Just like fellow young actors Jamie Bell, Lou Taylor Pucci, Emile Hirsch and Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano started out young in acting. While his contemporaries may have starred in pleasant and even comedic films, Dano's acting debut was a bit different.

Says filmcritic.com:

"Dano is quiet and at first glance seems so withdrawn as to be transparent. We’re so used to child actors whose dramatic choices are broad and obvious (calling Haley Joel!), it’s surprising to see one who actually listens throughout any given scene. The restraint is admirable. "

Dano went on to win four acting awards for this role. The indie film opened many doors for the young actor, and since then, he's found a way to excel in every role he undertakes. He was awesome in the Emile Hirsch-starrer, The Girl Next Door, although he only played a supporting part. He also held his own admirably against Gael Garcia Bernal in the James Marsch film, The King.

One of the most anticipated movies this year is Jumper, starring Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell and Samuel L. Jackson. It's an awesome sci-fi thriller, the only spoiler is having Hayden Christensen play the lead.

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I can't help it but I think Tom Sturridge could have played Davey (the lead character) better. Not that Hayden Christensen is a bad actor - he's not. He was quite decent in Shattered Glass, the true story of a young journalist who fabricated the stories he wrote for a political journal. But he sucked big time in Star Wars, not to mention the recent disaster, the absurd and inept Awake. He simply doesn't ring any bells for me - and I'm not talking about Jamie Bell if that's what comes to mind! Bell rocks and he has proven this time and again.

It would have been great to see two outstanding Brits fight it out in this sci-fi film. Based on the Steven Gould novel, Jumper tells the story of a young man from a broken home who discovers that he has the ability to teleport. In his quest to find the man he believes is responsible for the death of his mother, the kid draws the attention of the National Security Agency and discovers another kid with the same abilities.

If it's any consolation, Sturridge will play one of the leads in the upcoming movie Maestro. Set in the 1960s in the Australian outback, "Maestro" is the story of a young pianist (Sturridge) and his piano teacher (Klaus Maria Brandauer).

"Oh my God, anyone that would release an album as an actor is the biggest fool ever" but I happen to have sung all my life before I was an actor. Why are musicians allowed to become actors? No one ever gives them flack for that," says the actress.

That seems to be the proper reply to those who keep on asking why she has to sing? Just because she replaced Pink in the movie, she has to take all this flack? It seems pathetic to me.

"You have to keep reminding yourself it's not about money, because there is a lot of money to be made in this business if you're willing to do whatever. But that's not what I'm thinking about. I continue only to take movies because I love the script and because I really want to do it," says the actress.

Other projects for the actress include two high profile movies. She will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in M. Night Shyamalan's environmental thriller The Happening, and opposite Jim Carrey in the romantic comedy Yes Man.

Armed with nervous energy? That seems to be a perfect description for Ben Whishaw. The talented British actor is on the verge of becoming one of today's most important leading men. But unlike some of his comtemporaries who relish the limelight and the tag of being a 'celebrity', the 27-year-old actor favors a more subdued public persona.

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"I went to a youth theatre near where I live, where I'm from, and the guy who ran the youth theatre knew an agent in London, a child agent, and took me along to meet her. I think I met her when I was 14 and sat on her books for a couple of years doing nothing, and I got my first job when I was 17. Then I did bits and pieces of work, still at school at the time, doing A-levels. I thought, I'll do my A-levels then I'll just work. I'll work as an actor. So I finished my A-levels. Nothing. Not a single audition, I didn't get a job. Nothing. I thought, this is hopeless, so I decided to apply for Rada and finished last May [2004," replied Ben to the question of how he started acting.

It may not have been an 'explosive' beginning, but once Whishaw started playing Hamlet, that's when things started to heat up...

Says Pucci about acting:

"I have always, always, always been really into experiencing things and not teaching somebody, because I can’t be taught. I tried to go to acting lessons and stuff like that and it doesn’t work for me. Some people can, some people are awesome with it… but I mean I could never go to college for acting or something like that. I would hate it. I would completely be uninterested and I’d never act again. That’s how I did theater. I just did it. I just randomly did it one day. My parents made me audition for a community theater and I did that for like a year and a half, but it was just that experience of doing it for a year and a half and then I got the hang of it and knew what was going on. I just watched."

This movie is one of my favorites and its called Fifty Pills. This movie is both funny and sexy and Pucci really digs his role. AND it has Kristen Bell!

He has the looks, the charm and a voice that hypnotizes young teenage girls. French rock singer Pierrick Lilliu may have been the runner-up in the French reality show Nouvelle Star (French Idol) in 2005, but he has since out shone the eventual winner in more ways than one. The talented Lilliu is the eldest of three siblings: his younger brother Nicolas has also recently entered the music scene. With a husky rock-and-roll kinda voice, Pierrick proved that he has the talent and the looks to outlast the competition.

