Josh Peck "Mans Up" in The Wackness

If you are used to seeing cute actor Josh Peck in the "Drake and Josh" TV series, get ready for a more adult Josh with a dramatic flair in the off-center dramady The Wackness. Peck plays Luke, a misfit teen in 1994 New York. Everyone loves him for one reason. He's a drug dealer. Luke desperately wants a life and a girlfriend but the object of his affections Stephanie (Juno's Olivia Thirlby) seems to be just toying with him. Will his last Summer before college give him what he longs for? "Life has a funny way of turning you into the one thing you don't want to be".

We sat down with Josh in Beverly Hills recently and got the real candid and personal scoop on his feelings about doing his first real love scene (he was scared to death!), a recent heartbreak that helped fuel his acting in the film, his awesome costars, including Olivia and the amazing Sir Ben Kingsley, his own teen angst, the new "Drake and Josh" movie and a lot more. Pull up a chair and join us....

TeenHollywood: Josh, you grew up in New York, right?

Josh: I did, in Hell's Kitchen.

TeenHollywood: How old were you in '94?

Josh: I was eight so I was still rockin' Bugle Boys and watchin' Power Rangers, had lights in my shoes, had Joey Lawrence albums and Spice Girls lollypops [we laugh].

TeenHollywood: Being an adult now, what was it like to submerse yourself in a culture you only got to know as a kid?

Josh: Good question. I found that it was necessary for me to not only look at things I remembered as a child from 1994 but what were adults talking about? I remember Pulp Fiction was huge in '94. Everybody was talking about it. [A lot of it] was just language. Then they didn't say things like we say now like 'what's good, man?' Then they were saying 'that's mad crazy, son' or something like that. So getting re-immersed in that kind of language really helped me.

TeenHollywood: Were you actively looking for something to change your image because you've been on Nickelodeon shows? Were you looking for a more dramatic role you could shine in?

Josh: It wasn't some decision that was really premeditated. I just responded so heavily to the material and I felt like I could portray this character in an honest way and that I shared a lot of his weaknesses. My biggest fear is to be typecast and it's very easy in that arena [TV] because you're in people's homes every day, it's easy to become accustomed to seeing people in only one respect. For this, I just felt like it was a movie that I would like to see. I just wanted to be a part of it. But the "Drake and Josh aspect of my life has been so gratifying. That show has made me the person that I am and I'm forever indebted to the people that watch it. They're made it a hit and I don't think there is any greater privilege than making kids laugh.

TeenHollywood: Aren't you also making a "Drake and Josh" film?

Josh: We're making a movie in August, a TV movie. It's not going to be in New York [as constantly rumored]. It's a Christmas movie that we're going to shoot in August but I tried to get some Hanukah, Jewish undertones but I don't think that'll happen. I guess the Festival of Lights isn't going to happen this year in the "Drake and Josh" family.

TeenHollywood: We read that you recently had a heartbreak right before making this film. Did that fuel your character, the way you developed him?

Josh: Absolutely. I'd recently gotten my heart broken [Kelly Louie?] and it's so tough. You know, with your first love, you don't know whether you're gonna live or die. Oh, it's awful and I was just plastered to my mom's couch eating rice krispy treats.

TeenHollywood: So you really could relate to this character!

Josh: Oh yeah. You hear songs on the radio that you usually gloss over and then you start listening to the lyrics and you're like 'that guy knows my pain' [we laugh] and it's usually a John Mayer or Justin Timberlake song. So, in that respect, absolutely, but in an odd way, if you're doing something artistic or if it's a creative endeavor, you can draw from your inner life. If you're able to go to those places, it's really where the muck comes from and that's what people come to see. It's like one of these divine gifts I was given in an odd way. It was so fresh for me and I could impart that with Luke.

TeenHollywood: Talk about divine gifts, can you talk about meeting and working with Sir Ben Kingsley?

Josh: Oh man, what do tell a basketball player that's going to go play with Michael Jordan? Make sure you tie your shoelaces? He's been my favorite actor since I can remember loving acting. I was introduced to him with a movie called Searching for Bobby Fischer and I just think it's one of his greatest performances. This is John's [director/writer Jonathan Levine] second movie and Olivia [Thirlby] and I are very much taking our first steps in, hopefully, what will be a semi-long career and so he made it comfortable for us. He said to me the first day of shooting 'This part chose you. You didn't choose this part' and gave me a hug. I think he knew that a good amount of vulnerability needed to be there so that we could feel comfortable in front of each other in the scenes. Otherwise, it would have translated on screen.

