Colin Hanks is Untraceable

The older cute Colin Hanks gets, the more he looks like his famous dad Tom. He also has his dad's charm and sense of humor which was on display when we spoke with him recently at a fancy beach hotel in Santa Monica. Hanks was last widely seen in King Kong and has been a bit off the radar recently but comes back strong this year with four feature films. The first out is the cyber-thriller Untraceable in which Colin plays an FBI computer geek who baits then tracks down predators on the web. When one ultra-sicko starts killing people slowly and streaming the grisly deaths live on his webcam, Colin and his fellow Cyber-Crime agent, played by Diane Lane, have their hands full.

Picture tall, dark and handsome Colin going casual in a gray striped shirt and jeans. We wondered what he thinks of the internet today and how much of a computer geek he really is...

TeenHollywood: How techie are you? Between you and Diane, which one of you is savvier?

Colin: I would say I am just because I am the first generation that actually took a computer class in school. But that class consisted of 'Move this triangle and make another triangle within five minutes'. I'm not really that technologically savvy. I never really used e-mail that much until I was in New Zealand for ten months on (King) Kong 'cause then I was sort of forced to communicate that way. Before then I was convinced that the Internet was created for bored people at work. I never really thought that it was gonna be that big of a deal, but now [I know] enough. I can get to iTunes. I can use my e-mail.

TeenHollywood: But are you an addict with a Blackberry?

Colin: Blackberry? Yes. I Pod? Yes. Those are now relatively idiot-proof so as long as it has the idiot-proof stamp of approval, I can use it.

TeenHollywood: So, you are not one of those veterans of the computer-dating world like your character?

Colin: No. I've never done that... not that there's anything wrong with that.

TeenHollywood: How much research did you do into all of this and when you said the techie dialogue, did you actually understand it?

Colin: I was on a science fiction television show ["Roswell"] and I've learned that if you have any big, technological speak, you say it as fast as you can [laughter]. It makes it sound like you know what you are saying. The amount of research that I did was maybe equal to the amount that Diane [Lane] did. Once we had gotten up to Portland we were given pretty incredible access to some of the FBI field agents up there in whose jobs are what our characters do, essentially cyber-police policing the Internet. I was able to spend some time with an agent the same age as me, married with two kids whose job was to go undercover online and capture pedophiles.

TeenHollywood: How did he help you or what did you learn from him?

Colin: It really helped us round out what my relationship to Diane was in terms of working partners. On the surface, my character seems like the guy that was just supposed to be there and be funny and crack jokes but, ultimately, we learned that these agents deal with such graphic, disturbing material; some of which they showed me and it's absolutely atrocious and I just kept thinking, 'How do you turn this off when you go home to your wife and your two kids?' Just by observing the two FBI agents, they used humor quite a bit. It made me go, 'Okay, my character isn't a guy that's just supposed to be funny. His relationship with Marsh [Diane's character] is that they pick on each other and they try to make each other laugh'. That little nugget right there sort of gave me enough. Then it was itsy-bitsy, intricate, little things that I'd ask him that had absolutely no importance on the movie whatsoever, but that I found absolutely fascinating.

TeenHollywood: Is it the first time you were a cop with a gun? Did you have to do gun training?

Colin: We did some weapons training, but I have done weapons training in the past for two films so I am familiar enough to pretend to know what I'm doing.

TeenHollywood: We won't give away too much but you are in some pretty icky-looking water at one point. I hope you weren't in there too long?

Colin: Ah, I called it "Griffin's Sangria" [laughter]. Umm, two days along with about forty-five minutes on my last day of shooting. That was the first day of filming and the last day of filming. At the very end, that shot is actually a dummy. It was extremely uncomfortable, not in terms of fearing for my life or being claustrophobic or anything like that, but the simple fact was that I was in a big vat of water that was at times either too cold or too hot. So at times I was shivering and sort of turning pale blue and then it was too hot and I almost passed out, but then we got a good medium and eventually, I sort of got used to it. If that's not baptism by fire I don't know what is because that's one hell of a way to introduce yourself to the film crew you are going to be working with.

TeenHollywood: Didn't they help you get comfortable at all?

Colin: Well, if you're calm and you're cool and collected and you just say, 'I'm uncomfortable. Can we please stop?', they'll help you. I think if I was screaming and yelling they probably wouldn't have cared and would have said 'Great, we have to work with this schmuck for the next couple of months.'

TeenHollywood: What was it like working with Diane?

Colin: [It was like] working with a complete professional; someone that has been doing this for a very long time and knows how great the job can be. You show up with a good attitude and keep it light. You try and have fun and, you know, 'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.' I didn't even have the chance to thank her. When I was in that tank she essentially covers up my whole body by going [ he raises hand like Diane's character did in the film over a TV screen on which he appeared semi-nude] 'What's this box? What is in this box? What's in here?' [laughter] It's those kinds of things in which you go, 'Thank god for someone like Diane Lane.' She was an absolute joy. I loved working with her and I would do it again a heartbeat.

