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There was a boy, a very strange enchanted boy-- From his innocent Dawson's Creek beginnings to possibily the most pornographic film of the year, someone has clearly led Michael Pitt astray. And you know what? He dosen't care at all--

Michael Pitt loves trouble. Or perhaps trouble loves Michael Pitt--who knows. Whichever way around, they have both left quite a trail. Through three New Jersey high schools and a couple of dirty bedsits. Across fluro teen mags and spew-covered Larry Clark shoots. Around a peek-time show and on into obscure indie flicks. Past transsexual rock idols, stoned teen killers, incestuous love triangles and magical theatre props that come alive at night. Straight out of Hollywood's warm bosom and into possibily the most pornographic film of the year.

Michael Pitt loves trouble alright.

And now he's about to raise some more. We're talking about Dawson's Creek, the much-feted much-hated US television show in which he started out. (Michael played a soulful-jock-love-intrest in series three. He rejected a big pay offer to become a series regular and later dissed the programme in a joyful public manner). We're talking about how curious it is that many of the show's young actors are trying to find roles in independent cinema, now that the programme is drawing to a close; Katie Holmes, for instance, had two hit films at last year's Sundance. I'm trying to (not so) tactfully point out the fact that they're all moving in his direction. Michael isn't impressed. "They're just greedy aren't they?" he fumes. "They want the money and then they want the rest of it. Greedy--" Rant over, we then speculate about whether the 21-year old will be asked to re-appear in the final show, as such programme won't to do. "Not fuckin likely," he laughs.

Should that call come from Capeside (and it is a long shot), Michael is far too busy anyhow. The actor is currently adding 'rock star' to his list of accomplishments. Or aspiring 'rock star', at least, Michael been playing guitar since he was 18 but only recently put a band together. In casually brash style, he booked a gig before they have ever rehearsed together. "Just to put a little flame up my ass y'know?" Michael sings and plays lead, his friend Christian plays bass and another friend Ryan plays drums. The sound is apparently indie rock. Like the group itself, the band name is work-in-progress. "We're tentatively called Pagoda," he says. Telephone silence. "Well, it was really just one of the names that didn't suck as much as the others--" he trails off.

Though they've only played a handful of gigs, Pagoda (Pagoda!) are currently in talks with a major record lable. Cooly ambitious and ever-restless, Michael now takes his guitar along to photo shoots and practises while being shot. He says it's "so I don't waste precious time" but i'm sure he likes something to hide behind as well. Though the camera quite evidently loves him, the feeling is not reciprocated. "When I was younger, I was more into it. I was excited when people wanted to take pictures of me. But now I feel dirty when it's being done, I feel like a prop-whore." But isn't there a exhibitionist side that you can bring out? " I don't know what that word means," he says earnestly. "I know it's a PJ Jarvey song though." Cue loud rock squawking: "Yooooooou exhibitionist!"

Exhibitionist or not (it's kind of like being a show-off, I say), Michael's next project will certainly put him out there. Every last pastry part of him out there. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, The Dreamers is slated as the unpredictable Italian erotic effort since Last Tango in Paris. Phew-ee. Michael plays a young American lad caught up in the 68' French student riots and drawn into a incestuous love triangle. On the pasrt of Matthew, a role Jake Gyllenhaal reportedly turned down for being too graphic, he says: "It takes sex and shows it in a real honest way. I think a lot of people especially in America, will have trouble dealing with that. But it's like life. I wish more roles were this honest because it's more interesting." And besides, nothing really shocks audiences anymore, does it? "Oh no, this will! Believe me, this will really shock people--" The actor says this with a fair amount of relish. This is somewhat familar territory for Michael, perhaps his very raison d'etre; to provoke and goad and kick against established values. From his turn as Tommy, lover of the eponymous German Transsexual in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, to passive teen killer Donny in Larry Clark's Bully and even psychopathic Justin in Sandra Bullock's Murder By Numbers, Michael characters court the auduence with hither eyes and a fragile openness, before gleefully sticking the knife in and twisting it, twisting it. Michael can do God-Bless-America, he can do f#ck yall, often in the same performance. In everything he does, he protrays himself. Or perhaps who he would sometimes like to be. When I suggest all his film choice are linked by disire to push boudaries of taste and convention, he seems guenuinely touched. "Thank you. That's a really nice thing to say."

Perhaps there may have been a time when finacial concerns lead him down a more mainstream, commercial route, but for now Michael is no more likely to fake-it-to-make-it than to recieve his own Dawson's Creek spin-off show. "When I went into acting, it was a passion and it still is. I like there's nothing worse than doing something you care about and molesting it in some sort of way. And I don't feel good about myself when I do that." Of course, that is the kind of tough talk, and Michael is exactly the kind of tough talker, that the industry loves. But this is no routine and Michael refues to jump rope, period. "When an actor dosen't care, they're like 'Oh my God, he dosen't care!' And some people in Hollywood, really masturbate to do that. So a lot of times I just don't bother with these things anymore. I just stay away from them. When I go on big auditon, I feel like I just don't try."

Why does Michael Pitt loves trouble so much? Perhaps the novel will provide some answers. For alongside the acting, the singing, the shedding of clothes for inpredictable Italians, the Creek-baiting and general rabble-rousing, the 21-year old has nearly finihsed a book. Written over several years and with assitance from Michael's friend JT Leroy, it's largly autobiographical coming-of-age story that draws on his tricky adolescences. Born and raised in New Jersey from age 13 to 16 Michael was shunted between different establishments following bounts of drugs and truancy. "I was in Special Education classes at school. You don't have to do any work, They just keep passing you because you're not really going anywhere anyway," he explains. "I got kicked out of several schools. When they're just waiting for you to leave, there's no reason to stay." Certainly from Michael's stories - of how he was thrown out of one Catholic school for drinking the Communion wine, how he arrived in New York with ten cents and a ball of lint in his pocket, how he shared a one-bedroom apartment with nine other people - there is plenty of source material. But it's perhaps surprising that he got this far to tell it. " I had no education, no money, no home. But when you're in that situation, you deal with it because you have to, in the same way that you grow a scab or whatever. You just deal with it."

Michael Pitt loves trouble because trouble loves Michael Pitt. Tthey go back along way together. Wish them well.