‘N Sync’s Lance Bass and Joey Fatone are busy guys. So busy, in fact, it’s a near miracle this interview happened at all.
And this is their off-season, having just finished wrapping up a world tour for their latest CD, Celebrity (which sold over 1.9 million copies its first week alone).
Not that the boys are resting.
On the contrary, Bass and Fatone —two-fifths of what is arguably the world’s hottest boy band — are hard at work promoting their film debut in the upcoming romantic comedy, On the Line (in theaters Friday).
The movie finds Bass in the lead role as the lovelorn Kevin, a guy who goes to extreme measures to hunt down a mysterious girl he met while riding Chicago’s L-Train. Fatone plays his best pal, the gregarious Rod.
“Basically, the story’s about a guy named Kevin who meets this girl on the train, and basically doesn’t get to know her number or her name, but they have so much in common,” Fatone said in a phone interview. “So he starts to write some posters (looking for her) and puts them up on the street.”
A local newspaper picks up on it and does a feature story on Kevin’s search. Before long, Kevin is bombarded by women who are touched by his sweetness.
“His friends come up with this scheme and say, ‘Hey, let’s go out on all of these dates with these girls and we’ll pretend that we’re Kevin,’” Fatone said.
Naturally, it backfires when one of Kevin’s friends goes out with the real girl, causing her to think it’s some sort of scam.
While both Fatone and Bass said they immensely enjoyed starring in the film, they initially didn’t plan it that way.
“What happened with this is I had just started my production company, Happy Place, and immediately before we even had the doors open we found a script, On the Line, that we loved,” Bass said. “Actually, I didn’t want to be in it at all. I didn’t have time.”
After considering various actors, ranging from Freddie Prinze Jr. to Ryan Phillippe, the movie studio eventually persuaded Bass to take the lead.
“We were going out shopping it to different studios and we took it to Miramax, and they loved the script and wanted me to be in it. I asked Joey to come in because there was a character, Rod, that’s just like him,” Bass said. It was very fast. It was probably the quickest turnaround of any movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
While Bass may have been a perfect fit for the role, he doesn’t consider himself to have much in common with his character.
“I believe in a way I’m like him — he’s kind of a hopeless romantic, very focused on his career,” he said. “But I think that’s where it ends. The way we differ is that I would not go to the lengths that he did to find this girl again. I believe if I lost someone, I’d be like ‘Oh well, that’s it.’ I would never put posters up in a city.”
Working on the film proved to be challenging, given the boy’s hectic schedule.
“It was really difficult making the movie because it was right in the middle of recording Celebrity,” Bass said. “We were going to go ahead and have the album ready by then, but it just didn’t work out. Weekdays I would film in Toronto and weekends I would fly to Orlando and record the album and do videos, and that kind of stuff.”
Not that he’s complaining.
“I really enjoyed it because it was different and fun and creative,” Bass said. “I grew really close to the cast, the crew and director. And I would wake up at 6 a.m. every day without complaining. Which is really hard for me.”
It was also tough for Bass and Fatone to make the transition from stage to screen.
“When you’re on stage you’re doing a lot more dramatic things, a lot bigger motions, bigger facial expressions,” Fatone said. “But on film the slightest things read so well.”
Making the movie required Bass to develop confidence in his acting abilities
“I had to gain a lot of confidence to even think that I could do something like that. Because it is a lot of pressure. It’s a hard thing, it’s a big experience.” Bass paused. “Joey?” Silence.
“Joey has nothing to say on that, because he has no confidence whatsoever,” Bass said, laughing.
“I have no confidence,”Fatone wailed. “No, it came naturally. My dad used to sing when he was in a ‘50s group, from being on stage and doing all that stuff, that’s when I started doing acting. My dad would basically throw me on stage. The first thing I ever did was Pinocchio, believe it or not.”
And while Bass is eager to try his hand at more roles, he said he won’t give up music in favor of acting.
“Never,” he said.
“Yeah, he’s pretty bad at acting,” Fatone chided.
“Shut up, Joey! Seriously, I consider myself an entertainer: music, acting, everything. But definitely, my first and foremost love is music,” Bass said. “It will never be in the backseat. It might seem that way right now as we’re off tour. But I’m always thinking of ‘N Sync and what we’re going to do within the next few days.”
So far the guys have done a good job of keeping their expectations realistic. Both know this will be considered the ‘N Sync movie and that they’ll have a tough time breaking out of that mode to be taken seriously as actors.
“People tend to get high hopes when there’s a first movie,” Fatone said. “Obviously, for us it’s a first film and we’ve still got to expand our acting careers because we really haven’t done anything like that. Playing a different character.”
However, Fatone said he was confident they’d be able to break the stigma.
“It’s the same thing with when Mark Wahlberg started, people were just like ‘What is he doing?’ More and more as he developed his acting technique you see him doing a lot more roles, a lot bigger roles. He’s been really good at it,” Fatone said.
Concurred Bass, “It takes time. We’re really new at this. We’re not saying we’re the best actors in the world at all, by far. It’s a learning experience, and we’re very proud of this movie. I was very surprised. This is kind of a make-it-or-break-it part of our careers in acting. Of course, we have something nice to fall back on if it totally doesn’t work.”
Meanwhile, you can expect to see more ‘N Sync members hitting the big screen. While J.C. Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick have “no interest,” in film, according to Bass, and Justin Timberlake has signed on to star in the film version of Rent, directed by Spike Lee.
As for how audiences will receive On the Line, Bass and Fatone needn’t worry: they already have the crucial seal of approval: the other members of ‘N Sync all loved the film. And that’s a big feat.
“We're really critical,” Bass said of his group. “If you get all five of us in a movie theater, we basically rag the hell out of whatever we're seeing.”
