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Kevin Covais, who was on 'American Idol,' has his share of the raunch in film debut 'College'
By Rafer Guzman
Newsday
Published on Friday, Aug 29, 2008
MELVILLE, N.Y.: The last time most of us saw Kevin Covais, he was a pale-faced, adorably scrawny lad of 16, running the gauntlet of Simon, Paula and Randy on Fox's American Idol in 2006. White scalp shining through a close-cropped buzz, glasses perched on his nose, the Levittown, N.Y., native crooned Josh Groban's You Raise Me Up well enough to make it to Hollywood, and America came to know him as Chicken Little, a nickname given him by cast mate Paris Bennett. Though he narrowly missed becoming a top-10 finalist, he got a hero's welcome when Nassau County, N.Y., Executive Tom Suozzi declared March 30, 2006, as Kevin Covais Day.
What's Chicken Little been doing since then? Among other things, growing up.
The man — at 19, no longer a boy — is on his own for the first time, sharing a pad with roommates in Los Angeles. Visiting New York last week, he talked about his film debut in the comedy College, and it's no kiddie flick. The R-rated movie, which opens nationwide in theaters today, focuses on three high school boys who experience a wild weekend at a college campus; the poster shows a young man apparently vomiting into a toilet.
Covais' next project isn't exactly a Disney movie, either. In Labor Pains, he plays an office intern opposite Lindsay Lohan, who stars as an unhappy worker faking a pregnancy to save her job. (The movie is due out next year.)
Sitting down last week at Brother Jimmy's BBQ on Manhattan's West Side to eat half a shrimp po-boy — the other half went to his father, John, a retired corrections officer, at a nearby table — Kevin Covais still seemed fresh-faced and earnest: His favorite words were ''definitely'' and ''excited.'' But he also revealed a mind of his own and a clear-eyed view of his own modest celebrity status. (His waitress, an aspiring singer herself, didn't recognize her customer's face or name.)
''I'm going to be perfectly honest,'' Covais said. ''The further away you get from doing something like Idol, if you're not right back out there with a single or an acting opportunity, people tend to forget.''
Covais certainly ran that risk. After Idol, he turned down opportunities to cut a record, mostly because the concepts struck him as ''unoriginal,'' he said. ''I think I had a different vision, a vision for myself,'' he said. Instead, he took a semester of general classes at Hofstra University and turned to his other childhood dream — acting. As it turned out, Deb Hagan, the director of College, was a regular Idol watcher and had wanted Covais in her film from the moment she read the script. His role: an adorably scrawny kid named Morris Hooper.
''Whether he could act or not, I didn't know,'' Hagan said in a phone interview. ''But if we could capture the Chicken Little that I saw on American Idol, I felt like we'd be in good shape.''
Alongside cast mates Drake Bell (from Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh) and Andrew Caldwell (from the Owen Wilson comedy Drillbit Taylor), Covais had to shoulder his share of raunch.
''I don't think Kevin realized going into it how physical the role would be,'' Hagan said. She taught the tee-totaling Covais how to ''walk drunk,'' forced him to lick the toes of Gary Owen (playing a domineering frat dude) and had him simulate a quickie sexual encounter.
''There were quite a few risque scenes,'' Covais acknowledged. ''I've already told fans who have asked about the movie, 'If you're as young as I think you are, you should probably wait about five to seven years to see it.' ''
Labor Pains also fell into Covais' lap — one read-through and the part was his, he said. And it was ''thrilling'' to work with Lohan, whom he described as punctual, professional and personable, despite her somewhat rocky reputation.
''There were people who worked on Labor Pains who had previously worked with her on other projects,'' Covais said. ''But I heard from those same people that there was a drastic improvement and she was doing really well. I can tell you for a fact that every day I was on set and working, she was there on time, and she delivered really admirably.''
Covais still has one more childhood dream to pursue. He's hoping that brief semester at Hofstra will lay the groundwork for a career in broadcast journalism. Not content with acting and singing, Covais wants to be a television sportscaster.
''It was what I'd do as a kid — I'd turn the volume down and start calling the game myself,'' he said. ''Whether it's the Super Bowl or the World Series, I want to be the first guy who gets to sing the national anthem and then go upstairs and call the game.''
MELVILLE, N.Y.: The last time most of us saw Kevin Covais, he was a pale-faced, adorably scrawny lad of 16, running the gauntlet of Simon, Paula and Randy on Fox's American Idol in 2006. White scalp shining through a close-cropped buzz, glasses perched on his nose, the Levittown, N.Y., native crooned Josh Groban's You Raise Me Up well enough to make it to Hollywood, and America came to know him as Chicken Little, a nickname given him by cast mate Paris Bennett. Though he narrowly missed becoming a top-10 finalist, he got a hero's welcome when Nassau County, N.Y., Executive Tom Suozzi declared March 30, 2006, as Kevin Covais Day.
Get the full article here.
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