5 It turned out the agent was legit. Marsden was soon auditioning for roles each week. Because dad was footing the bills, all Marsden had to do was focus on his career. Marsden began with small roles on television shows such as Saved by the Bell: The New Class, The Nanny and Party of Five. He did television until landing his first major starring role alongside Katie Holmes in the 1998 horror film Disturbing Behavior. Over the years, his roles became bigger and better. He had a prominent role in the hit television series Ally McBeal. He was Lon Hammond in the classic romantic movie drama The Notebook and found serious fame as the comic book superhero Cyclops in the X-Men film series. Audiences swooned over his talent, screen presence, strong voice and good looks (Marsden also modeled during his career for fashion companies such as Versace). Then came hits like the musical Hairspray, Enchanted and his role opposite Katherine Heigl in 27 Dresses. This year has been one of his best. He played the lead role in the film HOP, an animated film grossing more than $100 million as one of the biggest movies of the spring. When he was interviewed for this article, Marsden was in Brussels, filming an American version of one of the most successful Belgian films ever, The Loft, part of a new direction in his career branching out into grittier roles. The movie is a Hitchcockian tale of a group of friends, a love nest and a murder. He jumped at the film’s twist-turning script, the opportunity to bring it to American audiences and the chance to work with Belgian director Erik Van Looy. “I haven’t seen a good thriller in a while,” Marsden says. “I’m such a fan of them. I wanted to see a good one made.” The Loft is part of a strenuous schedule of shooting during the last half of the year, including a starring role with actress Susan Sarandon in the quirky film Robot and Frank. On top of that, Marsden stars alongside Kate Bosworth in Straw Dogs, a thriller released in September. Marsden used to remark during interviews that he’s in that fame sweet spot in which he didn’t get recognized much when he went to the grocery store. That has long since changed. The toughest part, he says, is the time he has to spend away from his family, including his two children. He hasn’t been back to Stillwater since he left more than 20 years ago. He goes home to Oklahoma City each year to visit family during the holidays and sees some of his fraternity brothers regularly there. “A lot of my memories of Stillwater are with the fraternity,” he says. “Lots of people go abroad and travel to Europe after high school. I got to hang out at OSU. And it was great.” He decided he was going to Los Angeles to make it big. “I don’t know if it was courage or just complete ignorance, to be honest,” Marsden says. “It was like I wasn’t thinking it through that much. Maybe that was to my advantage,” he says. “It was sort of against what most people do growing up where I grew up. A lot of people dream of doing that. Rarely does anybody actually pursue that or find success in it. I wasn’t someone who played by the rules, anyway. I wasn’t conforming to any sort of ‘this is the way you’re supposed to do it — this is the way your life is supposed to turn out for you.’ I was just open to all possibilities.” Marsden’s parents supported him all the way. “Telling them I wanted to go to Hollywood was kind of like telling your parents you’re going to Vegas to win the jackpot,” he says. “They saw talent in me. They thought, ‘This probably isn’t the one we turn into a CPA.’” Marsden made a deal with his dad to take care of his rent and expenses for a year in Los Angeles. His dad knew an agent in Los Angeles. If it didn’t work out in a year, he’d come back to OSU and finish school.
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