TeenHollywood: If there's one message you hope that maybe teens and college-aged kids take away from this, what would it be?

Colin: I don't really know if this is a message film but hopefully that it was entertaining. The thing that I find most interesting is that, in the past, in any sort of computer-themed thriller, the computers exist in a world that just simply wasn't [real]. Matthew Broderick's little computer could launch a nuclear attack. Sandra Bullock's computer would do some special thing that helps you steal. In this film the technology is now. This is stuff that's really going on. I don't want to say it's like the Pandora's box or 'don't do this'. I think if anything it's like, maybe be a little more careful on the web.

TeenHollywood: Don't you think this film reflects where we are as a society today? We're becoming more and more like a nation or a world of voyeurs. We have all these reality series and you can go to YouTube and download whatever video you want.

Colin: Well, we are dealing with all sorts of technology where you can get pretty much anything you want at the click of a button and I was really shocked at the graphic material you can get really quickly when it takes me twenty minutes to find out Tom Brady's birthday. The technology is there and like it or not, it's going to be a part of our daily lives for the rest of time and it's just going to become more and more a facet of everyone's daily life.

TeenHollywood: And the nosy voyeur thing?

Tom: People's curiosity hasn't changed. In this film, there are some people logging on and watching [these murders] and commenting on them but some people are just logging on and being counted. That I don't think is new at all. Even before the Internet people are like 'This is really bad pizza. Here. Taste this', and I think it's the exact same thing, 'Here's this really gross web site. Go check it out.' People will go and check it out and then they will make the decision if they will watch it or not and the majority of people don't. They'd look at it and say 'Nope. This is not for me.' And then go and listen to a Raffi album or something [he laughs].

TeenHollywood: You have some other films coming out soon like The Great Buck Howard.

Colin: Yeah. I am very excited about that. That's a film that's five years in the making to get someone to see this movie so I've been very, very close to that for a long time. The fact that we are actually going to be able to screen it at something as huge as Sundance, I'm very excited!

TeenHollywood: You're playing a guy who helps this hypnotist with his career. He's been on "The Tonight Show"?

Colin: John [Malkovich] plays Buck Howard who refers to himself as a 'mentalist'. Everyone goes like, 'Oh, you're a magician', and he's like, 'Well, I was when I was three, but I've evolved from there and I am a mentalist.' He's a very egotistical, pompous ass and I play a kid who drops out of law school and ends up taking a job with him; once a very well-known, established mentalist, but now he tours like Bakersfield and Akron, Ohio these smaller towns. He has this resurgence and he becomes very popular again although it's actually for the wrong reasons. It's a very sweet film. I'm extremely proud of it. I think John is tremendous in it.

TeenHollywood: Isn't your dad in it too?

Colin: My dad is in it for like two scenes so that was fun. I brought the project to his company. Someone had suggested that Playtone would maybe be a good company to send it to. Dad's production partner said, 'Yes, we'd love to make this film', and my Dad said, 'Yeah, this is good. We'll make this and I wanna be your Dad so we can forever catch on film the fact that I'm chastising you.' [we laugh]. So when the producer of your film that also happens to be a really good actor says that he wants to be in your film you just sort of say, 'Okay'. I don't think I had much say in it anyway. It was fun. It was two days of work and we had a good time.

TeenHollywood: Do you actually go looking or does your father go looking for things to do with you?

Colin: No. "Buck Howard" just sort of happened. It sort of worked out organically and that's how all good things happen. It wasn't pre-planned or anything like that. Even while we were acting together it was sort of just fun and at the end of that first night we just both sort of went, 'Well, eh, huh, that was fun.'

TeenHollywood: What other films are you in that we haven't seen yet?

Colin: I have another film that's coming in February that I believe is now being called My Mom's New Boyfriend. I'm the kid. It's my mom's new boyfriend. Then I've got another film coming out in August that I believe is called I Know What Boys Like. Those are both comedies. I like to change it up. I do the scary, I do the sweet, I do the silly. I like to mix it up.

TeenHollywood: Who is playing the mom in "Mom's New Boyfriend".

Colin: Meg Ryan and the boyfriend is played by Antonio Banderas, Ironically, two people that have played my Dad's lovers. [We laugh. Antonio was Tom's significant other in Philadelphia and Meg was his sweetie in Sleepless in Seattle]. Antonio was very nice. On the first day of filming I stepped into my trailer and there was a big bouquet of flowers with a note that said 'I was once your father's boyfriend. I hope this won't get in the way.'

TeenHollywood: Great sense of humor, that Zorro guy.

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