He's that funny, goofy guy from Empire Records. The bass player for the Wonders from That Thing You Do! Hey, wasn't he the snotty little rich kid in Dutch?

For the record, his name is Ethan Embry (though he used to be known as Ethan Randall before switching to his grandfather's last name). And while Jennifer Love Hewitt might be the biggest name in the new teen party film Can't Hardly Wait, Embry is arguably the star.

Does the Los Angeles-area native, who turns 20 on Saturday, behave like a typical Gen-X sensation on the verge of breaking into the big time?

Um, no.

Ask him about his audition for the part of love-smitten Preston Meyers in Can't Hardly Wait, opening in theatres Friday, and you won't hear first about the nerve-wracking, competitive process of trying out for parts.

You'll hear about his skateboarding accident.

"I had just purchased my first downhill skateboard, and I was at my friend's house," Embry recalls. "He has this very long cliff out front of his house, and I got going, like 45 or 50, and I didn't have a shirt on, and I fell and I slid.

"My whole back just turned into meat. So I had gauze wrapping like any old burn victim. I looked like Yogi the Bear going in there. Or, what was it? Smokey the Bear."

Smokey, Yogi, who can tell them apart?

Talking with Embry, it's hard to believe this bubbly, fun-loving, kind of out-there young fella is able to get it together enough to act.

But act he does, having made 14 films so far, ranging from the likes of Vegas Vacation to Ridley Scott's White Squall to this year's sensitive Dancer, Texas, Pop. 81.

In Can't Hardly Wait, Embry's character pursues the teen queen, played by Love Hewitt, at the final party of their high school years. He must profess his love for her before the night is out, but fate keeps getting in the way.

Relying on the guiding hand of destiny seems to be one of Embry's traits, from being discovered at the age of 11 while taking an acting workshop to jetting off to France with his White Squall co-stars on the spur of the moment.

Embry, Scott Wolf (from TV's Party of Five) and three other of White Squall's male co-stars were sitting in a London airport after wrapping up overseas filming, waiting to catch connecting flights back home.

"We heard all these boarding calls to go to Paris. It sounded very tempting," says Embry. "We didn't have any money, we didn't have any clothes because they were all checked in. We just had ourselves, and I had my guitar.

"So we all jumped on a plane and we went to Paris for six days after that. We slept underneath the Eiffel Tower because we didn't have any money."

Embry appreciates the fact that his star hasn't yet risen to the degree where he gets recognized and harassed while out snowboarding with his buddies, or while catching a movie with his girlfriend of three years, musician-model Heather Porcaro.

"I never had a dream of being famous or anything like that, and I don't even want that now," he says.

"The only person who ever recognizes me is at the video store, and they deduct my late charges. So it's cool."