Jesse Bradford is a movie rarity—a child actor who successfully flew below the radar screen of mainstream film while acting in it for over two decades. The antithesis of the chewed up and discarded child star, he turned in a series of solid adolescent performances that led to Steven Soderberg casting him in the lead in the 1993 drama King of the Hill. It was precisely then that Bradford became impossible to overlook. In a string of calculated commercial films like Bring it On, Clockstoppers and Swimfan, Bradford played squeaky-clean varsity youth to match the best of them, even when the films themselves were strictly, and sometimes forgettably, routine.

That’s all changed this year with Bradford’s emergence into adult roles—and two plum ones at that, in Chris Terrio’s urban ennui drama Heights and now Don Roos’ comic roundelay Happy Endings. Bradford digs into the roles of a withdrawn gay Manhattan actor and a gun-toting, wildly exaggerated extortionist on the take, respectively. He’s been liberated by these free-spirited, independent roles—and it shows in his diametrically opposed duo who are by turns both under and overstated.

He’s having a hell of a time all right in Happy Endings, an intersecting tale of tangled lives in modern Los Angeles, and god love him for doing it. As AFI bound filmmaker turned blackmail con man Nicky, he’s a comic and mysterious wildcard foil to Lisa Kudrow’s nervous, nervy victim. He’s having fun, and it shows. I caught up with Jesse to talk about movies, acting and… what else is there, anyway?

Lee Shoquist, Reel Movie Critic: Happy Endings is a wildly unpredictable film. I had no idea where this was going, which is unusual in this business because you usually think you’ve seen everything. Then something like this comes along and you’re happily surprised.

Jesse Bradford: It’s a very complex series of events and stories that fit together. I would say my plot line is one of the simplest compared to the position that Tom Arnold, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jason Ritter are put in.

LS: But those stories are a little more accessible. We’re never sure exactly what’s up with Nicky, Mamie and Javier.

JB: Yes. But a girl who might be pregnant by the father or the son, and the whole invitro-fertilization conspiracy theory that ends up bringing up this other kind of secret, all strikes me as more complex in terms of coincidence and that kind of thing, compared to (Nicky) just trying to get a movie made and seeing no reason why he shouldn’t be able to!

LS: I don’t know. Is that what he’s really trying to do?

JB: I think that’s what he’s really trying to do at the start. I think he’s a guy who is looking for attention and whatever else. But I believe that his intention to make a movie and go to AFI is absolutely genuine. But what it turns into is a desire to get Mamie to like him, and show her what he thinks she is doing wrong and why she’s be better off listening to him, with him in fact. So it goes from one to the other. But the idea of making a good movie is still very important to him, I think.

LS: Where do you think is the point in the film where the two of them cross that line? Where they actually do start to feel something for each other?

JB: When they are forced to start sitting in a room together ‘x’ amount of hours of the day editing, talking over footage creatively about something they are both involved in. I think it starts to slowly foster and turn into something until Nicky makes a move on her. I think Lisa did a great job playing this attitude where Mamie wants it but can’t get herself to actually do it. It builds throughout the movie.

LS: I think Lisa Kudrow has something brilliant on playing this sort of contemporary woman who is uncomfortable in her own skin. She did that in Roos’ other film, The Opposite of Sex, as well. I don’t want to call it mannered in the way she plays it, but there are mannerisms she nails that make that woman seem perfectly ‘now.’ You know what I’m getting at?

JB: Yeah. The other night we were at the closing night of the LA premiere of the movie, and she mentioned onstage that she felt her and Don had something in common, which is that they are both very repressed people. It’s an off-the-cuff remark that you say to a crowd to put them at ease, and it’s self-effacing. I thought it was an interesting comment because Don pulls this darkness and complexity out of her that people don’t know about because all they know is TV. But she’s got that! He’s pulled it out of her.

LS: That’s exactly what I think Nicky does in the film. He’s the catalyst for her.

JB: Yes, precisely. The catalyst for her, absolutely, to get her out of her sort of rut that she’s created for herself, that she’s really not even seeing as a rut. She’s with this guy, it’s going nowhere and she’s fooling herself. Nicky knows that and he calls a spade a spade because he wants her to be better than that, with him.

LS: This is your second film in release that plays with interlocking storylines and characters. Do you get a sense of the whole when you’re playing that character, or does it matter? Do you focus on just what you do or more?

JB: You read the script a couple of times and you’re very familiar with everybody’s stories. Then you show up and you do your work, and follow your storyline, because neither of us is thinking about what Jeff (the publicist in the other room) is doing right now, you know? It doesn’t matter. He’s involved with us.

LS: Somebody, somewhere is thinking about what Jeff is doing.

JB: (laughter) But not us!

