Josh Peck, one of the stars of Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh series, takes on the role of a drug-dealing pot-smoking loner in the coming of age tale, The Wackness. Written and directed by Jonathan Levine, the R-rated independent film was a hit at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and marks a real departure from the characters Peck has played on TV and in past feature films. "I never really wanted to be typecast. That’s something I was worried about. But more so, it wasn’t like this big definitive decision that I was going to make this part to blow any preconceptions people had of me out of the water," explained Peck about his decision to take on the lead role in The Wackness.
"It was that the material really spoke to me. It’s a movie that I would like to see. I felt comfortable in portraying this character because I thought I could bring some of myself to it. And I identified with his weaknesses, which is usually the first thing that I identify with with a character. I felt like with all those things, in some ways it’s a bit of a selfish endeavor considering it was really just me I was thinking about, that it would really make me happy to do this. And so I guess I’m hoping that the audience from Drake & Josh, or the people that do watch me, can take a leap of faith with me. I know I’ve never been seen in this arena before, except for something like Mean Creek, and that people can really dig what I’m trying to do. If they were 12 when I was doing Drake & Josh when I was 15, now they’re 18 and I’m 21 so really it’s like the perfect age to see the movie. If they’re too young, it’s up to their parents’ discretion. I hope they see it on DVD in a couple of years, you know?"
Set in New York in 1994, The Wackness follows recent high school graduate Luke Shapiro (Peck) as he spends the summer selling pot as a way to help pay for college. Peck's young, but he remembers what the early '90s were like. "Power Rangers, Bugle Boy jeans, lights in my shoes, Spice Girl lollipops, Joey Lawrence CDs, flannels, ripped jeans, Hootie and the Blowfish... I was really young during that time but in many ways the great thing about acting is you can reinvestigate parts of your brain that might have otherwise gone dormant. So for me it was trying to think back to what were adults talking about in 1994. And I remember everyone was talking about Pulp Fiction. That was sort of the definitive thing. So I really tried to work off of that, and reintroduce a lot of the language that we used in the early ‘90s, which wasn’t really different. Instead of like now where we might be like, 'Looks good,' or, 'That’s tight,' then it was, 'That’s mack crazy son.' That was what people said, so I just had to re-familiarize myself with it."
Peck's co-stars in the The Wackness include Sir Ben Kingsley as a shrink who exchanges therapy sessions for bags of marijuana and former child TV star Mary-Kate Olsen who plays a hippie who hangs out in the park, does drugs, and picks up men. Asked which of the two he was more excited about meeting, Peck replied, "Oh, equally for different reasons. I was worried about meeting Mary-Kate. I mean, I was really worried about meeting Sir Ben, but I was worried about meeting Mary-Kate and looking cool. And it’s funny because you become really enmeshed in the character when you’re shooting a movie. I think one of the ADs said something to me – and he’s got this really funny accent – he’s like, ‘Who are you?’ He’s like, ‘Are you Josh Peck or Luke Shapiro? You’re Josh Peck. You’ve got nothing to worry about.’ I’m like, ‘All right man, please don’t talk to me in that silly accent.’ And then once I met her and she was just so approachable…"
"I will say one thing that you get older and it’s like you’re 18, 19, 20 and you’re out of high school so there’s no more cliques, you come to sort of embracing what makes you an individual. The whole cool crowd dynamic sort of dies down, but then you meet Mary-Kate and you realize, ‘I’m really not a part of the cool crowd. Whatever she’s doing is cooler than what I’m doing.’ But she was a really sweet girl and what I’m most impressed with is she came to play. She really suited up and showed up, and I think is very lovely in this movie."
"And Sir Ben," added Peck, "He’s been a hero of mine for so long. I mean, what do you tell a basketball player who gets to go play with Michael Jordan? It’s a dream. I started at the top of my list and so I peaked. It’s over."
Writer/director Levine graduated from high school in New York in 1994, and many aspects of the character are autobiographical (but not the drug dealing). Levine was a big help to Peck in getting into character, and Peck also did a lot of research on his own on how an 18 year old would act in '94. "I did a lot of preparation with my acting coach beforehand to map out these emotions inside of me, and find out where they were for me as it also affected Luke, my character, " said Peck. "John, I think when he met me, we just had this repertoire immediately. I think he was looking for a person who really encapsulated who this kid was."
"I felt very comfortable in his hands. A relationship with a director should be one kind of like of a parent where you feel comfortable enough to go out and try things. You feel you have a certain amount of slack, but as soon as you get too far off in one direction, they pull you in. You’re still tethered. So it was quite lovely."
