PROM P-TOWN TO DOGTOWN

[June 1st, 2005] This is a big week for Portlander John Robinson. Between taking his last finals at Catlin Gabel High School, Robinson flew to Las Vegas to appear on MTV's TRL, while his new movie-Lords of Dogtown-opens this week. He knows that fame may be looming just around the corner, but the baby-faced 19-year-old actor offers up a laid-back cool. "I don't know what to expect," he says. "This summer I need to chill out and take some time and, you know, do my thing."

Robinson first came to the attention of audiences when he co-starred in Gus Van Sant's Elephant. And while Elephant was a critical success, winning two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, it wasn't exactly the sort of film that had teenage girls swooning. Lords of Dogtown, on the other hand, promises to appeal to the skateboard crowd as well as avid readers of Tiger Beat. The movie is based on the lives of the legendary Z-Boys, the Southern California surfers who revolutionized skateboarding. Robinson co-stars as Stacy Peralta, the skater-turned-filmmaker who wrote Lords of Dogtown after directing the hit 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys.

Although Robinson's not too certain about his immediate plans, he wants to go on to college while pursuing a film career. Staying grounded isn't a problem, he says: "I got two older brothers that said they would smack me around if I got too hotheaded."