The Nifty 50 – Stephen Dorff, Actor

This month, T celebrates the Nifty 50: America’s up-and-coming talent.

What kind of actor is Stephen Dorff? The man is 36, and he’s been on screen since he was 12, so we should have some clues. He’s played the fifth Beatle (Backbeat), an arch vampire (Blade), a guerrilla filmmaker (Cecil B. Demented), an unhinged gangster (Public Enemies), a sadistic crime boss (Shadowboxer) and a transsexual Superstar (I Shot Andy Warhol). “I’ve always kind of liked my career: There’s been a bit of mystery,” he said. “It’s never had that ridiculous amount of attention for one thing.”

And yet after all these years and all those roles, Stephen Dorff might be on the brink of that one thing. Sofia Coppola picked him to star in her fourth feature film, Somewhere about a fame-crazed 30-something actor living at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood. “I understood a lot of the character because I lived at the Chateau Marmont before,” said Dorff, who celebrated his 21st birthday party at the hotel and moved back in during the film shoot.

“I’ve got some crazy memories there,” he said of his first stay. “A lot of creative people have had their stint at the Chateau. Whether it’s Hunter Thompson, who lived in the room where we shot the movie, or Helmut Newton or Jim Morrison. It just has a vibe that attracted a lot of young people. And I was one of them.” Dorff is good friends with Coppola, whom he calls “Sof,” and they share a best friend, Zoe Cassavetes. Still, he received the part from Coppola as manna, and has since said that it’s the best role he’s been offered, ever. “I almost feel like she made me cool again,” he said.

Of course, some would believe that getting a nod from Adam Sandler is cooler than one from Sofia Coppola. In Sandler’s porn comedy, Born to Be a Star, scheduled to be released later this year, Dorff plays Dick Shadow, a hugely popular porn star with blond hair extensions. With these two roles, Dorff is primed for a very public 2010. “I get where I’m going and where the world’s going. But I feel like maybe it’s a benefit that I’ve been through the whole craze when I was younger,” he said. “I’ve been on magazine covers before.”

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Pictures from the shoot by Photographer Fabrice Trombert have been added to the gallery:

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