Music | What's On Your iPod? Five hits from Patrick Fugit’s iPhone. 

That’s why, when Fugit comes up to the office for a stroll through his well-stocked iPhone, the stories about how Jason Schwartzman or Macaulay Culkin or Jena Malone or Cameron Crowe hipped him to whatever song shuffled up are mildly surprising—because you forget that this “domey dude” is an actor—and no big deal, because Pat Fugit hasn’t been eclipsed by his fame. “After Almost Famous, I was hot,” he said with a roll of his eyes. Instead of auditions, Fugit’s performance as William Miller earned him meetings with network executives. “Wow,” thought the then-18-year-old. “This is easy.”

Almost Famous was Fugit’s first real role outside of two appearances on the SLC-produced TV schmaltzfest Touched By An Angel. In the film, he played William Miller, a character loosely based on director Crowe’s days as a young rock journalist under the tutelage of the late great Lester Bangs. Although Almost Famous was an overwhelmingly positive experience, young Fugit sensed he wouldn’t care for playing Hollywood grab-ass. It stemmed from his school days, when he was harassed by “typical evil little Mormon kids” for being a non-Mormon (in schools populated by grandchildren of Mormon hierarchy) and unashamed of his mother-facilitated ballet lessons.

“You know how in Adam Sandler movies, he’s always fighting the O’Doyles? I had the McConkies.” As with almost any reasonably well-adjusted former outsider, Fugit looks back on the experience with sardonic humor—he’s had the last laugh. “When I think about the jocks who hassled me, it’s like, ‘Are you still playing football? How are those knees?’”

That’s as bitter as Fugit gets. His contempt isn’t so much for his assailants as their actions, and he’s a silver-lining kind of guy. As to the seeming indignity of wearing tights and prancing about, he says he “enjoyed the discipline and physicality” and that elements of ballet—such as pantomime—helped prepare him for a summer acting workshop when he was 11. Four years later, he was almost famous.

He says he was lucky to have people watching out for him—Crowe, his wife Nancy Wilson, and co-star Billy Crudup all took Fugit under their wing and helped keep him grounded. “I didn’t really buy into the [partying],” he says, “but in L.A., it was really easy to buy into the hype. I felt gross, like I was setting myself up for a big fall.”

Sometimes, Fugit wonders if he made the right move. “Who knows what [opportunities I’d have had] if I stayed in L.A.?” But, staying here, he’s been able to choose his roles, like the drama White Oleander (2002), drug movie Spun (2003) and organized religion spoof Saved! (2004). Occasionally he works on the honor system, taking gladly-pay-you-Tuesday roles in return for artistic integrity. Case in point: the 2006 film Wristcutters: A Love Story, a loopy cult film that was a festival darling, nominated for eight awards and winning four, including Best Director (Seattle International Film Festival) and Best Feature (Gen Art 06).

And Cirque du Freak is a Universal Studios film based on Darren Shan’s series of young adult vampire novels where Fugit plays the snake boy in a freak show alongside Salma Hayek and John C. Reilly. Maybe the Cirque series isn’t a saccharine love story with nutty fans, but it’s a proven worldwide seller and award-winner. As for his musical taste, Fugit’s bashful when it comes up between the Iron & Wine, Estrella Morente, Modest Mouse, Johnny Cash and Mos Def tunes that his iPhone selects for us, but it smells like a winner.
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