Posted on: Monday, October 20, 2003

Star-crossed love of 'Skin' casts its Romeo as an L.A. power teen

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Other writers may cash bigger checks, but William Shakespeare is hot this TV season.

The latest example is "Skin," which premieres at 8 tonight on Fox. Two teens fall in love before realizing their dads — a prosecutor and a pornographer — are at war with each other.

"'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Heat,' 'Boogie Nights' — these were kind of the primary things I thought about as I was beginning the show," says "Skin" creator Jim Leonard.

Written centuries ago, "Romeo and Juliet" is a tale of young love engulfed by old feuds. "Skin" modernizes that eternal story.

Jewel (Olivia Wilde) is a rich kid from Bel Air. She meets Adam (D.J. Cotrona), whom she assumes is a modest-income Latino from East Los Angeles.

Love follows. "Kids that age ... (are) highly romanticized," Cotrona says. "You live and die by it."

Romeo and Juliet merely died, because Shakespeare didn't have a TV series to worry about. "Skin" will tell the broader story of both families.

Adam, half-Latino on his mother's side, is the son of a judge, played by Rachel Ticotin. His father, played by Kevin Anderson, is the district attorney. And that father is going after pornography mogul Larry Goldman (Ron Silver) — who is Jewel's father. He wants his son to dump Jewel.

It's a coming-of-age story for Adam, Cotrona says. "He's breaking away from his father."

Neither dad fits a stereotype.

"My character is perceived as the good guy," Anderson says. "... (But) his home life is basically a mess.

"Ron's character is perceived as this porn guy; (but) he seems to have a very healthy, loving family."

Both are played by actors with top-grade theater backgrounds.

Anderson started in Chicago theater before venturing to Broadway and snagging a Tony nomination. His movies include "A Thousand Acres," which borrowed from Shakespeare's "King Lear."

Silver won a Tony Award in David Mamet's "Speed the Plow." He usually does serious movies, but says the "Skin" script lured him. "It was absolutely intriguing and different from anything else I had seen in the last couple of years."

Working with the seasoned actors are two telegenic newcomers.

Cotrona, 22, is of Italian descent.

Wilde, fresh from prep school in Andover, Mass., moved to Los Angeles and landed a small role in a small movie. Now at 19, she's starring in "Skin."

The chemistry came easily, Cotrona says. "We just started doing scenes, right away. She's someone I would want to be a friend of anyway."