Entertainment

THE INSIDER: LOGAN LERMAN

get the full nylon guys interview here!

by liza darwin

In the latest issue of NYLON Guys, 19-year-old Logan Lerman proves that he's not the same little kid in Riding in Cars With Boys or 3:10 to Yuma. With starring roles in upcoming movies The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Three Musketeers, this former child actor has officially grown up. You can get the lowdown from Logan in the NYLON Guys September issue on newsstands, but in the meantime, read the full transcript and see the photoshoot outtakes below!

Hey Logan! Where are you right now?

I actually just got back to L.A. last night. We literally just wrapped shooting on Perks of Being a Wallflower and then headed straight to the airport. Sorry if I'm a little bit out of it, I'm just running on adrenaline right now.

Wow, that's crazy. How was filming Perks? Was it tough preparing for your role as Charlie?

I went to Pittsburgh [where filming took place] before anyone else and locked myself in a room and never left, except to go to T.G.I. Friday's…alone, of course. I've been torturing myself for the past few months trying to get into Charlie's head. It was intense, trying to understand his feelings of isolation.

The cast of Perks is pretty awesome, too....

The cast is so mind-blowingly talented. It was one of the most creatively compelling experiences.

Had you read the book before you started filming? Of course I've read it! Pretty much every has. It would be terrible I hadn't.

Let's talk about your other cool new project, The Three Musketeers. What was that like? It was kind of crazy, because that was the first time anyone had contacted me and offered me the role. I trained for 3 months before we even officially started training because my role is very stunts-oriented. Because a lot of my scenes involved combat, we were constantly preparing for different fights. I had never done anything before that was so intensely stunt-driven. But at the same time, there's depth to the characters.

What did you do on your off-time during filming?

I had so much fun with all the guys. We filmed it in Germany, in places between Munich and Berlin, so we constantly hung out. On the off days the cast would tour around the city, visit old castles, and basically be tourists. I've never been able to travel to places like Germany in my life, so to be able to do that for work was just awesome.

Going back to the beginning, how did you first get involved in acting?

I started just for fun when I was really, really young. I quit for a while and then I really started taking it seriously about 7 years ago; I had this enlightenment and I was fascinated by film and moviemaking and fell in love with the art of creating a film. I got back into acting as a means to get my foot in the door for directing and behind the scenes part, to get in on the set and learn it that way. But then I started falling in love with acting again, so it's kind of a hobby turned profession. Directing is something that I've always wanted to do, though.

When you're not working, what do you like to do?

I play music. I love learning a new instrument and creating songs; it also goes hand in hand with filmaking, like creating a feeling and emotion in music to complement a scene. Songwriting, guitar, piano, bass, ukulele, a little bit of violin, a little bit of everything- primarily guitar and piano. It's just a hobby for now, maybe it would turn into a profession someday…who knows.