Safety Pinups

They emerge every so often, a cluster of young actors who seem to perfectly epitomize their times. The Dean-Brando-Newman-Clift generation of the ‘50s tapped into a postwar, restless, rebellious sexuality. The De Niro-Pacino-Hoffman clan represented the antiwar antihero of the ‘60s. The so-called Brat Pack--which could have used a good or bad war to show some mettle--momentarily captured the vain and sexually careless ‘80s.

Now, yet another New Generation of actors springs forth, the product of changing demographics--we’re talking 70 million American teenagers--and an industry desperate to cater to all that hormonal hunger. Not as contentious as their ‘50s and ‘60s predecessors or as self-involved as their ‘80s counterparts, the late ‘90s model male heartthrobs are thoughtful, sensitive and, dare we say it, kinda nice.

“There seems to be something palatably nonthreatening about these guys,” says casting director Ellen Chenoweth. “Their sex appeal doesn’t feel violent or disturbing. An actor like Edward Norton is not that much older, but he is more in the Sean Penn mold, much more complicated than this young group, at least where they are now.”

For the uninitiated--say, anyone over 25--they tend to blend into one another. Close your eyes and try to imagine who they are, or, more accurately, which is which: Ryan Phillippe, James Van Der Beek, Paul Walker, Matthew Lillard, Freddie Prinze Jr., Joshua Jackson, Chris Klein, Breckin Meyer, James Marsden, Seth Green, Josh Hartnett, Heath Ledger, Scott Speedman and more. Put together they represent a vital new force in Hollywood.

“There’s been a pretty long gap since the Brat Pack days,” notes former Touchstone Pictures President Donald DeLine. “This is a real resurgence, and I can’t think of a time when so many young actors have had a spotlight on them all at once.”

A good many have come from, or are crossing back and forth between, television--shows like “Dawson’s Creek,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Party of Five,” “Felicity”--and the feature world. For example, Speedman of “Felicity” just filmed “Duet” opposite Gwyneth Paltrow; Van Der Beek of “Dawson’s Creek” starred as a troubled high school football player in the hit teen film “Varsity Blues.” And the list goes on and on.

“In the past, there was a more traditional division between the large and small screen,” DeLine says. “But those barriers seem to have totally broken down with this group and their audience.”

That loyal audience, especially females, from preteens to post-college, has bestowed heartthrob status on these young men for their shared characteristics: sensitive but not wimpy, smart but not nerdy, athletic but not dumb jock. They constitute one of the truly Safe Sects.

Even those who play slightly menacing versions remain pretty harmless. Australian Heath Ledger, 19, dazzles as the mysterious and possibly bad boy of the high school in this spring’s “10 Things I Hate About You.” But in fact, there proves a heart of gold under that tough guy exterior. “We really saw him as a young leading man as opposed to a boy,” says DeLine, who was at Touchstone when the film was developed. “He has a more mature presence, like a young Mel Gibson, but still basically a nonthreatening one.”

Unlike Dean, De Niro and many of their predecessors, this new generation of young actors shares a kind of non-attitude attitude--a trait likely to be valued even more in the wake of the Columbine High School shootings, as role models of a less violent nature are particularly welcome.

“I’m not interested in roles where they’re carelessly mean and unlikable,” says James Marsden of “Disturbing Behavior.” “I play a cocky, manipulative guy in ‘Gossip’ [coming later this year], but he’s also intelligent and charming.”

All of these Safe Studs elicit shrieks and squeaks at malls. Even Seth Green, 25 and not your traditional leading man type, has captured young hearts with his roles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and last year’s teen film “Can’t Hardly Wait,” along with his breakout performance as Dr. Evil’s son in “Austin Powers,” a huge hit with young audiences. (He returns in the sequel, “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” this summer.)

“Obviously, I don’t see myself that way at all,” Green says. “I like to think of myself as the thinking-girl’s thinking guy.”

Chris Klein, at 20, is in that only-in-Hollywood place right now between anonymity and possible overnight heartthrob heaven. His upcoming summer movie, “American Pie,” has huge buzz surrounding it already, months before its release. He also played the quarterback-turned-candidate in the recently released high school comedy “Election,” a critical fave.

