Jon Heder admits he may find it hard to shake off the character of geekish Napoleon Dynamite following the film's success in the US. He talks to Steve Pratt about his determination to leave the nerd behind.

JON Heder suffered for his art while making film festival comedy favourite Napoleon Dynamite. It wasn't so much getting hit in the face with a large steak during a scene in which his uncle bombards him with pieces of meat as having his hair permed to play the geeky high school student lending his name to the title of the movie.

Heder was an animation student at Brigham Young University when asked to play the misfit with curly hair, glasses and moonboots in a short film, Peluca, being made by fellow student and aspiring writer-director Jared Hess. He based his script on his own experiences growing up a quirky outsider in small town America, in tiny, rural Preston, Idaho.

Peluca became such a hit that Hess turned it into a feature-length comedy, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival and won best feature film at the US Comedy Arts Festival.

Heder, 26, had his straight hair permed each time he played Napoleon. "Those curls stay in until you cut it or let it grow out," he explains. "When we shot the film I kept the perm for a few months. I had it permed straight but ended up just cutting it off. I washed my hair, I think, three times during the period we shot the film so the perm didn't fall out."

He created the nerdish character mostly from observation of when he was in high school as well as drawing inspiration from his two younger brothers in regard to how Napoleon talks and moves. The result is a teen movie that's like no other that's come out of America.

The US box-office success of the film has made Heder realise that he's likely to be associated with the role for some time. "It's the first feature film I've done and may be the role of my lifetime," he says.

"I have to accept the fact that for the rest of my life I will be known as the guy who played Napoleon Dynamite, if it becomes more than a novelty film. I don't know if I'll be able to top that character."

He sees the potential for sequels and TV spin-offs in the character. "When we made it, we were simply making a film that we hoped would be bought one day for large masses of people to see. In a way that dream has come a long way. I guess I wouldn't mind playing Napoleon again if Jared was involved," he says.

At school, he feels he was more geek that sports jock, but points out: "I'm not as clueless as Napoleon who doesn't have a clue how dorky he is."

Geeks and nerds are familiar figures of fun in US teen pictures although Heder admits to tiring of seeing such high school movies. He feels Napoleon Dynamite celebrates the nerd, and is liberating for many young people and a few older ones too. "It was very liberating for me," he adds.

The film was shot in the small farming community of Preston, Idaho, where Hess grew up in the wide open spaces away from the usual urban conveniences.

Heder recalls the locals taking the film two ways - "a lot of youngsters really loved it and some of the regular people didn't quite get it and wondered if we were making fun of them."

He was studying animation with his identical twin brother, Daniel, when chosen to play Napoleon Dynamite. He has to think whether to desert animation for acting. "I always wanted to get into the film industry and study film," he says.

"I did move to animation but would audition for short films on the side. I'm interested in continuing working on the animation and directing animation one day."

Perhaps playing a serial killer would be a good contrast for his next film role. He acknowledges the desire to get away from playing geeks but says: "We'll see. I'd like to do some more comedy and something a little more dramatic. I've had some offers, not all great scripts. I'm trying to stay away from similar stuff."

Attending the Sundance festival gave him a taste of what it's like to be a hit in movies. "It was insane. It was really cool and where everything happened for the film and for me. Our ultimate goal was to get into Sundance and be seen by some studios. For me, it was like, 'Let's meet some agents'. I thought I might be doing it in the future."

* Napoleon Dynamite (PG) is showing at Newcastle Tyneside from tomorrow.

Published: 06/01/2005