wolk has moved from
California to Texas with the road-trip help
of his dad, Rob Wolk, owner of Sundance
Shoes in West Bloomfield.
As the actor prepared for his dream
career, he found grounding by working
with his father and sister, Katie Wolk
Johnston, in the family business.
Rob and Edie Wolk, a retired art teacher,
encouraged their son's interest in the arts.
(In addition to acting, James Wolk is a tal-
Lone Star, James
.2 Wolk stars as
Robert/Bob Allen,
a charismatic
and brilliant
schemer who
has meticulously
constructed
two lives in two
different parts of
15 , Texas.
In the film comedy
You Again, Wolk,
left, plays a
groom-to-be,
whose fiancee
(Odette Yustman,
right) is disliked by
his sister, played
by Huntington
Woods native
Kristen Bell.
ented painter.) Both have been happy to get
behind-the-scenes glimpses of the film and
series.
"I got to meet a great cast and crew in
Texas:' says Rob Wolk, buying up maga-
zines with articles about his son, who will
be featured in the October issue of Men's
Health. "I had dinner with Jimmy and
some of the actors, including Jon Voight.
"We were talking about everyday sub-
jects, but the others spoke with a Texas
accent to get some practice in the way they
have to talk for the tapings."
When Rob Wolk was on the set of You
Again, he watched Jamie Lee Curtis on
break as she explained her needlework, a
bat mitzvah gift for a niece.
Family is important to the Wolks, and
they are looking forward to being together
in Michigan for the baby-naming cer-
emony of Johnston's firstborn, expected
around the time of film and series debuts.
Wolk, who went from Jimmy to James as
his parts became more mature, is getting
used to Texas, finding favorite places to
dine and run. Before the High Holidays, he
was looking for a synagogue.
"Series television moves fast, and I
have to be at work ready to go and stretch
myself,' says Wolk, who is single. "I feel so
lucky to be part of the series because of
the pedigreed people involved with writ-
ing, directing and acting."
Wolk explains that he is very comfort-
able working with the two women who
play the love interests of his character in
Lone Star. There are some steamy scenes
with the actresses he describes as "drop-
dead gorgeous, super-intelligent and kind."
"The scenes are part of the job': he says,
"but they're definitely not tough to do." Ei
Lone Star debuts 9 p.m. Monday,
Sept. 20, on FOX. You Again comes
to theaters Friday, Sept. 24.
September 16 • 2010
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