LS: I’m going to be now for the rest of this interview.

JB: Yeah, exactly, now we both have to! But it just makes sense on a logical level that Nicky, stop me if I’m wrong¾ but I don’t think Nicky ever really meets Tom Arnold and Jason Ritter and Maggie Gyllenhaal. So to waste your time thinking about that is counterproductive to staying focused on what your character is going through at that time.

LS: Isn’t that interesting, though, if it weren’t for Nicky, Mamie would not end up married to whom she does.

JB: Yes! I think there’s a lot of that to life. I had hair extensions for this movie, and I’m still dating the girl that gave them to me. I’m in love with her. She’s awesome. If I didn’t get this job, I still might not have met her.

LS: It’s scary to think about, because you wonder just which corners you didn’t turn down or which plane you missed that might have led to something that would have affected the rest of your life. Or kept you from something.

JB: Exactly. You start to wonder what the purpose is to all of it.

LS: The idea of happy endings in Happy Endings is not exactly what we traditionally expect, is it? What I mean is that everyone here seems ‘happy’ when the truth comes out, which in some cases is painful. It certainly accounts for how disillusioned many of us can feel in life because we got fooled by fairy tale endings that never seem to really come.

JB: Yes. I think that’s a nice way to put it. I think I quoted a Rolling Stones song last night, and then earlier today I said it’s the difference between riding off into the sunset on a white horse and just kind of surviving and being thankful that you made it through whatever it was. Even when you’re riding off on that horse, you’ve still got to not fall off. I think it’s nice that the story is called Happy Endings, but it presents a bunch of people who, the last time you see them in the film, it’s not a fairy tale ending. It’s just a reasonable conclusion, and life goes on. Everybody gets what they need.

LS: You’ve been answering that question a lot. It’s like a sound byte now!

JB: (laughs) Yeah, it’s connect the dots! I’ll be answering it many more times, I’m sure!

LS: The movie explores a variety of social issues from invitro-fertilization to abortion to immigration to gay couples in happy relationships! But it manages to be often lightweight and amusing. Even Nicky, an extortionist with a gun who’s potentially dangerous, is funny.

JB: Yes. On a radio show today, I was talking about how it deals with abortion and serious gay relationships, and all of these things that make me proud because they would piss off the current administration, and we realized it we were making this film seem like a drama. And it’s a total comedy!

LS: I guess with a different tone it could look like an agenda film.

JB: Yes. But I think it deals with things that can and do happen in real life. I think Don and I share an outlook on life that allows us to laugh in the face of tragedy. I think that’s a great defense mechanism to have. It’s a great way to deal with the absurdity of life. Whether it’s handed you good or bad things, if you can stay above it by laughing at it, that’s great. So I feel like there’s an element of these people going through things that are deadly serious to them. But if you’re able to step out a little bit, it’s pretty funny.

LS: You seem very liberated, I suppose by both this film and Heights. You’re covering new ground as an adult actor. Is it hard to find stuff like this? There aren’t a lot of roles like this around. I have to think for you it’s a dilemma because you probably want to make blockbuster films, right? Do you want to make commercial films that are going to hit, just for the sake of your career?

JB: It certainly crosses your mind whether or not anyone is going to see your movie, yeah. But I’ve kind of reached a point where my main criteria for choosing work is based on material. So to me, when I read this script, I just was certain I wanted to be a part of it. It would be a shame if it sat in a can for the rest of its life and nobody saw it. This isn’t a huge blockbuster. It’s not going to be Batman. So it’s like as long as you’re sort of finishing the job and feeling like you dedicated your time and energy to something that was worth your time and energy, that helps me sleep better knowing that ‘x’ amount of people are going to come see this movie because it’s a huge movie. I don’t want to sound like an elitist or like I’m avoiding movies like that. That’s great. It helps build a whole different aspect of a career as an actor. But the most important aspect to me is doing the work that matters (to me), because you’re always going to be able to look yourself in the mirror. Being proud of what you did is the quintessential way of feeling good about it. That should be your focus.

LS: I know you’ve been making movies for a long time. You’re twenty-six and have been making films for over twenty years. It must have been a job for a long time growing up. When did it evolve into this kind of conscious choice thing you describe?

JB: I’ve grown up in this business so my taste and choices and ability to know what I want has been growing up. I was acting when I was a baby, so (I had) virtually no sense of self at that point, except ‘I’m hungry, I’m tired.’ So I would say that without pointing any fingers at any particular projects, I think it was kind of the mini-boom that I had right after Bring It On and the movies that I picked during that time, watching the finished result, going through the press and being a part of the process. I think that was the period where I started to really wrap my brain around what it was that I really wanted to do—what felt right to me and what didn’t. And sort of the resolution that, ‘From here on out, this is how I want to do this.’

