Steve Zahn
Escape Artist
WHY HIM After more than a decade of playing bumbling comic sidekicks and lovably scruffy losers in films as varied as Reality Bites, That Thing You Do!, Out of Sight, Daddy Day Care, and Sahara, the Minnesota native takes a sharp turn toward for-your-consideration territory with a haunting performance as a prisoner of war in veteran director Werner Herzog's Vietnam drama Rescue Dawn, opening July 4.
WORTH THE WEIGHT To prepare for the role of real-life POW Duane Martin, who pulled off a daring escape from a Laotian prison camp with fellow captive Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), Zahn dropped 40 pounds. ''I drove my family crazy. After a while my wife was like, 'You're like an anorexic high school girl. I'm ordering a pizza and you're going to eat it.' The depressing thing was, I lost 40 pounds, and when I took off my shirt I kind of just looked good.''
ALL GROW'D UP ''I knew eventually I'd get this kind of opportunity,'' Zahn says of his dramatic turn in Rescue Dawn. ''If I had any goal, it was just longevity. You can't be the stoned college-kid sidekick for more than eight years. Unless you're Ralph Macchio — then maybe you can go for 20.''
NEXT On the small screen, Zahn will join Rachel Griffiths and Val Kilmer for Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove prequel Comanche Moon, airing this fall. On the big screen, he's got the upcoming comedy Strange Wilderness and a thriller called Night Train opposite Danny Glover.
I'LL RETIRE WHEN... ''They want me on an episode of The Love Boat or Fantasy Island. That's inevitable. Not everyone can be Paul Newman — eventually they're going to offer you the guest spot, and you either do it or you don't. I'll go do landscaping instead: 'The Second Banana in Sahara Lawn Service.' ''
