The accidental movie star: Gig Harbor's Josh Lucas

The Disappearing Act

The biography in the press kit describes him as having played a string of "cads and ne'er-do-wells." Like a lot of things you read in press kits, this isn't quite true: If you remember Josh Lucas at all, you probably remember him as Martin Hansen, Russell Crowe's Princeton rival in "A Beautiful Mind."

But Lucas, it seems, would actually prefer that you not remember him. In describing the eclectic mix of movies he's done in the past few years — roles in 15 different films since 1997 — he says almost wistfully that "what I loved doing was disappearing." He elaborates: "If you're not a movie star, you don't have any baggage."

The idea that he might accidentally become a movie star doesn't exactly thrill him, but there may be no way out of it. He's now starring with Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama," his first romantic lead. He also has a major role in Ang Lee's upcoming "The Hulk." And if ever a movie seemed like a sure bet to do about a billion dollars worth of business, it's "The Hulk."

From Gig Harbor to Hollywood

After a childhood spent moving around the South, Lucas landed in Gig Harbor. "My parents were very serious anti-nuclear activists," he explains. The family moved frequently, building grass-roots support for the anti-nuclear movement, before ending up in the Northwest. "I watched my father be arrested a lot." It wasn't an easy way to grow up — "you feel incredibly different" — but in retrospect, he's very proud of what they did.

At Gig Harbor High School, Lucas joined the debate team. The coach — "truly an extraordinary personality" — had a rare knack: He somehow made debate "cooler" than football. Gig Harbor ruled the state for years; Lucas himself was state champion for dramatic interpretation. Before debate, he had never thought of being an actor.

Another thing Lucas picked up in Gig Harbor was his love of art films. The local library, he discovered, had a stash of esoteric features. He cultivated a taste for movies like "Betty Blue," and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."

The Hulk inside all of us

If Lucas manages to escape movie stardom for now, he'll just have to face the problem again next year when "The Hulk" comes out. He describes it as "massive artistry inside a massively commercial film," and also as the most fun he's ever had on a set. Director Ang Lee, says Lucas, is "absolutely commanding," but vulnerable at the same time, "a Yoda-lika Zen master." The message of the movie: "There's a hulk inside all of us."

— Mary Brennan