Don’t let the dimpled-chin baby face fool you. Dan Byrd is older than he looks. And a lot more adult for his 18 years–almost half of which have been spent acting on stage and screen.
As Hilary Duff’s geeky best friend, aspiring actor Carter in “A Cinderella Story,” bespectacled Byrd attends high school humming showtunes and dressed in a host of way-out costumes. He’s, well, a tad different from other kids.
Byrd, who was born in Chicago but moved to Marietta, Ga., at age 4, empathizes with Carter: “It was sometimes an effort trying to strike a balance between being able to pursue my acting interests and relating to my classmates–especially growing up in Georgia, where being an actor is completely foreign territory and something nobody knows much about. But differences are what make people interesting.”
After hitting Hollywood at 13 as a cast member of Lifetime TV’s “Any Day Now” with Annie Potts, Byrd went on to score parts in features–including “28 Days” with Sandra Bullock–and more TV shows, including the recent mini-series “Salem’s Lot” as a vampire slayer.
Byrd is quick to say that Carter in “A Cinderella Story” is “a complete departure from the suicidal teens and troubled youths I usually play.”
Carter also is Byrd’s first shot at comedy.
“That was very intimidating. With drama, all I have to do is be as real as possible. But with comedy, you have to be real and funny too. That’s a whole new concept to worry about. And you’ve got to be funny without looking like you’re trying to be funny.”
Overall, Byrd enjoyed working with a cast that, for a change, was mostly his own age.
“I’m used to being the only kid in the group,” he said. “But this was fun because it felt like a peer situation. That was cool. Instead of everyone going off to their separate trailers at lunchtime, we stayed together. We all became pretty close at the end.”
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Edited by Curt Wagner ([email protected])