Trevor Morgan: Just a normal, lucky guy

Curtain-raisers:

• Condolence to Los Angeles-based movie journalist Baby K. Jimenez whose mother, Felicitas "Itang" Jimenez (BKJ is a "junior"), died at 85 last July 26. Her remains are at the Resurrection (formerly Labrador) Church in Biñan, Laguna, where the burial will be held at the Eternal Garden on Wednesday, Aug. 1, after the 2 p.m. mass. BKJ and friend Pearl are home from L.A.

• Congratulations to Francis Vincent Sarabia Ong who passed the optometry board exams, making her dear mom, Vivian Sarabia, very proud.

• Some corrections to yesterday’s Conversations piece with Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez who flew to the US last Wednesday to study at Harvard (no less!). Mayor Joey is taking a course in public administration for only three weeks and not three months as mentioned in Conversations. His and Alma Moreno’s son Vittorio (not Victory) Joe, a.k.a. VJ, is enrolled at Southville International (not South Villa which is a restaurant).

• Zsa Zsa Padilla is looking somewhat "healthy" these days (watch A.S.A.P. and it’s very obvious), so if she can’t work out or go into a drastic diet, she should avoid, if she can, wearing those tight-fitting outfit. I hope this little item won’t ignite another national controversy. Payong-kapatid lang po, ma’am!

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Because he wasn’t the boy who saw dead people walking in the megahit scary movie The Sixth Sense, Trevor Morgan doesn’t just yet catch as much attention – and adulation – as does his co-star in that movie, Haley Joel Osment (don’t miss him in the new Steven Spielberg movie, A.I., Artificial Intelligence… you’ll love him all the more!), the guy who could see what ordinary boys like him couldn’t.

But movie fans for sure are having a closer look at Trevor in his latest outing, Jurassic Park III (now showing in Metro Manila theaters… catch it!), in which he plays the adventurous teenage son of an estranged couple (Tea Leoni and William H. Macy) who got lost with his adult companion on Isla Sorna in the unwelcome company of dinosaurs (just when you thought they’ve been extinct…).

Funfare had the rare privilege of seeing up closer the bubbly Trevor who, after The Sixth Sense, played the son of Mel Gibson in The Patriot (for which Trevor was nominated for the Hollywood Reporter Young Star Award) and will soon be seen in The Glass House and The Rookie (topbilled by Dennis Quaid). The opportunity came last month during the press junket for Jurassic Park III at the Universal Studios in L.A. where, during the round-table interview (the following day, after the one-on-one TV interview) with a dozen entertainment journalists from around the world, Trevor regaled us with anecdotes and his effervescent manner of answering questions.

How did he get, well, "entangled" with the dinosaurs (led by the Spinosaurus, a new star out to compete for your frightened attention with the T-Rex)?

Smiling, Trevor said, "I guess I’m just lucky. Mr. (Steven) Spielberg, Jurassic Park III producer (with Joe Johnston as director), saw me in The Patriot and I guess he liked me. Besides, I’ve known Kathleen Kennedy (Spielberg’s co-producer) from The Sixth Sense. I guess I’m just lucky."

That’s Trevor’s favorite word – lucky.

"I saw the first Jurassic Park when I was 6. I lined up at the theater on opening day. I remember it to be scary but I couldn’t look away from the screen. I’m a big Jurassic fan, you know. I come from a small suburb and all they were talking about at that time was, ‘Have you seen Jurassic Park? Isn’t it scary?’ Now that I’m a part of it, I don’t find it scary at all; it’s fun. Being in Jurassic Park (III) is a dream come true. I guess I’m just lucky."

In September when he starts high-school life in California (where the family has moved from Chicago), Trevor should be a campus figure – you know, a star in his own right.

"I don’t think so," he begged off, taking a sip of Pepsi straight from the can. "I don’t expect to be. You see, I’m just a normal kid who’s lucky. My friends don’t treat me like a star and I like it that way. I don’t expect my schoolmates to laugh even at my corny jokes just because, as many people might think, I feel like a star. I have my feet firmly planted on the ground."

At home, revealed Trevor who talked rapid-fire fashion, "nobody gives me any special treatment. I still have chores to do, like taking out the garbage and doing the dishes. I’m just a normal kid who’s lucky, you know."

But his mom, he complained in mock childlike irritation, is over-protective and has always been like that even before he joined showbiz, maybe because he’s the only child from the marriage (both his parents have been previously married to other partners, with their own respective children).

"She’s over-protective, I tell you," laughed Trevor who was accompanied to the press sessions by, you guessed it, his "over-protective" mom (who shied away from the interviews, though, making herself as inconspicuous as possible). "She won’t and she can’t go out to dinner with my Dad for one hour and leave me by myself… alone. So I told her, using the same dialogue I delivered in the movie (Jurassic Park III), ‘I’m 14. I can handle myself – alone. Look, Mom, I was alone in the jungle for eight weeks and I handled myself pretty well – alone.’ That doesn’t appease her," Trevor added, laughing. "She’s still as over-protective as ever."

The very articulate and very intelligent Trevor received another Young Artist Award nomination for his starring role in the telemovie The Genius where he could have been playing himself. He’s fun to interview, very talkative (with a lot of sense, I assure you!) as he was, and very engaging, sometimes answering before a question could be fired. "I knew what your next question is and I’m answering it now." Oh my, I guess he had a sixth sense!

Like when I asked him which scared him more…

"…dead people walking, or ghosts, or dinosaurs?" he asked with a very adult curiosity, jumping the gun on me. "As I told you, it was Haley and not I who saw dead people walking in our movie. But no, I’m not scared of ghosts or of dead people walking. Don’t you want to see some of them? Must be exciting – seeing dead people walking.

"Dinosaurs? Oh, I just love them. Nice creatures, very friendly. I wasn’t fond of them but after doing the movie, yes, I have become a dinosaur fan. I’ve become more curious about them. One of these days, I hope to bump into one, a real one. Can you tell me where I can find real dinosaurs?"

But first, what about the pretty, skirted species – girls, you know? I bet Trevor Morgan must now be the coolest guy on campus, post-Jurassic Park III.

"Guess again," he smiled, as if the joke was on us. "I’m not, I’m not. But how I wish, how I wish!"

He paused awhile, took another sip of Pepsi straight from the can and said, "Hopefully, I will be – someday!"

Well, he’s lucky, isn’t he?