A new epic version of Star Trek is on the way, but Anton Yelchin is focusing first on playing a heroic rich kid in Charlie Bartlett. Steve Pratt reports

RISING actor Anton Yelchin has one word to describe filming the new Star Trek feature film. Epic, he says. That word is so overused but you just sit there and youre goddamn, Im on the Enterprise.

The 19-year-old plays Chekhov in the movie. Hes the weirdest guy, he says. Watching the old show makes you think how odd it was that they brought a Russian character on right smack in the middle of the Cold War.

But its a lot of fun. I loved the old show. They would walk up to a cave that looks like it was made out of Styrofoam and Spock would say oh, this is definitely advanced technology.

The new movie wont reach cinemas until next year.

Meanwhile, audiences can see Yelchin in the title role of Charlie Bartlett, a high school rebel with a cause. This rich kid, having been expelled from private school after private school, is put into state education where he endears himself to his fellow high school pupils by starting counselling sessions in the bathroom stalls and supplying drugs.

The film also stars Robert Downey Jr, currently on view as superhero Iron Man, as the principal, and Hope Davis as Charlies mother.

Yelchin has been acting since he was nine, notably opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hearts In Atlantis. His movies since then include playing a kidnapped teen in Alpha Dog.

He was drawn to Charlie Bartletts optimism, he says, because thats something you dont see every day. Thats something people need. You have this amazing, charismatic optimism that gives people enough hope and enough desire to deal with their problems, he says.

Even though it might be a simple problem, you need a person to guide you. And thats the wonderful thing about this kid C he can see that.

Hes so real, so charming and so funny all at once. If Im, honest, Im not optimistic all the time. I thought it was a great way to explore life. Whether I could approach life similarly is a completely different question.

The role calls for everything from slapstick to drama, leaving the young actor a lot of room for experimentation. Usually, when you get a character that is driven by his desire to be popular, its not always a good thing, he says.

In this case, just by virtue of the fact that he is who he is, Charlie turns it around and becomes popular by helping people. The whole process becomes a totally positive thing. Even though he does start off by selling Ritalin, the great thing is that he uses that to help other people.

He gets his joy from helping people. So the popularity he receives, he gets legitimately. In the film he realises he has to sacrifice some of that because hes doing everything correctly.

His own background is unlike any other young Hollywood actor.

Born in Leningrad, he left Russia when his parents moved to the US when he was six months old.

Both his father and mother were famous in their homeland as figure skaters in Leningrad Ice Ballet for 15 years. They qualified for the 1972 Winter Olympics but, being Jewish, were not allowed to compete.

Yelchins own education taught him that he seriously disliked high school. Its such an unhealthy place. Every teenager is an incredible hormonal explosion. To put a thousand of them in one place is like putting too much hot air in a balloon, he says.

Youre putting all these imbalanced people together and expecting them to learn. Whoever came up with the idea wasnt thinking very straight.

How are you supposed to come up with healthy, normal people? It makes no sense to me. Id just try to get out as fast as I could. I chose classes that ended early.

Making the film, he learnt from Robert Downey Jr, saying it was the first experience hed had of consciously sitting and learning from someone.

When I was younger, Id only realised what Id learnt after the experience. But with Robert, Id sit and watch him in such utter amazement. His range and his understanding of the freedom that he has as an actor is eye-opening, says Yelchin.

Watching him experiment with what he wanted to do and finding the right thing was so incredible. It really was an amazing experience. I just loved being off-camera and watching him work.

Hes like no other actor out there, Robert is in his own category. When he approaches his characters he uses his body. Its so eye-opening as to the amount of things he can achieve within the confines of the story and the scene.

But the best piece of advice hes had came from his dad. Young Anton was complaining and ended the sentence with and thats not fair.

My dad, in his infinite wisdom, asked who said anything was fair?. I know its a clich but it made me realise that you shouldnt look at life as whether its fair or not, it just sort of is what it is.

Theres something so great and simple and intelligent and wise in that statement. Yeah, man, it sucks, but there is no getting around it. Its not always going to work out so you just have to make what you can make of it.

ö Charlie Bartlett (15) opens in cinemas tomorrow.

10:49am Thursday 15th May 2008

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