Paul Walker. The name may not yet be familiar to you, but if the Hollywood hype is to be believed (ha!) within the next year to 18 months, the name may have the same ring as Brad Pitt. Walker stars in two movies due to be released this autumn in Europe, the Fast and the Furious and Joyride.
Some in the business think 27-year old Walker is on the cusp of making it big. For his next picture, Timeline, an adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel, he will be paid $3 million. Paypacks are a useful indicators of how an actor is valued in the trade.
In the Fast and The Furious Walker doesn't have much to do, so it's hard to tell what he's capable of, but he certainly doesn't have, for instance, the effortless insouciance of Brad Pitt in his breakthrough scene stealer of Thelma and Louise. He is very good looking, however, which is half or more of the Hollywood battle.
The Fast and The Furious was an unexpected hit in the US this summer, drawing impressive box office. It's essentially a movie about the subculture of illegal car racing in Los Angeles, with a cocktail of truck hijacking thrown into the brew. Walker plays an undercover cop, investigating both the hijacking of trucks, full of hardware, by these racing cars and also the funding behind some of the fasted souped-up carts on the road.
The cars are the real stars of the movie and there is no question that it will appeal to anyone even vaguely interested in them. What the Americans term "import cars" are stripped down and the engines rebuilt so that they are capable of incredible speeds. The best elements in the movie are the two-car races in a desert-like landscape and the stunt work of the drivers who hijack trucks on a seemingly bust highway.
At the press conference in London's Dorchester Hotel, there are no cars present, only the four lead human actors from the movie: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez. There are a lot of questions about the cars and the stunt sequences. How did they do it, how much did they research it, how much of it is based on actual events?
The answers are; they did because the cars really go that fast; they consulted, for background, a lot of people via the internet who race both legally and illegally; and, for the past 10 years, LA has been the centre of the kind of car-racing, which usually takes place in the early hours, when roads are quieter and the cops easier to elude. The movie was test-screened for an audience of car-racers, who apparently loved it so the producers felt they'd "got it right".
Afterwards, there are one-to-one interviews. My allotted time with Paul Walker was 30 minutes. You get about 10 minutes when they are "quite famous" and are expected to be deeply grateful for it.
When movie stars are "very famous", some papers settle for a press conference, and no private minutes at all. At that point, the star doesn't need extra publicity to put bums on seats.
When I eventually get into the lair, Paul Walker is sitting by the window of his hotel room in a tub chair that is to small for him. His hand still warm from shaking the last journalist's hand. He looks blank. One of the umpteen minders hanging about outside makes a fuss about leaving the door ajar.
Walker perks up when he hears I'm from an Irish newspaper. He gives a huge, dazzling smile and looks right at me instead of the floor. His face comes alive and he looks movie star handsome.
"Ireland- that's one of the two places I want to visit next" he says " I want to go back to Fiji for the surf and I want to go to Ireland. I was supposed to be a knight! I'd love to live in a castle, I love all the history stuff."
Walker was raised in California and his mother started him modelling when he was two. Small acting roles came out of this later on, most of them on television.
The marine biology studies got shelved indefinitely when he landed a supporting role in the delightfully esoteric Pleasantville, Walker's favourite movie of his career to date. " The casting director remembered me as a boy, and auditioned me, offered me the part on the spot. I started thinking I could make secure money out of this," he says.
Ah, money. On one of Walker's 57 fan-club websites there is a quote from the Dallas Morning News, January 1999. " I'm not ready for a leading man role yet anyway. I don't want the pressure of all those millions of dollars riding on my performance."
This August, the Hollywood Reporter revealed that Walker will "snare" $3 million for Timeline, which will start shooting in May. What does he have ot say about that?
"That's terrible! They shouldn't be allowed to print that, it's private!"
Well, clearly it's true. He looks a bit bashful and doesn't answer. "Maybe $3million isn't that much?" I suggest brightly, keeping a prudent eye on the door. "Would that be considered peanuts in the trade?" Walker laughs and has the grace to admit that this is a lot of money.
Actually, for a not-yet famous movie star, he seems a decent bloke. And a busy one. He surfs, skateboards, snowboards and races his own souped-up car. " I tried real hard to keep the car I had in the Fast and the Furious," he says ruefully.
"It was great working on that movie, because I was able to pick brains. But the car I have right now is probably the fastest one on North America, I love racing it." This involves hitting speeds of 120 m.p.h upwards, over a quarter-mile between two cars, just like in the movie.
"I do it legally though, because I think the police would really like to get their hands on it.."
And does he usually win or lose? " Oh, I win, he says straight away, grinning, as if there could be any other answer. And it's that display of admirable brass-necked self-confidence that suggests there may well be more to come in Paul Walker's career tan he's displayed so far.
The Fast and The Furious is on general release. Joyride opens on October 5th.