LS: When you talk about not wanting to name the films and so forth, let’s look at one that I’m going to name: Swimfan. I thought the film was interestingly made. I know it was roundly criticized on a story level as a teenaged Fatal Attraction.

JB: It was! I don’t think that keeps it from being a good movie. Batman Begins is a Batman movie. There’s been a bunch of those.

LS: And it’s well constructed. But on an aesthetic level, I really dug it, and still do. It’s beautifully shot and made.

JB: I’m absolutely proud of it and my decision to be a part of it and what I did with the character. That’s one that I would go back and do again. I couldn’t really do it again because I’m twenty-six, but the same kind of story with the same people. I went through my usual process. I watched (director) John Polson’s prior film and I thought it was really great, very unique kind of storytelling and I said, ‘This guy is good!’ That’s something that I fully stand behind.

LS: Can you tell when you’re making a film if it’s going to be a success or not?

JB: It’s so hard to predict. I don’t envy the jobs of the guys in the studio who have to predict, ‘This one is going to make a lot of money, boss!’ Because it’s so hard to tell. They have all kinds of statistics and tracking and even that fails miserably sometimes.

LS: What do you love about acting more than anything else?

JB: It feels like a wholly artistic experience. It feels like you’re exercising emotions and demons. For instance, the scene where Mamie and I really yell at each other, that was a trip. When I finished work that day, I had nothing on my mind. It’s like doing an hour of yoga. You have this buzz later when you’ve had to be that emotional. It’s not real, but you’re trying to attach as much reality to it as possible and trying to kind of feel it as much as possible. I guess the term emotionally draining is applicable. If you’ve got some anger pent-up about god knows what has happened, and then you get to do a scene where you’re angry, and it’s coming out. It may not be directly attached to what it is supposed to be attached to, but people misplace their anger all the time! It’s an opportunity to let all this great stuff out.

The other thing I really like about acting is I really, really enjoy trying to make people laugh. I do that in my regular life and just whenever. I like to crack and joke and get a laugh out of people. I love being able to do that in a movie. Nicky was a perfect example of this. What made it even better is that he’s never trying to be funny. He’s dead serious.

LS: And there are almost no limits on him.

JB: Yes. He’s dead serious in everything, but you still know that from an outside perspective he’s going to come off funny. So it was fun to take his predicaments so seriously when you know that the audience is going to be laughing at you for being so serious. I like getting people to laugh and to spit out my emotions. I feel like I’m lucky enough to be supporting myself as an artist, which I think is where my head is at, and heart.

LS: Do you still audition?

JB: Oh, sure!

LS: But there have to be times when people know they want you upfront.

JB: I get a lot of both, but more often than not I have to fight for the stuff that’s really good. Makes perfect sense. The better the project, the better the caliber of people who want to be involved in it. Every once in awhile I get offers- like Heights was an offer. I didn’t have to read for Heights. I was so excited. I read it and I was just like, ‘nice.’

LS: That’s a really interesting film. To me, it says a lot about what it feels like to be young and sort of lost, or displaced in a big city that swallows you. There’s some sort of overriding tone or feeling in that film that’s at least as strong as the characters. Do you know what I mean?

JB: I do. Totally. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it too.

LS: If you weren’t making movies, what would you be doing?

JB: I think there’s a good chance I’d be trying to be a musician.

LS: What do you play?

JB: Guitar. Thirteen years. So to some degree I actually know what I’m doing.

LS: Really? Do you write your own stuff?

JB: Yeah. So I feel like maybe I’d be doing that. But I always felt like if I had to get a real, real job because I would hardly count rock star as a real job, one of my main criteria would be that I get to be outdoors. I like building things and working with my hands and taking things apart. So the idea of things like that come to mind.

LS: Seriously, acting on film sets must be a great gig. You get to be with creative people all the time and then you break down and start all over again with new ones, before it gets routine.

JB: It is weird. You get very close to people for a short amount of time, and then along the way there are people who end up in your life for the long-term, that follow you out of the movie somehow. There are so many people you get really close to, and then you may never talk to them again. It absolutely happens. I’m not talking about actors and actresses. I’m talking about everybody on the set. You can get really tight with people. There’s this whole camaraderie thing that happens. I can think of people- I think to myself, ‘Oh, man, they are so f$*king cool.’ And yet it just kind of goes. And everybody in the business understands that too. I think most people get that. That’s how it works. It’s nomadic in that respect. You move on to six other projects and so are (they). Every once in awhile you take somebody with you or they take you. You take each other.

LS: What role would you like to play that you haven’t?

JB: I want to play Stevie Ray Vaughn. I really want to play Steve Ray Vaughn. I would love that. I think I could do it.

LS: I bet you could.