Buffy The Vampire Slayer

This young actor can talk the talk

His real Boston accent got George Barber a part on TV

By Bella English, Globe Staff, 3/15/2004

SANDWICH — The first time he auditioned for a part in an NBC pilot, George Barber was told he was too proper. The casting director gave him a second chance. This time he read the part with a thicker Boston accent. ("You just lose your R’s," he says.)

Out of the dozens of boys who tried out for the part, Barber was chosen to play a teenager — with a Boston accent — in the new sitcom "Home and Hardware," whose pilot will air in May. The sitcom will feature Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," as a Back Bay antiques/hardware store worker. Barber, 15, will play her upstairs neighbor and dog-walker in a Boston apartment building. Depending on the response to the pilot, the show could get picked up for the fall schedule, turning Barber into a national celebrity.

So how did this self-described average student with little acting experience make it into the big time?

"If you ask me how I think George got this job, I’d have to say that the producers at NBC were impressed and inspired by a performance that was humorous, original, and inventive, because that’s what I saw in his audition," says Carolyn Pickman, who owns C.P. Casting in Boston. Before his final audition in New York, Pickman reminded him that although he would be up against other boys from New York and Los Angeles with much more experience, he should remember that he was "the real thing — and that his Boston accent wouldn’t hurt!"

When George and another teenager were called back for a final audition in New York, George’s grandparents drove him to NBC studios at Rockefeller Center, along with the family dog, Trinity. ("She has major separation anxiety," George explains.) Shortly after that audition, he was called back to New York. This time, a limo was dispatched to take him and his grandmother to Logan Airport, where they were flown to New York for another audition, via satellite to Los Angeles.

The next day, his agent called with the good news: He got the role. George is supposed to be playing a 13-year-old, but he says it’s no problem for him. "I know plenty of kids my age who act like they’re 12 or 13," he says.

On March 20, he and his grandmother will fly to Los Angeles, where the pilot will be filmed. Written by Matt Tarses, whose credits include "Scrubs" and "Sports Night," and directed by David Schwimmer of "Friends," the pilot will air in May. If all goes well, 13 episodes will follow, for the first season. Pretty heady stuff for a C-student freshman whose acting credits extend to a little community theater.

George has lived with his maternal grandparents, Fritz and Ellen Hampe, since he was 18 months old. His mother lives in Bourne, and he sees her often. His father died in a car crash when George was 7. It is "Nana and Pop" who have raised him.

"Georgie is a joy to have around," his grandmother says. "He’s a lot of fun." As if on cue, he breaks into a spot-on impression of Ross Perot, with a nasal, rambling Southern drawl, and then one of George Bush. "He used to do a great imitation of Katharine Hepburn, but his voice changed," his grandmother says.

He loves "Mad TV," "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Five years ago, he saw an ad for acting classes at John Robert Powers in Boston. He got an agent, and just before his 11th birthday he and his grandmother went to Los Angeles for the International Modeling and Talent Association competition. George came home with eight awards, including Preteen Male Talent of the Year. They sit proudly on the mantle at the modest home on a quiet side street.

He’s been an extra in the films "Mystic River," "Osmosis Jones," and "What’s the Worst That Could Happen?" He’s done print ads and a few local commercials. His meatier roles have been in community theater; once he played "a drug-addicted homeless person"; in "Godspell," he played Socrates.

Was he nervous reading before Hollywood types? "No, he’s in his element," interjects his grandfather, a retired auto mechanic.

George begs to differ. "When I went to New York, yes. I always get nervous beforehand," he says. "But I’m not nervous during."

Pickman has known George since he was 8. "He’s one of those kids who keeps sending out his pictures and resume and saying, `Remember me?’. He takes it seriously. He knows what he wants to do, and he’s very good at it," she says. It was Pickman who steered him to the audition.

George’s new gig is one thing, but if you really want to see his eyes light up, take a look at his car. Yes, he’s too young to drive, but he found a 1968 Ford Torino station wagon with simulated wood paneling. It sits in the driveway, and it has only 95,000 miles on it. George pops the hood and exclaims over the engine.

His small bedroom is "all hooked up," as he puts it, with digital cable for his PlayStation and Xbox. His grandmother painted the ceiling blue with clouds, and on one wall is a city skyline. George has boxes and boxes of action figures and comic books, and he likes to "write stuff and think." Twice a week, he teaches or studies martial arts; he holds a black belt in kung fu.

The money he has made from his print and commercial jobs goes in his bank account. "I give him 10 percent to play with," his grandmother says. As for what the upcoming pilot, which will take a week or two to shoot, will pay, she doesn’t know. "They just said it will be a standard SAG [Screen Actors Guild] contract," she says. "I have no idea, because this is the first big thing Georgie’s done."

If the pilot flies, the family knows they’ll have to be in LA for several weeks a year. George shrugs it off. "So what? I’ll be gone a little while." He’s adamant about graduating from Sandwich High, and is thinking of studying acting at Emerson College. "It’s close to home," he says.