Barney's new video co-star is St. Petersburg boy, 10
Aside from worries the purple dinosaur is going to fall on him, the acting life agrees with Dylan Crowley.
By JARED GOLDBERG-LEOPOLD
Published February 8, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - While his fifth-grade peers at St. Paul's Catholic School went to math and social studies classes, Dylan Crowley has spent the past few weeks in Orlando filming a Barney movie.
In The Land of Make Believe, he plays a New York street kid who accompanies the sugary-sweet purple dinosaur on a musical trip through their imaginations to bring a lost princess home.
Dylan was one of four lead actors chosen from hundreds who auditioned for the multimillion-dollar production, which is slated for video release in spring 2005.
"He was the guy that I always loved watching when I was young," said Dylan, who is 10. "So it was really cool."
Perhaps the most challenging part of the work, beyond the long hours, is making sure not to get too close to Barney, who often falls down in his 50-pound costume.
"The thought of Barney falling is not a very happy thought," Dylan said. "I see him not moving and I'm like, "Oh, my God, is he okay?"'
After he is done filming with Barney at Discovery Cove and Universal Studios, Dylan will set his sights on Hollywood. Cindy Osbrink, who runs a Los Angeles child talent agency, wants Dylan to audition for pilots and feature films. Osbrink said she sees him as a male version of Dakota Fanning, the 9-year-old actor from her agency who starred in Cat in the Hat, Uptown Girls and I Am Sam.
"He just so reminded me of her - just down-to-earth, real, speaks from his heart," Osbrink said. "I can't wait until he gets out here."
Dylan's ascension as an actor started with an innocent comment from a friend of his mother in May 2003.
"She said: He's so cute. I think he should get in the business," Gloria Crowley recalled. On a whim, Dylan went to a talent agency in Tampa. He quickly landed modeling and acting work, starring in a Dick Clark-produced project, The Canbees, and winning a modeling competition.
"I'm really devoted to it," he says, perched on the armrest of the couch in his parents' Old Northeast house. When he's not on the road, Dylan goes to school, plays soccer for the Clearwater Chargers, reads J.R.R. Tolkien and watches movies.
His dramatic selection is a little bit different from the average 10-year-old. Sure, he likes the Lord of the Rings films and the Lion King. "You can't miss it," he said of the Lion King. "It's a great one."
He also gets acting cues from the classics. He lists It's a Wonderful Life as a favorite film but prefers the original black-and-white version.
His favorite actor? "Hey, Dad, who's the guy in Casablanca?" Dylan said, as his father reminded him of Humphrey Bogart.
"I'm really bad with those black-and-white names," Dylan admitted.
Barney will never be confused with Bogart, but Dylan works from sunrise to sunset, showing up on the set at 8 a.m. When he's not on stage, he doesn't get to rest much: A special teacher hired by the Barney staff conducts school there.
While Dylan is playing with Barney, life goes on for his friends at school.
"When you're not there, they're not going to wait around for you to get back," said Dylan's father, Daniel, a professional jazz guitarist. "Like anything else, you get used to it."
And, Dylan says, his close friends have gotten used to his new lifestyle.
"They just try to spend a lot of time with me before I leave," he said.
In the meantime, Dylan is making new friends on the Barney set. He hit it off with Montana, the girl who plays the mermaid in The Land of Make Believe. For the last week, they have been chatting on the Internet for a few hours a day.
"The people that were doing Barney with me could tell right off the bat that I liked her," he said. Dylan was smitten when he saw her headshot.
"She looked like she was 16 when you looked at the picture," he said, "and she's just a month older than me."