TeenHollywood: Today, he called you an equal and said you were a joy to work with. He said you were a 'true equal'.

Josh: I don't know if I'm going to recover [laugh]. The fact that he knows my name is the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

TeenHollywood: He thinks you're as cool as he is.

Josh: Oh man!

TeenHollywood: So we'll call you 'Sir Josh' from now on.

Josh: Yeah, Commodore Peck, Admiral Peck.

TeenHollywood: Did you relate to the other angst in Luke's life; family messes, not having friends, etc.?

Josh: Absolutely. It's just a tough time in a young man's life I think. I think females may go through it a bit sooner than us guys do because you're obviously the superior species in every way. It's true. Raised by a single mother, come on, I'm biased. But, for a young man, you're 18 and you can vote, you can go to war but what constitutes being a man? Is it experience? Is it relationships? So, I really identified with Luke in that way. I was 20 years old when we shot it so I feel like I was just at the tail end of it but it was still quite fresh. I really wanted to impart that.

TeenHollywood: What kind of research did you do for this? Talking to young drug dealers?

Josh: Really, the core of who Luke is rooted in a universal theme of the need for redemption and taking a moral inventory and figuring out what to do when the support system that should be supporting you, isn't. That was what I most focused on but as far as the drug dealing goes, growing up as a teenager in this world, I think you just run into some nefarious cats. It's more me taking tidbits from their mannerisms. There is the 'lookout' aspect of anybody who is doing something they probably shouldn't be. It's hustler's paranoia I call it. So things like that.

TeenHollywood: You and Olivia have a really steamy scene in this... [Note: You really don't "see" anything].

Josh: How 'bout that, right? Well there was one that was more steamy than that one.

TeenHollywood: Whoa. Did you two at least get to hang out a little bit beforehand and get to know each other?

Josh: Oh God, I was petrified! It was so horrifying. We'd met two weeks before. We'd never had a sex scene before, never been naked before another actor. I don't know who I've been naked in front of. I might try to avoid being naked in front of myself. We shot at the beginning of the day and they were saving it for an afternoon scene so they could get that beautiful, magic hour light and it was right after lunchtime and I didn't eat any lunch because I didn't want to be bloated [laughs].

TeenHollywood: I thought that was a girl thing...

Josh: I was worried! I did about 50 push-ups in my trailer beforehand and kind of dropped the robe and, with the robe I thought the world was going to come down with it and it didn't, thank God! I just hoped for the best. But I think it was a bonding experience. It added a lot to our relationship. It's much easier to fantasize now after that [laughter].

TeenHollywood: Other than the "Drake and Josh" film, what do you have coming up next?

Josh: I did this movie with Olivia over the winter called Safety Glass and I did this other movie on Cape Cod called American Primitive that we just finished in February. We'll see. I play a fisherman in the '70's from Cape Cod so I got to have an awesome JFK accent. It was pretty enjoyable. It's a blessing that this movie is so good but it makes it tough to find something else to do next because, I want to do something that compliments the material.

TeenHollywood: What are you looking for in a project then?

Josh: Something new. I wouldn't be opposed to playing a really low-life type guy, actually. I haven't done that so that would be something I could sink my teeth into.

TeenHollywood: This film doesn't end on a squeaky clean note. Nobody gives up drugs. They are what they are. Do you have a statement about that?

Josh: The characters live in a real world and I think they have real world problems. For people that use drugs pretty habitually at a time in their life and then maybe, later in their life, are able to find that it doesn't work anymore and put it down, for them time will tell. I think I'm part of more of the other sect where I'm too into a good thing so I just have to abstain from it all so I don't break my mom's heart. But, for these characters, at the end of the day, I'm kind of okay with the fact that maybe they smoke some pot. I hope they're okay despite their indulgence.

TeenHollywood: Well, it's not your job in this film to show people turning around anyway. That's not the story you're telling.

Josh: Right. I think the ultimate goal is achieved in the movie which is 'finding your emotional place'.

TeenHollywood: I was going to ask do you have more of a 'dopeness' or a 'wackness' view towards life but I think it's pretty obvious...

Josh: Oh, man. I live in the wackness a lot of times but then I'll do something dope like hitting a three pointer while playing basketball and I'll be like 'that's the dopeness right there' because it's so rare.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.