Nick Wechsler Interview From Newcastle Herald

Thanks to OlderFan for this :)

I have no idea where this newspaper is (New Zealand, maybe?), but I came across this article recently on the newswire and I don’t believe I have seen it posted in Crashdown yet:

(snip)

Newcastle Herald
Copyright of John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd
Friday, May 25, 2001
Friday Guide
Teen Angst & Aliens
With Chelsea Carter

FOR the past two years NBN’s on-again, off-again teenage sci-fi drama
has been pushed and pulled between timeslots and network programming
decisions.
Screening at 10.30pm on Wednesdays, the classy show about alien
teenagers living in Roswell, New Mexico, is now mid-way through its
second series and is once again keeping teenagers, and more than a few
adults, up late at night for their regular fix of teenage angst and
alien drama.
Despite the series’ compelling sci-fi premise, there’s little doubt
Roswell’s cast of impossibly attractive 20-somethings has more
than a little to do with its longevity.
And although viewers score their fix of steamy romance thanks to stars
Jason Behr (Max) and Parker Appleby (Liz) (pictured), they
also tune in for the side-dramas supplied by cast members such
as 23-year-old Nick Wechsler.
Wechsler plays Kyle Valenti, Liz’s ex-boyfriend and son of the town
sheriff.
An all-American high school jock, Kyle has not only had to adjust
to losing Liz to the leader of the aliens Max, but his father (William
Sadler) is now also in the aliens’ camp.
Now Kyle finds himself attempting to adjust to his new role of friend
to the aliens.
Not that Wechsler minds the change in character development, he’s just
happy to be a star on one of America’s favourite teenage dramas.
The native of New Mexico says he’s confused by the ‘Hollywood thing’ –
fame, fortune and having somebody bring you a bottle of water.
‘It’s kind of strange,’ Wechsler ponders.
‘There are people who bring you water all the time. Why can’t people
get their own water? I don’t get it,’ he says on the set at Roswell’s
Paramount Pictures studio.
Wechsler left his very un-Hollywood home of Albuquerque, New Mexico –
where his father is a sheet-metal worker and his mother works for the
US Forest Service – after he graduated from high school.
He soon landed a small role as a purse-stealing punk in the 1996 TV
movie Full Circle and a supporting role that same year in the TV series
The Lazarus Man.
In 1997, Wechsler was cast as Trek, a child conceived at a Star Trek
convention, in the short-lived series Team Knight Rider.
But the sporadic work wasn’t enough to support himself, so he went to
work at a video store before landing the role of Kyle Valenti, the
scene-stealing smart-mouthed jock who makes life difficult for the teen
aliens on Roswell.
He says when the role was pitched to him, he jumped at the
opportunity.
‘It was like, “Do you want a job?” It didn’t matter what the pitch
was. I had to get something because I was doing nothing. It sounded all
right to me.
‘I initially read for the role that Colin (Hanks who plays Alex
Whitman) got,’ Wechsler says.
‘Then they called me back for the role that I ended up getting. I know
it sounds kind of funny. OK, they’re aliens and they’re walking among
us and they’re in high school. My good friends are always picking on me
about it.’
Ribbing aside however, Wechsler admits his fame has begun to catch up
with him, especially among female fans who will approach him on the
street but he
doesn’t let that affect the way he sees himself.
‘I haven’t gotten anybody who is crazy enough to confuse me with my
character yet,’ he laughs.
‘I’m a little afraid of that. I try to accommodate people as much as
I can. Handshake. Hug. Whatever they ask for. A couple of times,
they’ve asked for an autograph. I don’t think of myself like that. So
when people ask, it’s kind of a strange feeling. I’m like, “Who me?”‘
Wechsler carries this refreshingly low-key attitude to fame into
Roswell and says that he would hate to allow his public persona to
consume him.
‘I know plenty of actors who are arrogant and don’t deserve to be,’
he says.
‘But because they are arrogant, they just perform better because
they don’t believe they can fail. I know I’m mortal and I explore it
constantly and because of that I get down on myself.’
As far as life after Roswell goes, Wechsler says he’s just taking one
job at a time.
‘I don’t want to really go to school. But I probably should. If you’re
asking what I’d ideally like to be doing, I’d love to be doing movies
and pretty much nothing but,’ he says.
‘Who knows how long this acting is going to last for me? I don’t want
it to sound like I’m threatening to leave. I’m excited about going to
work. I love acting. But I have yet to like one of my own
performances.’
But one thing is certain for Wechsler, when it comes to the small
screen, he’s begrudgingly hooked on Reality TV like everyone else.
‘I don’t like it when there’s a wave of anything,’ he says.
‘It just seems everybody is trying to beat everyone else to the punch.
… But there are things I get hooked on.
‘Seriously, I enjoyed Survivor. I didn’t get to watch all of it. But
the
little bit that I did, I was like, “This is pretty good”, I like to
watch
people actually argue.’