The Perfect Boyfriend

By Michele Orecklin/Los Angeles

To those who know him best, Luke Wilson insists, he's considered "somewhat of a hothead." To those who know him as a guy in the movies, this will come as a surprise. In such films as Legally Blonde, Charlie's Angels and Old School, he plays characters of unsurpassed earnestness and passivity--the straight man to such showy blonds as Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz and Will Ferrell (who's actually more of a sandy brunet).

People still unfamiliar with Wilson's work will have difficulty avoiding it over the next month. Three of his films are opening on three successive weekends, and two are poised to become blockbusters. On June 27 he will reprise his role as Diaz's boyfriend in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. On July 2 he will do the same with Witherspoon in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. And this past weekend he charmed Kate Hudson in the romantic comedy Alex & Emma.

Despite his assertions, Wilson in person seems as laconic and unassuming as he does onscreen. His slow, muted Southern drawl (he grew up in Dallas) lends him an air of sincerity. So while action heroes and bad guys might be a stretch, he has established a comfortable niche as the male ingenue: a solid, supportive guy, unfazed by high-octane women in higher heels. At 31, he's just handsome enough to be believable as a love interest but not so pretty that he outshines his co-stars. (Indeed, those co-stars are not always immune to his winsome charms--past girlfriends include Drew Barrymore and Gwyneth Paltrow.) "He's very graceful and easy," says Rob Reiner, who directed Alex & Emma. "He's what I call an unsweaty actor. He doesn't push things too hard."

Alex & Emma is a test of whether Wilson can move beyond boyfriend status to the altar of the leading man. He plays Alex Sheldon, a novelist dogged by gambling debts and the Cuban thugs who want to collect on them. Wilson, who is required to convey more distress than in previous roles, is in virtually every scene, a fact that caused him some real discomfort. "I usually don't mind watching movies I'm in," he says, "but in this, there's just so much of me I can't take a breather and relax while other people are onscreen."

Such anxiety may result from the fact that Wilson drifted into acting by accident. In his early 20s, he was, by his own description, "floundering," when he was drafted into the profession by his older brother Owen, who needed cheap labor for a movie he was working on with his friend Wes Anderson. "Acting came at the right time," says Luke. "It gave me something to focus on." The movie, Bottle Rocket, was little seen by audiences but admired enough by the industry that the trio reteamed for the successively higher-budget and higher-profile films Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Luke, Owen and their eldest brother Andrew have all relocated to Los Angeles, although in coming months they will visit Texas to work on a film written by Luke that he will co-direct with Andrew. Luke will play the lead, a fast-talking huckster trying to go straight. But as close as the brothers are, Luke expresses some impatience about the frequency with which people ask about his relationship with his flashier brother Owen. "What can I say but I love the guy?" he says. "I hold him above me, as a writer and an actor." Then he adds, "I was talking to [actor] Harry Dean Stanton the other day and I said, 'Harry Dean, what should I say when people ask me such a thing?' And Harry Dean said, 'I think it's a really insensitive question.'" And there it is, distant but visible, a flash of anger.