PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK HOELCK

Emile Hirsch
Speed Racer

WHY HIM Because he's about to have one hell of a year. Hirsch may not be a household name yet (unless, of course, your household dug his aw-shucks porn comedy The Girl Next Door or his rad skateboard flick Lords of Dogtown or his L.A. kidnap caper Alpha Dogs). But in September, he'll star as the doomed idealist Christopher McCandless in Sean Penn's adaptation of the nonfiction best-seller Into the Wild.

GOING TO EXTREMES Because his character spends most of Into the Wild living off the Alaskan land, Hirsch dropped major pounds over the nine-month shoot. ''I went from 156 to 115,'' he says.

NEED FOR SPEED Hirsch will star as the lead-footed lead in 2008's Speed Racer, the Wachowski brothers' first time behind the camera since the Matrix trilogy.

SECRET AMBITION ''To be the greatest guitar player of all time!''

SECRET TALENT ''Definitely not guitar playing. I don't even know how to play a chord.''