Probably none more so than when Justin Long, known as the Mac Guy, is shopping or eating a hot dog and suddenly a stranger launches into a tale that begins: "I'm having a funny thing happen on my screensaver ...
" If the 29-year-old actor's looking for a chance to lose the techie-dork reputation, "Live Free or Die Hard" is not that chance. He plays the smart-mouthed hacker sidekick to Bruce Willis' weathered mug, and together they battle a band of cyber terrorists to save the girl, the country, etc. It's the first crack Long has had at the "action hero for a major motion picture" category.
So, of course, he had to take it. "I've done a few movies, smaller movies where I get to play characters and less-recognizable type parts and guys who are very dissimilar to myself, so I've gotten kind of an appetite now to kind of do more versatile roles," he says. You get the sense, talking to Long, that there's never enough time for him to say everything he wants to say.
In high school, he migrated to the drama scene. He dropped out of college, moved to New York, got a job delivering pizzas and started showing up for every audition he could find. It turned out his brand of adolescent-Woody Allen awkwardness was in greater demand than expected.
First with 1999's "Galaxy Quest," then as Warren P. Cheswick on the TV drama "Ed." And, of course, as a sweatband-wearing weakling in "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" (2004).
And now as a hacker. "And the funny thing is, Bruce knows far more about computers than I do and was always on the computer, working the Webcam," Long says. "I'm really, really bad with gadgets and any kind of computer thing.
" 'Burn Notice' is simple, but it's entertaining 'Big Brother' is back tonight Probably none more so than when Justin Long, known as the Mac Guy, is shopping or eating a hot dog and suddenly a stranger launches into a tale that begins: "I'm having a funny thing happen on my screensaver ...
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