Alden Ehrenreich's big break almost wasn't. The 23-year-old star of the best-selling fantasy novel turned blockbuster movie Beautiful Creatures initially dismissed the role of narrator Ethan Wate. "I thought it was just a rip-off of all those other teen movies," he says. But when actor Jack O'Connell dropped out at the last minute, Alden was called in, and the producers begged him to read the script. "So I did, and after three pages, I knew I wanted to do the movie." The character of Ethan, a small-town boy mesmerized by mysterious new girl Lena (Alice Englert), who comes from a family of magical casters, "just jumped out at me," he says. He was also drawn to the fact that the movie's writer and director, Richard LaGravenese, was committed to elevating the fantasy genre. "The magic in the film isn't for spectacle; it's an expression of what these people are going through emotionally," he explains.
He got the part one morning in mid-April, and by that afternoon he was on a plane from his home in Los Angeles to New Orleans, where shooting was to begin in a week. Luckily, Alden had veteran costars Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, and Viola Davis to help him out. Among other words of wisdom, Alden recalls, "Jeremy Irons told me to get a massage every week."
Alden has a history of being taken under the wings of those more seasoned than him. It was Steven Spielberg who discovered the actor at age fourteen, after a silly video he made for a friend's bat mitzvah caught the director's eye. Spielberg was impressed and hooked him up with an agent. Alden auditioned here and there, but it wasn't until his last semester of high school that he was cast in his first major role, as a lead in Francis Ford Coppola's 2009 film Tetro. He went on to attend NYU, and after graduating last year, he moved back to L.A.—and hit the ground running.
During this brief window before a flurry of high-profile projects (in addition to Beautiful Creatures, he'll appear in next month's Stoker as well as an upcoming Woody Allen movie), Alden is bracing for the fact that his star is likely to rise in a major way. "I'm using this time," he says, "to nail the furniture to the floor. But who knows? All my furniture could end up staying where it is." We suggest buying a hammer and getting to work.
