Feuerstein: From student to star

He's not a television news producer. But he plays one on TV.

Mark Feuerstein '93's current profession is a far cry from the life of law he envisioned when he arrived at Princeton in 1989 with his sights set on a degree from Woody Woo. But academics weren't to be his only pursuit. He also wanted to make a home for himself on campus by getting involved in extracurricular activities.

"In high school, I was a total jock/extracurricular nerd/just plain nerd," Feuerstein said of his pre-Princeton days. "When I got to college, I realized that building a resume to get into a good school was no longer necessary. I had already gotten into one. I might as well follow my bliss."

That attitude led him to audition for a play — "Burn This" at Theatre~Intime — despite a complete lack of previous theatrical experience.

He didn't get the part.

But a student director spotted him at the audition and asked him to be in the next production on the Intime roster – "Orphans." This venture into the world of theater changed his outlook on a prospective major.

"My idea of what was cool shifted," Feuerstein said. "I thought that, rather than hitting people on the football field or pinning them on the wrestling mat, it might be more interesting to engage my colleagues by asking questions about brotherhood, fatherhood, existential crises and how to tell a story through performance."

He found support in the English department for his theatrical pursuits, mostly from Professors Michael Cadden and Elaine Showalter. "I really found a way at Princeton to manipulate the curricular system to support my extracurricular habit," he said of his combination between theater and academics, which culminated with an acting senior thesis. He played Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and wrote a 193-page thesis entitled "Every Man is a King: An Actor's Journal."

Feuerstein's post-Princeton life was a continuation of academic engagement in theater. On a whim, he had applied for a Fulbright Fellowship and had gotten it, receiving a free ride at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. In retrospect, he says that the most useful training he received was a month-long clowning workshop where he truly honed his comedic skills.

Upon returning to the States, Feuerstein decided to give professional acting a try. His parents were supportive, but Feuerstein was well aware of their worries. "They were worried I would never work and spend my life behind the counter of a Starbucks," he recalls.

It was then that Feuerstein used the only contact he had in the entertainment industry. A phone call to his father's allergist's niece, a casting director, landed him his first professional job — a voice-over for a beer commercial.

After a two-year stint doing off-Broadway in New York, Feuerstein made the move out to California. By 1996, he was working at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, trying to break into West-Coast show business. He made a weekly drive to Los Angeles, meeting with any casting directors he could get an appointment with.

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His diligence paid off with an eight-episode run as the title character's love interest on "Caroline and the City" and role on a sitcom "Fired Up." By the time network executives took a pass on renewing the latter for a second season, Feuerstein had already been tapped for the lead in NBC's "Conrad Bloom."

Currently, Feuerstein stars as Jake Silver on NBC's "Good Morning, Miami," again playing the good-guy role for which he has come to be known. The main storyline involves an office-place love triangle. Feuerstein admits that his own love life has mirrored that same conflict between the beautiful, out-of-reach girl — a character named Dylan (played by Ashley Williams) — and the quirky, smart girl — Penny (played by Constance Zimmer).

"I've been as torn as Jake in my own life between those two archetypes," Feuerstein says of the parallel between his real and fictional lives. "I think more often than not, I have gone with the Penny rather than the Dylan. I admired my friends who can go for the Dylan, but I don't enjoy living with that insecurity. I choose the best friend over the unattainable."

So, at just 10 years out of college, Feuerstein is a star. But despite his current status as a bonafide celebrity, Feuerstein has not forgotten his alma mater. He jumped at the chance to judge entries for a film festival sponsored by Princeton in Hollywood.

"You mean sit back and judge other people's creative endeavors? Absolutely," Feuerstein joked about his reaction to the invitation to sit on the panel. The winners of the festival will be screened in Los Angeles in September.

And celebrity certainly hasn't gone to his head. Upon hearing that he was one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People of 2003 (which came out earlier this week), his reaction was pure shock. When the reporter from the magazine grilled him about beauty products for the piece, Feuerstein was at a loss for words since, according to him, "the closest thing I use to beauty products is the grease on the pizza from John's Pizzeria."