The Talented Mr. Timberlake

What’s the Latest Development?

As another of Justin Timberlake’s movies debut this week, he demonstrates the distance he has put between his current incarnation as an actor and his more youthful pursuits, including The Mickey Mouse Club and the boyband ‘N Sync. His assention to the summit of Hollywood, however, has not been characterized by blind ambition. “Early on especially, I turned down a lot of scripts that were targeted to a demographic I already had,” he says. “It’s about being patient, and having something in the back of your mind about not getting pigeonholed.”

What’s the Big Idea?

The path Timberlake is making through Hollywood recalls an earlier era where industry favorites were used for a wide variety of different roles. It is a path that emphasizes both his ability as an actor and his conscious decision to avoid the pitfalls of typecasting, which has loomed over his carreer especially since the boyband days. But niether can one typecast Timberlake as an actor. Having recently bought a part of MySpace, he sees himself as a creative consultant to the site. Beyond this, he has interests in the fashion and culinary world.