“I’m told this is the quiet before the storm,” says Klein, who is trying to sneak in yet another college semester at Texas Christian University in the meantime.

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What Klein will discover is that the adoration he may be in for is not of the untouchable quality of a Harrison Ford, for example. Today’s teens revere their young idols, but they also feel a kinship with them, an accessibility.

And it’s returned by the actors: “I am one of them,” says Freddie Prinze Jr., who played the all-everything on campus in “She’s All That.” “These are my people, my brothers and sisters.”

Many of the actors refer to the female attention as “flattering,” but are not immune to its ephemeral nature. Andrew Keegan, 20, who plays the gorgeous but arrogant upperclassman in “10 Things I Hate About You,” found himself on the cover of virtually every teen magazine a few years back, and it set off sirens in his young head: “I’d only done one film, ‘Camp Nowhere,’ and some episodes of shows like ‘Party of Five’ and ‘7th Heaven,’ ” says Keegan. “That was when I decided to take a year off to make sure that wasn’t going to be an issue.” (He shared those covers with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who is struggling to make the boyz-to-men, TV-to-feature transitions after “Home Improvement,” and Devon Sawa, who danced into girls’ hearts as Casper-come-to-life in the 1995 movie but suffered a dry spell until he returned last month in the comedy-thriller “Idle Hands.”)

And don’t hate them because they’re beautiful. They often are keenly aware of such limitations and plan to use them to their best advantage: “Let’s face it, I’m not going to be going up against Danny DeVito for parts,” says the rather stunning Marsden, 25. “But I hope I can find a career like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Paul Newman.”

If there’s any quality that characterizes the new heartthrobs, it’s self-awareness. They know themselves--and they know the business.

“They are much savvier than past generations,” says Roger Kumble, who directed “Cruel Intentions.” “Even though they’re teen icons now, they know careers are fleeting.”

Just ask them about their good fortune, and words like “fortuitous” may spring forth: “The pendulum’s swinging our way, and Hollywood realizes it can make these tidy little profits off us,” says Joshua Jackson, 20, of “Dawson’s Creek” and “Cruel Intentions.”

Jackson and other young stars realize that in an era of cost cutting, their relatively cheap price tags--most get paid well under $1 million for a film--make them valuable commodities in the new economics of Hollywood. Notes Jackson: “They can get 35 twentysomethings for the price of one Tom Cruise.”

They’re also realistic about the benefits and risks of sudden stardom. Prinze Jr., whose father took his own life because he couldn’t handle youthful fame, notes, “I’d say about 70% of us are trying to really stay focused on the work. About 30% just want to be movie stars. I’m trying to understand this is a business, but I’m also trying to stay an artist, and sometimes that leads to tough choices.”

Still, all the Safe Studs worry that their moment in the sun may be brief: “We’re riding a wave, and there is going to be a thinning of the herd eventually,” Jackson says. “In the end, transcending the genre will be about ability.”

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When casting director Chenoweth was casting Barry Levinson’s newest film, “Liberty Heights,” about young people in Baltimore in the 50s, she was struck by many young actors’ inabilities to play beyond what they are.

“I was shocked by the lack of training of so many young actors,” she says. “What’s happening is that a good-looking kid today gets a commercial and then gets swept up by this machine, and they don’t have a real way to hone their talent.”

Those inside the machine see it differently, naturally. Van Der Beek says that doing a weekly TV show is “boot camp” for young actors and that he was doing Edward Albee on stage at the age of 16. Green has quietly grown up on screen (he was the young Woody Allen in “Radio Days”). Jackson has been acting since he was 9, cutting his screen teeth on the “Mighty Ducks” films.

“This generation seems incredibly willing to take risks, if they’re allowed,” says director Kumble.

