Shiloh Fernandez by Mark Jacobs

Shiloh Fernandez was primed for the Catherine Hardwicke star machine years before the Thirteen (2003), Lords of Dogtown (2005), and original Twilight (2008) director cast him as the romantic lead alongside Amanda Seyfried in next month’s Red Riding Hood, Hardwicke’s latest gothic adolescent dream. The 25-year-old actor from Ukiah, California, possessed a suitably angular melancholy that almost won him the Edward Cullen part made famous by Robert Pattinson, a peculiar distinction that is now an inevitable talking point in his young Hollywood career (perhaps less inevitable is his now-not-so-peculiar name, which he shares with the first result of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s blended DNA). But Fernandez’s ascent has been less direct than other up-and-comers, a trajectory that has included turns as a dishwasher, a teenage American Apparel model (and—later—stock boy) hand-picked by the company’s CEO, Dov Charney, and an almost-familiar face on shows like Cold Case, Jericho, United States of Tara, and Gossip Girl and in films like the thriller Red (2008) and the musical Cadillac Records (2008). In addition to Red Riding Hood, Fernandez stars in the coming-of-age-in-the-’80s independent Skateland; and he just lined up his first film role that requires an accent, a British drama called The Beloved. He is also rumored to be playing the lead in a new, young Hollywood remake of 21 Jump Street, the ’80s high school–cop show that launched Johnny Depp. And then there is “Mr. DiCaprio,” as Fernandez refers to him, who is a producer on Red Riding Hood and made himself available to Fernandez as a sounding board. In other words, the transformation has begun.

MARK JACOBS: You’re not the clean-cut heartthrob.
SHILOH FERNANDEZ: Thank you. [laughs]

JACOBS: That’s a good thing, wouldn’t you say? I think of you as a little better and a little greasier.
FERNANDEZ: Yeah, I’m definitely shocked that people are saying, “You’re the romantic lead in this film.” That’s surprising to me. I don’t see myself that way at all.

JACOBS: How would you describe your character, Peter, in Red Riding Hood?
FERNANDEZ: They were having every boy audition for both roles, for Peter and Henry. Henry’s wealthier, the son of the blacksmith, who Red Riding Hood’s parents arrange her engagement to. He’s a really good guy but just doesn’t get the girl. Peter is more of the mysterious hero. I had to think about why I was attracted to Peter and not Henry, when I’m probably more like Henry. I’m not the guy who always gets the girl. I’m not the hero. But the role that appealed to me the whole time was Peter. He’s a migrant worker who works hard and has love for this girl that’s never-ending. He tries to do the right thing throughout the whole film. Somebody who works that hard to be a good person, who’s maybe not innately that way, fascinated me.

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