He looked great in a military uniform as J.J. Pryor, the soulful oldest brother on “American Dreams” and as a torpedo man on a submarine in the spy thriller movie U-571. Handsome Will Estes, veteran of a lot of TV comedies and child star of “The New Lassie” series years ago, is taking on a new adult challenge as one of the long time friends facing murder, mystery and intrigue in the new Fox TV series “Reunion”.

Playing Will, small-town guy with big time problems, Estes joins Alexa Davalos, Sean Faris, Amanda Righetti, Dave Annable and Chyler Leigh as they take on the roles of high school pals through the years until their 20th high school reunion covering all the mysteries and relationships in between.

We caught up with Will on a break on the Vancouver set of the series where he was kicking back with his dog Baby Girl. Will walks us through on-set pranks, bonding with his castmates, his thoughts about his “American Dreams” J.J. Pryor character and the time when he nearly gave up acting…Tune in….

TeenTelevision: How different is this series for you than "American Dreams”? They are both big ensemble shows.
Will: It’s a lot different. “American Dreams” took place in the ‘60’s. “Reunion” takes place from the ‘80’s all the way to present day. The main thing that pops out is these are six friends, all about my age (26) so it’s got a younger attitude to it. It’s a younger storyline.

TeenTelevision: Did you go to college or play sports like your character?
Will: I didn’t play sports. Neither did he, actually. He (Will in the series) was about to play sports and then he ends up taking the fall for his friend and ended up going to prison. Years later, he’s trying to go to school to get a law degree. He lost his scholarship when he went to prison.

TeenTelevision: I was only able to see the pilot. Have you revealed who is dead yet?
Will: We have shot it but the public is going to find out within a few more episodes.

TeenTelevision: Are you attracted to mystery films and books?
Will: I am. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the genre but I definitely enjoy a good mystery if it plays out smart. If don’t like if it they mislead you the whole way just to mislead you. I like it when it’s clever.

TeenTelevision: Do you have any friends that you have had for years and imagine you’ll always have?
Will: I do. I have friends that I imagine I’ll have for the rest of my life but they aren’t all friends that know each other and hang out like this group of friends. I think the actors have almost mimicked it in a way because we’re all up here in Vancouver. We’re having a lot of fun together. It’s cool to be someone’s friend and get to play that on TV. It takes a lot of the work as an actor out of the job.

TeenTelevision: Do the actors on the series hang out in private time off set?
Will: We haven’t had a whole lot of time. I’m moving into a place that I’m trying to furnish so I’m off doing that on the weekends but we’ve gone out to eat and gone out to the movies and to just have a drink certain places. We’ve been all over.

TeenTelevision: Who is the troublemaker and who is the peacemaker of the group?
Will: [laughs] We’re all a little bit of trouble. We all rally each other. It’s funny. If somebody doesn’t want to come out and the rest of us are going, it’s pretty much a given that everybody is going to get that person to go. I think what’s amazing about this cast is an adhesion to camaraderie. If someone is down about something or is having a problem, one of us will pick up the slack and say ‘hey’ and talk to that person. We’ve fallen into looking out for each other because we’re all in the same boat up here. We all have a healthy respect for each other and it’s been great.

TeenTelevision: Which of the female characters would the real Will be attracted to?
Will: I think I’m in love with all three of ‘um.

TeenTelevision: Smart answer. What is the car of your dreams?
Will: Dream car, an old Shelby Cobra. He designed the first Cobras in the ‘60’s.

TeenTelevision: What TV shows do you watch or Tivo when you can?
Will: No Tivo in Canada. I have my TV set up to BBC World so I can feel I’m connected to the rest of the planet. I like watching comedies. I’ll usually watch "Seinfeld" or "The Simpsons" or "Everybody Loves Raymond" and I’ll watch the forensic science shows [like "CSI"]. And, I like the nature shows. Like when some tiger goes after a gazelle or something on the whole gorilla social structure. I don’t know why.

TeenTelevision: What would you have liked to have seen happen to your J.J. character on “American Dreams” to wrap up his story the way you would want to?

