Buffy The Vampire Slayer

January 20, 2004

Rising stars Make way for Hilary Duff, Frankie Muniz and Bow Wow
By VINCENT JACKSON Staff Writer

The big teen stars of the late ’90s better watch out. A slew of new movie and TV talent has arrived on the scene.

The new teen actors - Hilary Duff, Frankie Muniz, Gregory Smith, Scarlett Johansson, Mandy Moore and Bow Wow - are replacing so-yesterday idols like Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook and James Van Der Beek, among others.

The changeover is nothing new. Every set of high schoolers wants its own stars to fixate on, and today’s pre-teens and teenagers are honed in on the performers they’ve grown up watching.

In the recent past, actors like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Neve Campbell and Joshua Jackson did double duty starring in TV series, then using their popularity on the small screen to get roles in teen films like "Cruel Intentions," the "Scream" series and "The Skulls."

The trio’s 1990s’ TV shows - "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Party of Five" and "Dawson’s Creek," respectively - are now off the air. The stars, now adults, are trying to make it in movies.

Filling the void is a new crop of actors 21 and younger, following the paths and formulas created by their barely older elders. They, too, are now starring in movies. Most of them haven’t demonstrated the box office power of the previous batch of young stars, but the new breed is leaping into feature films anyway. Most will be seen in films being released this year.

Getting noticed

The hot new stars got their starts in TV, music and minor film roles. Sixteen-year-old Duff, for instance, found fame on the Disney Channel’s hit "Lizzie McGuire." She found bigger success in "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," which cost $17 million to make and another $17 million to market. It turned a profit with just its theatrical run by earning $42 million at the box office last spring and summer.

Now Duff is looking to outdo her "Lizzie McGuire" success on TV. She recently signed a comedy pilot deal with CBS-TV for the 2004/05 season. This July, she will play a 21st-century, Cinderella-type girl in the teen movie "A Cinderella Story."

Muniz, 18, also parlayed TV stardom into movie roles. The star of the Fox-TV sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle," Muniz already has his own franchise movie series, the "Agent Cody Banks." The first one, released last year, had Duff as a co-star. The second in the series, "Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London," will be released in March.

Others young actors hoping to jump from TV shows include Smith, 20, of the WB’s "Everwood," and Amanda Bynes, 17, of the WB’s "What I Like About You."

Some young actors get known for their work in movies. They are first cast in small roles either in big screen or TV movies, then land larger roles in more high-profile projects until they get noticed. Freddie Prinze Jr., Julia Stiles and Denise Richards used this method. Now, it’s Johansson’s turn.

Unlike Prinze, Stiles and other previous young actors, Johansson, 19, gained acclaim while working in movies aimed at adults because there weren’t as many teen movies being made. She started attracting attention with parts in "The Horse Whisperer" in 1998 and "Ghost World" in 2000. Her recent role in the movie "Lost in Translation" with Bill Murray has generated buzz that she will receive a best supporting actress Oscar nomination when the announcement is made on Jan. 27.

Singers like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley segued their success in the music field into movie stardom. Vocalists Usher Raymond and Brandy broke through with music first, then moved into TV and movie roles.

Until recently, Moore, 19, had more success as a singer (1999 album "So Real" sold 1 million copies) while her two movies were flops. But she isn’t giving up on acting yet. She will be seen again in a movie when "Saved!" premieres at the Sundance Film Festival this month.

Rapper Bow Wow, 16, sold 2 million copies of his debut CD, "Beware Of Dog." He is one of the stars of the movie "Like Mike" and will be in the new Cedric the Entertainer film "Johnson Family Vacation," which reaches movie theaters in April.

Get used to seeing these young stars. In the late 1980s, you couldn’t go anywhere without running into teen pop stars like New Kids On The Block and Debbie Gibson. They were replaced in the latter half the ’90s by Britney Spears and ’N Sync. In this decade, the new crop of teen TV and movie stars will takeover magazine covers, gossip columns and interview shows, doing their part to keep the pop-culture wheel spinning.