Phillippe has tried to counter roles like a teen victim in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and victimizer in “Cruel Intentions” with smaller roles in films like “Playing by Heart” and the upcoming “Company Man.,”

“I never want to be just the leading man type,” says the intense, handsome young actor, who’s having a baby with his “Cruel Intentions” co-star Reese Witherspoon. “I did four scenes in ‘Company Man’ because I got to have a Russian accent and work with people like Sigourney Weaver and John Turturro. I did ‘Playing by Heart’ to work with Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands and Angelina Jolie. I care a lot about my credibility.”

Van Der Beek, 22, turned down numerous horror flicks--”It’s just not a story I want to tell”--and auditioned three times to win the lead in this year’s hit teen movie “Varsity Blues.” He is luckier than most in that he has a secure, weekly job on WB’s hit teen drama. But his stock has clearly risen since “Varsity,” in which he portrayed another practically perfect high school senior and reluctant football star.

“I really had to chase that part down,” Van Der Beek says. “But I liked the universal nature of the idea of standing up to a coach or a boss; my own brother had been a football player; and the character was very different from Dawson.”

Klein, who’s plays jocks in two movies--”Election” and “American Pie”--says it’s the small things that set the roles apart and let him grow. “In ‘Election,’ Paul [Klein’s character] is the school quarterback who has all this clout and doesn’t even know it. He doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. In ‘American Pie’ he’s again the jock but a bit more edgy.”

The actor understands why the young viewing audience seemingly can’t get enough of this kind of character. “I play someone just like so many other kids, trying to mature and understand his sexuality, basically in a nonthreatening way.”

Other young heartthrobs are making baby steps into more respectable fare. Josh Hartnett, 20, plays Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty’s son in “Town and Country,” to be released later this year. Jackson, who stars in the upcoming film “Gossip,” took a minor role in “Apt Pupil” to get himself associated with director Bryan Singer and actor Ian McKellen.

Paul Walker, a 25-year-old California beach blond, grabbed small roles in “Pleasantville” and the upcoming “Brokedown Palace” for the opportunity to speak the words of writer-director Gary Ross in the former, and share screen time with Claire Danes and Bill Pullman in the latter.

Still, they are lucky and they know it. They are numerous and they know it. But call them a pack at your own peril.

“We’re all sort of associated with each other but it’s not like we’re affiliated or anything,” says Green, who nevertheless has started a production company with Phillippe and Breckin Meyer, 24, of “Can’t Hardly Wait.” “It’s not like we have a clubhouse or anything,” adds Jackson.

What unites them is a pretty good idea of where they are now and where they want to be. And they are not one and the same. As Van Der Beek says, “we’re all getting offered a lot of teenage stuff right now, and it’s hard to say no to opportunities. Hey, 2 1/2 years ago I would have taken any job out of fear of unemployment. But I don’t know how many more scenes I can do standing at a hallway locker.”

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Hollywood Hunks at a Glance

Here’s a list of some of the young heartthrobs and their projects:

* RYAN PHILLIPPE--Films: “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “Cruel Intentions,” “54”

* JAMES VAN DER BEEK--TV: “Dawson’s Creek” Films: “Angus,” “Varsity Blues”

* FREDDIE PRINZE JR.--Films: “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “She’s All That,” “Wing Commander,” “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,” “House of Yes”

* SETH GREEN--TV: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Films: “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “Can’t Hardly Wait,” “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery”

* JOSHUA JACKSON--TV: “Dawson’s Creek” Films: “Cruel Intentions,” “Urban Legend,” “Scream 2”

* MATTHEW LILLARD--Films: “Wing Commander,” “She’s All That,” “Scream,” “SLC Punk”

* JAMES MARSDEN--TV: “Party of Five” Films: “Disturbing Behavior”

* PAUL WALKER--Films: “Meet the Deedles,” “Varsity Blues,” “Pleasantville,” “She’s All That”

* CHRIS KLEIN--Films: “Election,” “American Pie”

* BRECKIN MEYER--Films: “54,” “Clueless,” “Go”

* SCOTT SPEEDMAN--TV: “Felicity” Films: “Duet”

* HEATH LEDGER--Films: “10 Things I Hate About You”

* JOSH HARTNETT--Films: “The Faculty,” “Halloween H20”