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Before launching into
the new 'Star Trek,'
Anton Yelchin raises
teen spirits in'Charlie
Bartlett' BY MrcnAEL crr,Tz
et's just say that clevel precocious rebellion
isn't too much of a stretch for young actor An-
ton Yelchin In his new movie, "Charlie Bartlett,"
opening Friday, Yelchin plays m upper-crust lon-
er with a zonked-out but loving mom (Hope Da-
vis) who's forced to attend public school but soon
wins over eyeryone ir la Fenis Bueller with his noncha-
lant cool and a steady supply of prescription drugs
In real life, when he was 4. the Russian-bom Yelchin
reportedly said "nyet" to his famous skating-star par-
ents: He prefened the stage to the ice rink
That led to a breakout role at age l0 in "Hearts in At-
lantis," opposite Anthony Hopkins; loads of Blrest-star
roles on everj,thing from "ER" to a lead role on the ca-
ble show "Huff'; David Duchovny's directorial debut,
"House of D"; and
the plum part of nav-
igator Pavel Chekov
in J.J Abrms'now-
f,lrning "Star Trek'
movie reboot, open-
ing May 2009 ,(For
nonllrekkies, Chek-
oY was the Starship
Enterprise's youth-
ful helmsman with
the Davy Jones 'do,
played in the 1966-'68 series by Walter Koenig )
But although Yelchin graduated from high school
last summer and has a burgeoning movie career, he can
still get passionate about the negative vibes of a facto-
ry-like public school system that doesn't encoura€ie cre-
ativity. Call it residual buzz fuom "Bartleft "
"High school is such an unhealthy environment,"
says Yelchin, who rums 19 in March "Teenagers are
like atoms when they're moving at hundreds of miles
an hour and bouncing off each othef, Everybody's got
such a crazlr homonal drive and reacting to each oth-
er differently md getting upset over little things High
school puts all these potential explosions in one place "
Yelchin couldn't understand why anyone would care
if he was wandering hallways when the class he was
skippingwas awaste of time "'t ok, I'mwatching
"Mulan" in govemment class,'" he'd tell a hall monitor
at his school in Sheman Oaks, Calif , expecting them
to agree he was better off outside (Nothing against the
Disney movie, he says, but "Network' or (M*A+S*H*'
or "Apocal)pse Nou/'would've been better choices )
So it may seem the confident, rule-breaking Char-
lie - a guy who charms his school's principal (Robert
Domey Jr) while losing his virginity to the principal's
daughter (Kat Demings) and launching a successful
business providing therapy and drugs to the students -
would be a breeze for Yelchin Not so
"Charlie's really an extraordinary person," says
Yelchin about the character "He has a kind of oDtimism
I could never understand Actually, working on ihe film
helped me bn confrdence in general just from the sim-
ple physical perspective of not slouching My impres-
sion is that confident people don't slouch "
Yelchin spent his own high school graduation in a
friend's rehemsal studio jamming to classic Rolling
Stones songs. But what would Charlie have done?
"He'd have a party for the people who couldn't go to
the cool party," says Yelchin confdently. O
the new 'Star Trek,'
Anton Yelchin raises
teen spirits in'Charlie
Bartlett' BY MrcnAEL crr,Tz
et's just say that clevel precocious rebellion
isn't too much of a stretch for young actor An-
ton Yelchin In his new movie, "Charlie Bartlett,"
opening Friday, Yelchin plays m upper-crust lon-
er with a zonked-out but loving mom (Hope Da-
vis) who's forced to attend public school but soon
wins over eyeryone ir la Fenis Bueller with his noncha-
lant cool and a steady supply of prescription drugs
In real life, when he was 4. the Russian-bom Yelchin
reportedly said "nyet" to his famous skating-star par-
ents: He prefened the stage to the ice rink
That led to a breakout role at age l0 in "Hearts in At-
lantis," opposite Anthony Hopkins; loads of Blrest-star
roles on everj,thing from "ER" to a lead role on the ca-
ble show "Huff'; David Duchovny's directorial debut,
"House of D"; and
the plum part of nav-
igator Pavel Chekov
in J.J Abrms'now-
f,lrning "Star Trek'
movie reboot, open-
ing May 2009 ,(For
nonllrekkies, Chek-
oY was the Starship
Enterprise's youth-
ful helmsman with
the Davy Jones 'do,
played in the 1966-'68 series by Walter Koenig )
But although Yelchin graduated from high school
last summer and has a burgeoning movie career, he can
still get passionate about the negative vibes of a facto-
ry-like public school system that doesn't encoura€ie cre-
ativity. Call it residual buzz fuom "Bartleft "
"High school is such an unhealthy environment,"
says Yelchin, who rums 19 in March "Teenagers are
like atoms when they're moving at hundreds of miles
an hour and bouncing off each othef, Everybody's got
such a crazlr homonal drive and reacting to each oth-
er differently md getting upset over little things High
school puts all these potential explosions in one place "
Yelchin couldn't understand why anyone would care
if he was wandering hallways when the class he was
skippingwas awaste of time "'t ok, I'mwatching
"Mulan" in govemment class,'" he'd tell a hall monitor
at his school in Sheman Oaks, Calif , expecting them
to agree he was better off outside (Nothing against the
Disney movie, he says, but "Network' or (M*A+S*H*'
or "Apocal)pse Nou/'would've been better choices )
So it may seem the confident, rule-breaking Char-
lie - a guy who charms his school's principal (Robert
Domey Jr) while losing his virginity to the principal's
daughter (Kat Demings) and launching a successful
business providing therapy and drugs to the students -
would be a breeze for Yelchin Not so
"Charlie's really an extraordinary person," says
Yelchin about the character "He has a kind of oDtimism
I could never understand Actually, working on ihe film
helped me bn confrdence in general just from the sim-
ple physical perspective of not slouching My impres-
sion is that confident people don't slouch "
Yelchin spent his own high school graduation in a
friend's rehemsal studio jamming to classic Rolling
Stones songs. But what would Charlie have done?
"He'd have a party for the people who couldn't go to
the cool party," says Yelchin confdently. O