"Brotherly" Duo: Andre (3000) Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund

We interviewed another, on the surface, mismatched brother team. Andre (OutKast) Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund play adoptive brothers in the takin' care of business actioner Four Brothers. Along with Mark Wahlberg and Tyrese Gibson, the two had to meet, bond on an ice rink and film in freezing cold weather to bring this tale of vigilante justice to life.

In New York, Andre, who was one of the funniest things about Be Cool, told us about balancing his acting career with his ultra-popular music and Garrett talked about teasing Mark with his old Marky Mark rap lyrics. The young actor rose from playing Brad Pitt's cousin in Troy to a Texas high school football player in Friday Night Lights and now acting with an ensemble of diverse bros. Picture Andre in prim white shirt and black pants and Garrett in teal green tee.

TeenHollywood: Andre, are you getting more comfortable in your acting shoes?

Andre: I think the more I do it, the more comfortable I am being in that uncomfortable situation, so yeah. Even with music, when I first started, I didn't know if I was good or not. I didn't know if I was good until people said, 'Hey! You're good.' So, I really don't know. The transition is easy but it's not really up to me. I'd say that it's up to the people cause they have to accept me as Andre Benjamin playing a character more than Andre 3000 so we'll see.

TeenHollywood: Are you taking acting lessons?

Andre: Haven't had time. I had taken lessons in Actor's Workshop but that was like a couple of years ago, but I've been shooting, so I haven't had time to really get back in class but I plan to get back.

TeenHollywood: We hear that you guys didn't have time to rehearse, so how did you do your bonding?

Garrett: Primary, we probably became closer buddies out on the ice rink. We had hockey practice so these guys could learn how to skate, Andre and Tyrese.

Andre: Garrett's a professional.

Garrett: Well, I grew up in Minnesota, out on a farm, and I learned how to skate at a young age, so that was a great part of the film for me; to put the skates back on. I hadn't picked up a stick in about four or five years, but yeah, we never had rehearsals, and that's definitely something I had never done in a film. You have the time to figure out all aspects of a scene and work it out and work with these guys and really play with the options and we never got the opportunity on this but we got spur of the moment spontaneity and to see what came out was sort of half of the mystery.

TeenHollywood: Andre, can you talk about playing hockey?

Andre: We only had like four or five days to practice and I had never worn skates before so my ankles weren't together and I was really like a baby for like the first three days but by the third day, I started to pick up and like it and started to do tricks and skate backwards and spray ice...

Garrett: While wearing pads. (Laughs)

TeenHollywood: Garrett, you're the baby bro in this. Are you the baby at home?

Garrett: I am, but this is a whole different thing. This character got picked on and I don't know if he sort of deserved it but it's definitely completely different from the other characters that I've played.

TeenHollywood: We get that your character has a music career but we don't really see that.

Garrett: They have a scene that was cut out that was sort of a flashback scene of him up on stage rocking and putting his head through speakers and stripping his shirt off and raising his guitar to the air. I think it will be put back in during the end credits but that will maybe answer some questions.

TeenHollywood: Andre, you co-wrote a movie with your partner. Are you going to branch out even more into producing other things in terms of movies?

Andre: I think you are talking about My Life in Idlewild. I didn't co-write the movie with Bryan Barber. Me and Bryan are from Atlanta, Clark University and we've known each other for a long time and we have always written our video concepts together. So we wrote two video concepts and HBO got a hold of the concepts and said, "Can you make it into a movie?" Bryan takes our video concepts and he writes the script to "My Life in Idlewild". (Note: We just learned from Producer Chuck Roven that the project is still in development).

TeenHollywood: Are you pitching ideas for projects though?

Andre: Oh yeah, most definitely. My first look deal is with Paramount and things are with Nickelodeon and MTV. I'm more of a concept writer. I haven't gotten to the point... I haven't taken writing classes. I don't know anything about screenwriting that much but maybe in the future I will.

TeenHollywood: Is it hard for successful musicians to make that acting transition in general? Is there a prejudice?

Andre: Most definitely, but I don't think it's entirely prejudice. I've done characters all throughout my career like the "hey ya guy". I think people get attached to that character and don't want to see me in anything else or can't see me in anything else and I have a problem because I can't pull off the job playing another character. So it's kind of like a hindrance. A lot of casting directors may feel like people may see me as the guy dancing around in the video. I think there's a lot of pressure going into this. The only thing I can do is do the job and play a character to the tee. It's not even up to me at the point; it's up to the audience.