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And now he’s also into acting! In LE HEROS DE LA FAMILLE, Lilliu plays one of the lead characters, Fabrice. He joins a star-studded cast which includes Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Lanvin and Emmanuelle Béart.

"Le héros de la famille" is the story of a cabaret in Nice called "Le perroquet bleu" (The blue parrot). The innkeeper, Gabriel(le) dies at the beginning of the movie and leave his business to his godchildren : Nino and Marianne, whose father (the magician played by Gérard Lanvin) had been taken under Gabriel's wing when he was fifteen years old. After the reading of the will, the fate of the Blue Parrot is in their hands.

[ More of Pierrick Lilliu ] [ Official Movie site for Le Heros ]

Yeah, he's the guy from the Harry Potter series and his name is Sean Biggerstaff! As Oliver Wood, Quidditch Captain, the Scottish actor became a household name when he was cast in the first two Potter films. He's also one of Alan Rickman's proteges and went on to play 'Tom' in the film The Winter Guest, directed by Rickman himself. But he's not only into mainstream cinema. Biggerstaff also plays the lead in Sean Ellis' award-winning film, Cashback.

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More on this movie: When art student Ben Willis is dumped by his girlfriend Suzy, he develops insomnia. To pass the long hours of the night, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket. There he meets a colorful cast of characters, all of whom have their own 'art' in dealing with the boredom of an eight-hour shift. Ben's art is that he imagines himself stopping time. This way, he can appreciate the artistic beauty of the frozen world and the people inside it - especially Sharon, the quiet checkout girl, who perhaps holds the answer to solving the problem of Ben's insomnia.

You might remember Michael Angarano in the film Lords of Dogtown where he played Sid, one of the legendary Z-Boys who pioneered the revival of skateboarding in the 1980s. Angarano, together with Emile Hirsch, Victor Rasuk and Heath Ledger, received acclaim for this movie directed by Catherine Hardwicke.

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But Angarano has been in the limelight since he was just 12 years old.

His critically acclaimed performances include being Meryl Streep's son Nick in Music of the Heart and young Red Pollard in Seabiscuit. In Almost Famous, he playd the younger version of the main character, William Miller, a teenage music fan who is inspired by the bands of the time and lands himself a magazine assignment to interview and follow a new band. A string of diverse roles followed including Disney's Sky High, where Michael finds himself the son of two superheroes, but mysteriously without any powers of his own. [ click for more ]

Maintaining his momentum as one of today's most sought-after young actors, Angarano will be soon seen in three upcoming films, including Black Irish, The Bondage and Snow Angels.

If you're not into arthouse and foreign films, then you probably won't have heard of Giovanna Mezzogiorno. She happens to be one of Italy's most amazing actresses, but has yet to make a movie in Hollywood. You might know the more popular Monica Bellucci, who made a number of high-profile films, but Mezzogiorno has yet to make her name in American cinema.

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This is about to change. Pitting talents with the likes of Javier Bardem, John Leguizamo and Benjamin Bratt, Giovanna will play the heroine in the film adaptation of Gabriel Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera. As Fermina Daza, she plays a strong-willed woman who is loved and adored by two different men. But instead of the usual 'damsel in distress' type of role, Giovanna's Fermina is fiercely independent and does not depend on men in order to survive.

It was just recently when Cinematical invited its viewers to see Carice van Houten in Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book, which we think is one of the most engrossing films of 2006. Van Houten, although a well-known actress in Holland, has yet to make a movie in Hollywood. It's great news then that Van Houten is now on board for at least three high-profile films: Valkyrie with Tom Cruise, Body of Lies with Leonardo diCaprio and Russell Crowe and Repossession Mambo with Jude Law.

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But what kind of roles will she be playing?

“ is Van Houten just a minor character who is left behind? That's what it sounds like, and if you look at most of these American roles she's getting they're either labeled simply wife or love-interest. Considering all that she got to do in Black Book, it seems Hollywood could be missing the boat on why she's worth casting. If Van Houten does end up wasted or underused in these roles, it wouldn't be the first time a young European actress came into favor and was then miscast. “

“I never believed in going to America with my show reel and knocking on every agent's door. I'm way too insecure and too proud. I have a little more security to think that maybe I can do something outside my own country. I would like to because there's not so much to do anymore for me now. I've done a lot and now I've worked with Paul. What more is there to get in my own country?” says van Houten.

But given her set of talents, it might not be that bad at all. Surely, in the end, it’s the performance that counts…