NEW YORK-Justin Chatwin was six weeks shy of his 18th birthday when he left his home in Nanaimo for the University of British Columbia's engineering program. His father had graduated with an engineering degree, and the younger Chatwin was determined to try it out. He lasted a week before switching to commerce. "I just didn't fit in with that group of people," he recalls. "And I hated what I was learning. It was driving me nuts. Nothing at that point in my life made any sense to me. I thought 'I am not supposed to be here,' and I didn't click with anyone. It was also tough to be away from home for the first time.''

Commerce wasn't much better. Weeks later, he took a few hours off school to accompany a friend who was going to an audition. That clicked. Chatwin got a role in a Vancouver-shot miniseries called Christy, Choices of the Heart, Part I: A Change of Seasons and began cutting classes to attend auditions. Within a year he had left school and moved into an apartment behind the Cecil Hotel to focus on a career he'd never expected. Just four years later, he is playing Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds, which is directed by Steven Spielberg. (The movie is currently playing in Vancouver.)

Because Chatwin had been acting for just five years, he was happy to be given the chance to audition for the film. He says he was hardly prepared for winning a role. "I had auditioned for the film in L.A. and got on a plane to meet my dad in Saskatchewan to go duck hunting. When I was leaving L.A., I told my agent, 'Don't call me. Leave me alone unless it's an emergency.' So I got the call, and I called back from outside a Canadian Tire in minus-10 [degree weather] and my agent told me I had the role. I didn't sleep the next three days. I had a weird out-of-body experience where I couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but I did know that this movie was going to open up a new world of opportunities for me."

Things didn't change quickly. Chat?win says that he witnessed firsthand the difference in the treatment received by a movie star and an actor taking on his first big role. "I went in on the first day of shooting and no one knew who I was," he says. "There were barricades around the location and I got pushed back behind them. Some guy asked, 'Where do you think you're going?' I said, 'I have a part in this movie and I am here to support Tom on his first day of work,' and he didn't believe me. I finally managed to get on [set] and I went over to talk to Steven, but the same guy saw me and said, 'Look, I am not going to tell you again.' I am hoping that kind of thing will change when the movie comes out."