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The Times - Chicago

Sunday, Oct. 13, 2002

Sex Drive

Even as he shifts his career into high gear, "Fastlane" star Peter Facinelli sticks with a less-is-more acting philosophy.

By Jeff Bell

From the 1996 drama "Foxfire" to last year's sci-fi fizzle "Supernova," the 28-year-old film actor has seemingly dropped more trou than Mel Gibson, Ryan Phillippe and Harvey Keitel combined. And don't expect him to turn the other cheek now that he's on the small screen.

As high-rolling undercover cop Van Ray in FOX's new action series "Fastlane," Facinelli calls to mind a swarthy Jim Morrison, sporting leather pants, three-day-old scruff, a shaggy mane and often little else. Flashing scads of skin and sex appeal-but never a badge-Facinelli's character just can't resist romancing his female marks.

Hard to believe that this is the same first-generation Italian-American who, while growing up in Ozone Park, Queens, couldn't watch G-rated episodes of "The Love Boat" without catching flak from his traditionalist grandmother. "She came from the old scho...I think maybe she pushed me in the opposite direction," laughs Facinelli. "I don't mind showing my ass on film. Everyone's got a backside-some are hairier than others, you know?"

Far hairier are the stunts he performs for his hyperkinetic series, a fast cars/faster edits mélange of crime drama and camp that also features former MTV veejay Bill Bellamy (as Facinelli's oft-exasperated partner) and "Beverly Hills 90210" vamp Tiffani Thiessen (as his sultry boss). "I just got seven stitches taken out of my head two days ago," he says matter-of-factly. "If I don't go home without a cut or a bruise, I don't feel like I put in a good day. I still [have] a scar from the cut I got going over that hood [in the series pilot]; half my body was left on the hood."

One would think Facinelli's Method-style acting madness would cause problems at home. After all, his wife-90210 alum Jennie Garth-is pregnant with his second child (daughter Luca Bella is 5), and it wouldn't do for Daddy to be in traction when the baby arrives in December. But Facinelli says Garth-who's starring in the new WB sitcom "What I Like About You"-accepted her husband's need-for-speed antics long before "Fastlane" shifted into high gear. Now, he's at least getting paid for them.

Best known as Jennifer Love Hewitt's jock boyfriend in 1998's "Can't Hardly Wait" and as a traitorous prince in this spring's "The Scorpion King," Facinelli has garnered critical acclaim in smaller projects like 1998's "Dancer, Texas Pop. 81" and 1999's "The Big Kahuna," opposite Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito. But although those films helped establish him as the crown prince of independent film, he yearned for steadier work that would put him more directly in the public eye and keep him in the L.A. area with Garth (they met while filming the 1996 TV-movie "An Unfinished Affair").

"Fastlane," he says, was his ideal vehicle. "I've done action, comedy and drama, but I've never had the opportunity to do it all at once. [With] this show, how can I get bored? I'm not a TV snob; I just never really thought about doing TV becau...I don't want to do the same thing all the time. [But] this is a character I could explore for a while, because there's a lot of depth to him."

But even critics who have praised Facinelli's charismatic turn would dispute his use of the word "depth" to describe any aspect of "Fastlane," which they've slapped with the left-handed compliment of "guilty pleasure." "Hey, Godiva chocolates are a guilty pleasure, too," he cracks, "and I'll take Godiva chocolates whenever I can get them! But I get upset when I read stuff like 'the plots are empty,' because I feel we have good plots. Bill said it best: 'We're like the pretty girl with the ugly feet.' People don't want to like us, but they don't want to say they don't like us [either], because there's nothing like us on TV. We are dipped in fantasy and we don't have that 'Law & Orde...heaviness."

He knows whereof he speaks: His first major role was that of a teen rapist in a 1995 episode of the courtroom drama. Until then, he'd been modeling and studying acting at New York University, mollifying his pragmatic parents by telling them he could use his performance skills as a lawyer. But after he took a semester off to tackle TV-movies like 1995's "The Price of Love," where he played a reluctant male hustler, he knew he'd never look back. "I just started working, and I've been working ever since. And I've done a lot of [different] roles. Even though people kind of judge you on whether you're a name, I've been fortunate enough to work with some great people-Drew Barrymore [in last year's "Riding in Cars with Boys"], Angela Bassett ["Supernova"], DeVito, Spacey. I mean, I've had a pretty awesome career so far."

His mother and father-a waiter and a housewife who also raised three daughters-have been harder to convince of that fact, however. "My parents are so NOT in the business," laughs Facinelli. "I'll say, 'I'm working with Kevin Spacey,' and they'll go, 'Is that Sissy Spacek's brother?' They have no idea-nothing really fazes them. I mean, when I brought home a paycheck for my first job, my dad's like, 'He got a paycheck; maybe he can make a living out of it.'"

That said, Facinelli's father hasn't yet fully accepted his son's life in the "Fastlane." "He's still like, 'Your room is back home whenever you need it.' And I'm like, 'Dad, I have a wife and two kids-I'm not going to be moving back into the house, hopefully.'"