Actor Dane DeHaan turned down the role of James Dean in the film “Life” five times before he started listening to his wife, who reminded him that he says he wants to play challenging parts. “I realized I was operating out of fear,” he said.

DeHaan–who has appeared in such movies as “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” “Kill Your Darlings” and “The Place Beyond the Pines,” said he has had a poster of Dean on his wall since college because the star of “Rebel Without a Cause” is one of his favorite actors. DeHaan was interviewed by actor Patrick Wilson in a Q&A Sunday as part of the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey.

DeHaan, 29, finally accepted the part in “Life,” which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, on the condition that he have a dialect coach, to help him with Dean’s accent, and a trainer, because he gained 25 pounds for the role.

“I’m proud of it,” he said of “Life,” which also stars Robert Pattinson. “It’s a really beautiful, slow, introspective movie.”

DeHaan said he benefitted tremendously from looking much younger than his years. When the Allentown, Pa., native was 22 years old, he was a trained actor who had graduated from University of North Carolina School of the Arts, but he looked 16 and was competing for roles against teenagers with little or no training.

One of his early parts was in the HBO series “In Treatment,” which was watched closely by people in the entertainment industry though not by a large number of people nationwide, he said.

Wilson, 41, who starred in the CBS drama “A Gifted Man” in 2011-12, and DeHaan both said they like appearing in independent movies, but Wilson said he accepted a part in the new season of the FX television series “Fargo,” which begins in September, because it’s important to be in something that people are watching.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/05/04/dane-dehaan-turned-down-james-dean-role-5-times-out-of-fear/
Via: @imbabysky