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Phoenix grad lands part in popular movie Photo by Drew Fleming Cris Lee stumbled into an acting job and a part in the hit movie "The Bachelor." By BILL VARBLE Lee figured the best place to get a job with his freshly minted computer animation degree was media-happy Los Angeles. Instead of paychecks he collected some 50 rejection letters. "I gotta do something," he thought. In desperation, Lee, 23, called the agent who had represented him when he was briefly a child actor on the TV show "The Wonder Years" when his family lived in Southern California eight years ago. The agent wasn't in the business anymore, but she hooked him up with a casting agency. "They're like, `Yeah, we can get you extra jobs,"' says Lee, a 1994 graduate of Phoenix High School. "I'm like, `That's cool.' I did extra parts in a few TV shows, just background, then I just happened to luck out." Luck, indeed. That's Lee in "The Bachelor" with Chris O'Donnell. It debuted earlier this month on more than 2,500 movie screens and remains among the top 10 box office hits nationally, raking in more than $14 million in two weeks. It's an update of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy "Seven Chances" about a man (O'Donnell this time) who must find a bride within 24 hours in order to collect a $100 million inheritance. The picture co-stars Renee Zellweger, Artie Lange and Edward Asner. "I got to hang out with Chris and Renee," Lee says. "They're really cool. I had a great time." "I thought he was wonderful," says Heather McDougal, of Phoenix, a friend of Lee's from high school. "He must be doing something right." In one scene Lee and O'Donnell play guys waiting for their dates to come down in an elevator. Lee's character is nervous, and the couple are supposed to walk to a table. In the shoot, a nervous-in-real-life Lee stepped on the dress of the actress playing his date. "They thought I did it on purpose," he says. "It was hilarious." The scene was shot a year ago in Chatsworth near Los Angeles. Whether a good bit of business or a bumbling accident, the dress-stepping footage wound up on the cutting room floor. Lee took drama at Phoenix High School but wasn't serious about it. "I wanted to have a class with my girlfriend," he says. He tried out for plays but didn't get any parts. He got a C-minus in the class. His interest lay in the cartoons he drew for the school paper. He went to the Art Institute of Seattle and earned an associate degree in computer animation. He went to L.A. seeking a computer job, but the movie door just swung open. "I just have a look they want," he says. A professional actor friend told him his look is that of the guy who says "I'm all over it" in the TV hamburger commercials. Lee says O'Donnell is totally cool. "He's like, `Hey man, how's it goin', nice to work with you. The pleasure's all mine.' "Renee's great too. She had her dog on the set wandering around." Lee talked with another casting director about a monster part (a part as a monster, not a gigantic part), but the day job he eventually landed got in the way. He's working at Fox Interactive, the entertainment conglomerate's video publisher, as a quality assurance tester. In plain language, he plays video games all day. He's helping design a game based on the film and TV show, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." He says he's talking with Fox about a bigger role in a movie with a screenplay by Kristen Sutter, who's written for "Seinfeld." He has no plans to take acting lessons. "I really don't see what the point is," he says. He knows he's been lucky. "I know a lot of people who want to be famous actors," he says. "Every waiter and waitress in L.A. The competition is really tough, and here am I just not really trying. And it's only getting better." ("The Bachelor" is playing at Tinseltown in Medford and at Movies 6 in Grants Pass. Please see Tempo for times.) Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA