Josh Peck, who stars in the latest action thriller Red Dawn opposite Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson was photographed for The Untitled Magazine‘s Cinema Issue 5. The shoot took place in at the Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood, styled by fashion editor Brendan Cannon, with photography by Indira Cesarine.
Red Dawn opened in theaters in the US on November 21st.
“An American city awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky — shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their town under enemy occupation. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots seek refuge in the surrounding woods, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerilla group of fighters. Taking inspiration from their high school mascot, they call themselves the Wolverines, banding together to protect one another, liberate their town from its captors, and take back their freedom.”
This is quite a new role for Josh, who is most famous for his Nickelodeon days on Drake & Josh. Josh decided his path at age eight: to be a stand-up comedian. He practiced by poking fun at kids in “when they peed their pants at school”, though he swears it was all in good fun. His asthma forced him to stay indoors for much of his youth, affording him many hours of old comedies and TV shows, further fueling his desire to try out his talents on stage. Eventually he attended The Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan, which he described as “Hogwarts School for a bunch of musical-theater nerds, but instead of witchcraft and wizardry, we had dance and stage combat.”
His mother encouraged him to move to LA when he was just thirteen to pursue a role on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show. Doing so ignited several years of wild popularity as a teen actor. Josh appeared on Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh, What’s New, Scooby-Doo?, Codename: Kids Next Door, and other titles that earned him a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award. Learning to memorize lines by re-reading scripts with wild abandon, he kicked it up a notch in 2006, appearing the indie film Special, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. More recently he voiced a possum in the animated films Ice Age: The Meltdown, and subsequently Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
He admits that one of his hardest scenes in his career when his character in The Wackness, a coming of age drama that helped him edge a bit further away from his Nickelodeon days, had to appear naked. Luckily baring all didn’t end up as devastating as he thought it would be. “I did 150 push-ups then dropped the robe and went with God.”
Josh has been getting very positive reviews for his role in Red Dawn, which he describes as “Non-stop for 90 minutes… I think this one speaks to a little bit more of the ADD generation. It keeps you interested the whole time.” Despite the film having an extensively delayed release – for three years it has been on the shelf – it is sure to do well in theaters with it’s intensity and incredibly good looking cast.
