DesMoinesRegister.com
Iowa Actor Knows What He Did Last Summer
By Jeffrey Bruner
November 3rd, 2005
Valley High graduate Ben Easter appreciates his recent good fortune.
"I really lucked out big time," he said. "I was in the right place at the right time."
That's the humble way to explain how he got the lead role in "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer," the third in a series of teen horror movies that Easter just completed filming.
Easter, 26, who grew up in West Des Moines, has been in California for about five years. He's done a pair of Taco Bell commercials, had a small part in "Pearl Harbor" and did a season on the MTV show "Undressed." He played himself in a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie called "The Challenge."
Rent and grocery money came from working security at a hotel. Well, until he got fired, but that's another story. You'll understand that he kept his expectations low when auditioning for the horror movie, which has a budget of $20 million.
"I got cast right off my tape. I didn't even meet with the producers at all," Easter said. "I went in for casting and a few days later I had an offer."
The movie, if you missed the first two, is about a legend surrounding a group of teens who accidentally kill a stranger and then must face the wrath of a mysterious revenge-seeking villain called "The Fisherman." The new movie moves the plot to Colorado.
Easter spent five weeks in September shooting the movie in Utah, which stood in for Colorado. He still has one more scene to shoot.
Easter really enjoyed working with director Sylvain White.
"He's got all of these surprises that he's throwing into these films," he said. "He's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve so it'll be a lot of fun. This experience couldn't have been better."