Hollywood or bust
Big Wolf wisecracker Danny Smith avoids men in tights
by George Maddux
Except for the black dye putting the lie in his naturally blond hair, Danny Smith, 24, says he's not all that different from Merton Dingle, the werewolf's wisecracking best friend he's portrayed for three years in the locally produced teen TV show Big Wolf on Campus. "It's not too hard to play because the character's sense of humour is my own," says the Beaconsfield native who grew up near Toronto. "I get to act like a big goof and they pay me for it. It's the best job in the world."Smith's earliest thespian inclinations started through class-clownery and high school plays, which eventually resulted in an invition to join a prestigious New York acting academy. But Smith, who admits to being a big Jerry Lewis fan, chose not to go. "There were guys running around in tights in the hallway," he explains from his bed during a pause in a game of Scrabble with his girlfriend in his Westmount apartment. Smith instead enrolled in Toronto's Second City troupe, where his over-the-top zaniness landed him the role of the annoying video clerk in John Woo's The Big Hit. He was also invited to audition for the cast of Saturday Night Live. "It was insanely nerve-wracking."
Smith eventually sees himself in Los Angeles but not before filming a new batch of Big Wolf episodes in a studio near the Orange Julep, where he will spend "seven months, 14 hours a day, seven days a week." In spite of being the focus of much lusty teen longing as evidenced on various Web sites, Smith denies he's teen idol material. "I don't think I'm a sex symbol. If I am, that's scary. Although I have gotten some interesting photos in the mail."