TeenHollywood: Garrett, what are your musical tastes?

Garrett: I was a big fan of OutKast before Andre joined the film and I was very excited to work with Andre on this; to work with a great cast and a great director and I feel very fortunate.

TeenHollywood: Who's a better skater, Andre or Mark or better rapper, Andre or Mark?

Garrett: [laughs] That's a good one. Better skater? Mark was practicing for about a month or earlier but you can still see he's not that coordinated. Better rapper? Heck, I don't know. I started listening to Marky Mark once I was in Canada and I started reciting lyrics to Marky Mark once I was in Canada.

TeenHollywood: That's so weird. How'd Mark feel about that?

Garrett: He would just say, "Shut up".

Andre: He actually sang Tyrese R & B songs too.

Garrett: And I was the only one that wasn't a singer.

TeenHollywood: Andre, how was working on Revolver compared to this film?

Andre: I've only shot 5 films to date and I've learned that working with different directors, they work differently. With Guy Ritchie, his shooting schedule is quick because he knows it all in his head; he edits a lot. He wants emotion but at the same time, he will say, "Now say this line" fifty times and four different ways; so it's not going through the whole scene. It's just standing there saying the same thing, four different ways and he knows how he's going to cut it. In working with John [Singleton], he's about emotion.

TeenHollywood: Who do you play in that?

Andre: In Revolver, I play a loan shark and I think Guy Ritchie fans are just going to be happy because they got on him about the Swept Away thing. He's back to the shoot-em-up Guy Ritchie. It's sort of multi-racial, multi-cultural and different accents. It's mixed up.

TeenHollywood: Will you have a cut on the soundtrack for Four Brothers?

Andre: No, I don't think so because I think it's too late now; maybe the Guy Ritchie movie which comes out in September. I'd love to do songs for soundtracks but I just haven't had time.

TeenHollywood: As you make this transition, what won't you do in the film business?

Andre: There isn't anything I wouldn't do right now because the challenge is to get into character and play something that I'm totally not. That's what I get out of it. If the story is good, then it's a challenge to get into character. I actually had gotten a script to play a homosexual disco guy, the story of Sylvester. I have to make a decision of when to do it. As an actor, you have to do it. You have to act. You can't have any reservations about it.

TeenHollywood: Will your music suffer? Are you worried about that?

Andre: I do worry about it but honestly it's a blessing because the film thing came at a great time. A lot of people don't know that we have been doing OutKast for ten years. "Hey Ya" was the first big single and it was our biggest album to date, but we had been doing it for so long, you get to the point that you start looking for new inspiration and things to do. I think I will always do music in some form or fashion.

TeenHollywood: Garrett, big contrast from Troy to Friday Night Lights to this. Are you having fun mixing roles up in your career?

Garrett: Yeah, I have a good time getting roles. I been fortunate enough to work with a lot of good people to sort of sit back and take from them and learn. It's definitely different character in those films. This character takes a lot of criticism and half the time I'll be looking at the screen and I don't even recognize who that is. So that was fun.

TeenHollywood: Did you have to read or audition for this?

Garrett: Yes, I read with John. I hadn't met John prior to that so I went in and was able to get it that way. I've had to read for all the films I've done so far and I'm proud about that.

TeenHollywood: Did you meet the guys before and see how you would react with them?

Garrett: I met Mark after they had been considering me for the role and didn't meet these guys until Toronto for the table read. We got out there a week before we started filming. We didn't have time to sit back and bond and truly none of that was even forced; all of us just sort of naturally got along. Our personalities just sort of clicked and that was really fortunate for us to not force friendliness.

TeenHollywood: Your co-star Sofia Vergara mentioned that it was torture being in the cold.

Garrett: The part that was torture was that my guy was so big on trying to be a rock star that he didn't concentrate on wearing any warm f***ing clothes. So while all these guys are outside wearing nice warm jackets, I have this very thin leather jacket and it was freezing.

TeenHollywood: Was there any significance to the tattoo you had in the film?

Garrett: Yeah. It was supposed to be the band's name. There's a scene that will be put back in during the end credits.

TeenHollywood: Your character is just pretty emotionally messed up.

Garrett: Yeah. He's a foster kid. He went from foster house to foster house so it implies an issue there. Whatever happened there definitely wasn't spoken of.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and a produced screenwriter.