He has to be the luckiest guy in Hollywood. Why? Because he has landed starring roles in two of the year’s biggest flicks - Star Trek and Terminator Salvation - and he’s just 20.
Anton Yelchin is super-stoked to be in the two blockbusters - but he has his feet firmly on the ground. “I got really lucky and I’m very happy to do them but I look at it as getting better each time,” he says.
In Terminator Salvation he plays Kyle Reese, an angry teen destined to become the father of John Connor, leader of the resistance. In Star Trek he plays Russian officer Pavel Chekov. “The sets were different but I had a great time working on both.”
Anton was born in Russia. When he was six months old his parents, who were professional ice-skaters, moved to America. His first acting gigs started rolling in when he was 12 and included small roles in TV series such as Huff and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Movie-wise he has racked up impressive credits, among them Charlie Bartlett, Alpha Dog and Hearts in Atlantis - for which he won best performance in a feature film for a leading young actor at the 2002 Young Artist Awards.
Terminator Salvation, which has just opened in SA, is the fourth film in the Terminator series. It stars Christian Bale as John Connor and Sam Worthington as Wright, a cyborg who believes he’s human. Set in 2018 it’s both a prequel and a sequel to the other Terminator movies.
This year’s Star Trek is the 11th film based on the franchise and features the main characters of the original TV series. The movie follows the crew of the Starship Enterprise as they trek across the galaxy at warp speed and fight off evil.
“It would be nice to live off the land and fix cars,” Yelchin says. Yeah, right! After these two films it will be virtually impossible for him to stay out of the limelight.
It seems there’s no stopping him now. He’s due to appear in New York, I Love You, alongside a star-studded cast including Shia LaBeouf and Blake Lively, and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, due out later this year.
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