Will: I felt that he was a character who was searching. I would have liked for him to find something that settled him a little bit at work or in the family situation. I think a lot of him was at home in the military so I think he would have been happy with a career in the military or he would have been happy being a part of the space program but all we ever got to see him do was get coffee. He worked so hard at doing a lot of things and making things happen in life. He was such a good guy. I would have liked to have seen him end up with more payoff. Maybe not be an astronaut but just becoming a pilot.

TeenTelevision: Has anything funny happened while shooting or on the “Reunion” set that you can pass on to the fans?
Will: Well, we’ve had a few decorated dressing rooms. It was someone’s birthday and the girls started decorating it very nicely with happy birthday stuff but then the guys had a hand in it. I don’t think Chyler [Leigh] even knows this yet but she’s doing sort of a gnome thing, a picturementary if you will and none of us really quite understood why she was taking pictures with gnomes but she left this in her camera in her dressing room and we pretty much all had a go at the camera, I’m wondering if she’s watching the counter on her camera because it’s about spent and I don’t think she took any of the pictures. Maybe she’ll read this first. Uh oh.

TeenTelevision: Do you have ambitions to write or direct as well?
Will: I never really have. I really enjoy acting. I have lately been thinking about the possibility of directing but I don’t think I know anything about it so I hesitate to even say that but I think some projects I would be interested in directing when I learn more about it. Recently, I’ve been watching directors and learning more. We’ve got an amazing D.P.

TeenTelevision: Anything planned for hiatus time?
Will: I’ve just started looking at projects. I’ll go home for the holidays on a short break but I’ve actually got to put myself on tape for something. You reminded me. Just now starting to get scripts to shoot doing the hiatus.

TeenTelevision: I hadn’t realized what an extensive career you had as a child actor. How have you avoided the pitfalls that a lot of them have had? (money worries, can’t make the transition etc.)
Will: Yeah, well I had a mom to keep me in line instead of all those problems. I got lucky. I transitioned into a lot of sitcom work as a teenager. I found a niche at Warner Brothers in sitcom work and really enjoyed the heck out of that and I had some down periods. I went over a year without working at one point and that was serious. Not working for a few months, you don’t know if you are ever going to work again. You can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong. The odds are that you’ll work again but it’s difficult. At that point, I thought seriously about doing other things but I ended up getting on U-571. I got to live in Rome and we shot in Malta for a month and I said ‘okay, I’ll stick this out for a little while’. It was a life changing experience living overseas that long. I fell in love with acting again.

TeenTelevision: Does your character on “Reunion” have a dark side that we haven’t really seen yet?
Will: I don’t think he does. Some people think he does. But, that’s my personal opinion. That doesn’t mean they aren’t going to write something differently. We all have some sort of a dark side.

TeenTelevision: You are into ‘80’s music? Which artists?
Will: I like alot of old ‘80’s stuff. I like Pat Benatar, The Ramones, The Clash. I like New Order, Morissey and The Smiths. I like some of Audio Slave’s stuff. I don’t like a lot of stuff that’s brand new out now. Rock and Roll hasn’t been great since the ‘90’s with Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana.

TeenTelevision: How many dogs do you have and names?
Will: My baby girl is sleeping right here on the bed with me. I have two dogs but the male dog is happy with my mom and all her dogs and I thought he would be happiest in L.A. That was a tough decision for me to make but I’m confident that he’s happier there. We only call my female dog Baby Girl. She’s a mutt, like chow, lab, pit, something. She’s the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet.

TeenTelevision: Are you a motorcycle collector.. are you into motocross competition or just for fun?
Will: My dad put me on a Honda 350 when I was six or seven years old and it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my life so I know how to ride a motorcycle. I’ve had a dirt bike ever since and I got into road bikes I guess five or seven years ago. I’m not a collector. I just like bikes.

TeenTelevision: You and Michelle Trachtenberg worked together as kids and again on the TV movie “The Dive From Clausen’s Pier”. Are you two buddies?
Will: We’ve bumped into each other a few times. We’re great friends. It’s always funny to see each other then we ended up working on “The Dive From Clausen’s Pier” together. That was fun too.

TeenTelevision: Did you have to research what a paraplegic has to go through for that role?
Will: Yeah. I got the chance to do more research for that role than probably anything else I’ve ever worked on and it was pretty powerful.

TeenTelevision: Any message for the fans of “Reunion”?
Will: Thanks so much for watching everybody!

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.