Abercrombie & Fitch - Spring 2003 Catalog
Will Estes loved the '80s. The excess. The glamour. The music. The only problem was, born in 1978, he's too young to really remember it. Now, this
new-millennium guy is stuck in the '60s - starring as the star quaterback in NBC's hit drama American Dreams and getting a crash course in
tuning in, turning on and dropping out. A&F's Gary Kon finds Will in the present, looking backward, forward and every place in between.
When I was doing research on you, I did an Internet search on your name. Actually, first I typed in my name, and i found, like, 12 hits - most of which
were not even me -- and then I typed in yours. You had 44,800 hits. Is this the new way of determining how successful you are? Well, I guess between
that and fan mail, that's how you determine your fan base. You know, supposedly if you had 10,000 fans, one of them will write
a letter. I don't know where that came from; I just heard it.
Who do you think is your characteristic fan? (laughs) I think it's 12 year-old girls, actually. And I get "Cell Block 6" letters. So underage girls and
inmates. It cracks me up. The other day I was at a press event and Universal Studios. We're inside the park, and the Xena that was there really liked me. She said
she was gonna get a photo with me or else she'd get her sword.
That would be nice if your fan base became warrior princesses. Yeah, beautiful ogre women. That's fantastic. I never understand these actors who are like,
"I don't want to be famous; I just want to do good work." And I'm like, "If you do good work, people are going to like it." So how can you not want that and want to be
an actor? It's such a contradiction.
What do you think of the whole reality-TV craze? Not too much. To me they are all kind of like a train wreck. You don't want to watch, but you can't really pull
away. Oh gosh, I don't think I would be on any of them. I really liked
Cops, but I don't think I have really liked any since then.
Let's hope you won't be starring in that. No.
(laughs). No, hopefully not.
Did you do a lot of research for your show about the '60s? I think I did everything I could. They had a lot of
Bandstand footage I pored over when I got
the chance. I tried to inundate myself with the time. They gave us this big packet of current events from that year, which was 1963. It was a time of civil rights upheavel
and emerging feminism. And the music! My uncle was born the same year as my character, and my dad is only a couple years younger. I asked them, "What did you listen
to when you were 17?" I was surprised at the songs that they liked. For example, they weren't big on the Beatles until much later. All the girls loved them and all the guys
were...
A little jealous? "I Want to Hold Your Hand" wasn't the cool guy song back then. They liked songs like "Duke of Earl." It wasn't that long ago, but there were a lot of
differences. I think, more often than not, the whole family would sit around a table for dinner every night of the week. I don't think people do that anymore -- I know
I
didn't growing up.
What do you think was the best thing and the worst thing about growing up in the '60s? The worst thing probably didn't land on the head of a white kid, but there was
much more prejudice back then. They were still dealing with that stuff in public forums. I am sure it still happens today, but it was a lot more blatant if you were African American
or if you were a woman.
And the best thing? It was more innocent. And I will tell you something I liked personally: All the men wore suits when they went out. Everyone put a shirt and a tie on,
everyone dressed nice to get up and go to work, no matter what they did. I think that was classy. Nobody really does that these days. I think there is something to be
said about presentation.
Taking time to look good. Not just looking good. It seems like manners, etiquette was more important in public -- that's the impression that I get.
How does your TV family compare to your real family? That's a scary comparison. Well, I didn't have brothers and sisters and all that. But I think I've
learned about what it's like to live in a house with a brother or a sister after doing all these scenes. But how can I compare the two? My parents were products
of the '60s themselves. So they treated me differently than their parents had treated them. They were kind of the hippie generation. Although I don't know if I
could really call them hippies. My mm had jeans with flowers on them, though.
Does your real family have any weird kind of wholesome rituals, like playing Scrabble? We do! We totally played Scrabble, and my mom and my uncle
are totally titans. They average 20 points a play. I'm not kidding. I have been playing with them at their level and sometimes I win, but they are incredible.
What if you had to choose between making a mass-market movie that appealed to a wide range of people -- but it wasn't that artistic -- or a smaller,
independent film where you wouldn't get paid or get much exposure? Well, I think the best films are right between; they are ones that a lot of people can
understand. Just because something is different and low-budget doesn't make it good. It's so easy for people to say they like stuff when other people don't
like it, and it's so hard to like something that everybody already likes. And I certainly love my anonymity. I haven't gotten recognized at all off this show, and
it's really great. I mean, I saw Leonardo DiCaprio in a restaurant once, and he was like, huddled in a dark corner with all his friends around him. But I still
don't think you can hate being popular if you choose to be an actor, you know what I mean?
Will Estes photographed by David Needleman.
