THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512220060
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Profile
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
DELIVERING A BIG smooch can be a little daunting for a guy under the best of circumstances. Where does the nose go, anyway?
Just imagine trying it with a movie crew watching. Then imagine trying it for 30 takes, and you get an idea what Jonathan Taylor Thomas endured.
``Kissing? Well, yeah, I had to kiss a girl but, uh, to tell you the truth I would rather have been fishing,'' said Thomas, the 14-year-old star of ``Tom and Huck.'' ``It was a little, uh, embarrassing with all those people watching.''
The teen star of TV's ``Home Improvement'' has fans lined up for his second film, ``Tom and Huck,'' which opens in theaters today. He's Tom Sawyer opposite Brad Renfro (that Southern-talking lad in ``The Client'') as Huckleberry Finn.
Thomas is on the cover of just about every teen magazine, from Bop to 16 to Tiger Beat. He gets
50,000 fan letters a month on the ``Home Improvement'' set.
``My mom buys `those' magazines to make a scrapbook, but I don't really read them,'' he said.
What really made Hollywood sit up and take notice of young Thomas was ``Man of the House,'' a critically panned little movie that starred Chevy Chase. It grossed almost $10 million on opening weekend and was the No. 1 movie in the country. And no one thought it was Chevy Chase who was drawing the crowd. Jeffrey Katzenburg, then the head of the Disney studio, even telephoned young Thomas.
``He told me we were a hit and that he hoped we'd work together again soon.''
The next day, he got a gift from the studio - a fly rod, suiting his fishing fancy. The day after that, the studio sent a huger-than-huge home entertainment center.
The eighth-grader shuffled a little uncomfortably when we asked him about the whole phenomenon. ``It takes a little getting use to,'' he admitted. ``Yes, I do get recognized at the supermarket, but it's OK. Well, I just say `Hi' and tell them it's hard work. They don't want to hear that.''
Sitting in the Parker-Meridian Hotel in New York City, JTT, as his pals call him, showed no weariness after a whirlwind tour of the city to publicize the new movie.
So what's a cool kid from the cover of Tiger Beat magazine doing back in 1845 trying to pull that old gambit about whitewashing the fence?
``Kids today probably wouldn't fall for whitewashing the fence,'' Thomas said. ``Anyway, there'd be a spray-paint thing to do it. But it's a good yarn. I read `Tom Sawyer,' I guess, when I was in the third or fourth grade. It's a great role.''
JTT was born in Pennsylvania as the second son to Stephen and Claudine Weiss. He grew up in Sacramento, Calif., and got occasional jobs as a model (for print ads and industry stage shows).
After his mom and dad broke up, he changed his billing from Jonathan Weiss to Jonathan Taylor Thomas. In 1991, he landed the job on a new TV situation comedy, ``Home Improvement.''
There wasn't a great deal of attention until the third season of the show. Press reports stated that all three of the boys, goaded by their agents, called in sick - reportedly asking for a raise from $8,000 to $25,000 per show. The producers were not amused and announced that they'd recast with other actors if the boys didn't show up immediately.
The boys returned to work, and it was that year when the teenage girls began to notice ``the middle kid.''
He scored big as the voice of the young Simba in ``The Lion King.'' (One animator held him upside down to get the proper yells of tension for the wildebeest stampede.)
California law requires a certain number of school-work hours, even on the ``Tom and Huck'' set in Alabama.
``Have you ever tried writing a term paper in a cave? The last scenes of `Tom and Huck' were in a cave and I worked on my term paper in between scenes.''
He wants to go to college and eventually become a director. Jodie Foster and Ron Howard, both actors turned directors, are his idols. He's already visited Harvard and Yale to take a look.
He's already finished ``Pinocchio,'' co-starring Martin Landau and set to be released in the spring.
His favorite records are those of Hootie and the Blowfish and Dave Matthews. He also likes Led Zeppelin, The Doors and the Beastie Boys.
About that kiss . . .
In ``Tom and Huck,'' he gets his first screen kiss - from an older woman, Rachael Leigh Cook, age 15. She plays Becky Thatcher.
``I would rather have been fishing,'' he said, ``but Rachael was very nice. It's just that everyone was watching. One kiss would have been all right, but we had 30 takes on the scene.''
So what kind of a girl would he like?
``Most of all, right now, I'd like a girl who can bait a hook.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Rachel Leigh Cook are Tom and Becky
by CNB