Wes Bentley (Seneca Crane) recently spoke to NextMovie while promoting his film, The Time Being (in limited release today) and he talked a little about The Hunger Games fan frenzy, and the advice he gave to a certain newcomer on her rise to stardom (yes, it's Jennifer Lawrence).
It must be nice to get away from all of the "Hunger Games" craziness, especially now that you have a family.
Oh yeah, I enjoy it. You know, actually the beard helped with that too. Now I can walk through a pack of teenage girls and not one of them would know who I am, since I don’t have that beard.
Do people ever recognize you on the street now?
Yeah.
What do they say? Do you have a celebrity doppelganger?
Yeah, I did for a long time — Tobey Maguire. I remember I was in Mexico in some random town, and someone yelled out "Spider-Man!" (Laughs) So I get that sometimes, or when I think someone's recognized me for me, it's actually Tobey. That's happened less and less, though, and it doesn't happen a bunch. Oddly enough, it happens more when I'm not in L.A. or New York. It happens in smaller towns a lot.
Looking back on "The Hunger Games" a year later, do you still have a most memorable fan interaction?
I was, one time, working out at a gym in Albuquerque and I felt some people staring at me, and suddenly I felt uncomfortable. I didn't know why they were staring at me. And then, this girl came up to me and held out a racquetball to me. And I was just looking at the racquetball, and then she handed me a pen. She wanted me to sign her racquetball. I thought that was strange.
You got to work with Jennifer Lawrence before she became such a huge star. What was your relationship with her during filming? Because you also started acting at a young age, did you give her any advice as a newcomer?
You know, I didn't want to overstep my bounds and just give advice without asking. But we clicked, and I love Jen, like everybody does. She's just hilarious, and we got along great and had moments. And I just said to her, "Look, I know a little bit about what you might be feeling or what's about to happen, and if you ever just want to talk to somebody about it, then call me." Of course, it's way bigger than anything I ever had to deal with. And we text sometimes and joke, and she deals with it well, it seems like. But I'll always be there if she wants to give a call or if she's feeling like it's too much.
What are you geeking out over right now?
I'm a "Game of Thrones" fan, so I geeked out hard about that. I can't believe we have to wait a whole year for [Season Four].
How are you on social media? Do you tweet?
I just started. I just opened a Twitter account: @RealWesBentley. But that's all.