SEX, DRUGS, AND TEENAGE MISCHIEF ARE A TICKET TO STARDOM FOR THE NEW MALE LEADS OF THE HIT BRITISH TV SHOW SKINS

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After the runaway success of the first two seasons of the British TV series Skins—and the astronomic rise of one of its stars, Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel—the newly minted stars of the third season, which features an almost entirely new cast, have reason to be excited. From the thousands who attended the show’s open auditions, the producers chose three lucky guys as the new season’s male leads: Jack O’Connell as the wild man Cook, Ollie Barbieri as the sensitive JJ, and Luke Pasqualino as the skateboard-mad stoner Freddie. To win his part, Pasqualino spent four-and-a-half famished hours in the queue as auditioner number 5,282. Barbieri attended the auditions as a joke with a friend. Only O’Connell had acting experience, including an appearance in Shane Meadows’s 2006 skinhead drama, This Is England.

But the thrill of winning their roles was quickly replaced by the pressure to live up to the popularity of their predecessors. The first cast helped make the show a byword for outrageous, off-the-rails teens. (Whenever a family home gets trashed in the U.K. now, the press mentions Skins in its reports.) The plot lines are enough to put parents in therapy—but is the teenage species really off its collective head on sex, drugs, and more sex and drugs? “The more rock-and-roll aspect of it doesn’t really reflect what I was getting up to at that age,” says Pasqualino. “But there were definitely people I knew who were.” Their Skins characters have changed the way people relate to the actors in their personal lives. “Everyone thinks I’m this wild boy and I’m going to get my cock out everywhere,” O’Connell laughs. His costars agree. “I’ve struck it lucky because I play a goon,” Barbieri says. “So people expect me to be like that and I come across as really cool by comparison.”

All three actors have their eyes on life after Skins too (the cast will turn over again following the conclusion of the fourth season later this year), but for now, they’re enjoying the ride and have become close mates. “The way I look at it, even being here today is a big enough achievement, especially when I think about where I’ve come from and what was expected of me,” says O’Connell. “Going through school, I don’t think I showed much potential academically, so this is all just too mind-blowing.”

SEASON THREE OF SKINS AIRS ON BBC AMERICA THIS JUNE

HAIR GARETH VAN CUYLENBRUG USING AVEDA (STREETERS)
GROOMING ATTRACTA COURTNEY USING GIORGIO ARMANI SKIN CARE
PHOTO ASSISTANT PHIL DUNLOP
STYLIST ASSISTANT SOPHIE LAWRENCE

SOURCE: http://www.vman.com/articles/skins/?page=1
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