Now THAT’S a movie star.

He’s making a movie. About 30 Seconds To Mars and its fight with EMI in the wake of the Terra Firma takeover. They were bugging me eons ago, but then faded away, I saw the album came out, I figured the film was shelved. But then Jared himself tracked me down, said it was still on and would I come on camera and testify.

Sure.

So I drove into the Hollywood Hills on a smoggy Tuesday morning and pulled up to a house that doubles as both a domicile and a studio, not that Jared stays there much, he was on the road 300 days last year. The pool was covered with leaves. This is where he works, there’s not much playing going on.

Even the pool table had a cover on it. To tell you the truth, I’d never seen one of those. But this was the same room where 30 Seconds To Mars cut their last album. In this house. We shot in the control room.

But before we settled in, I wanted to get some background, some context, what this movie was about.

And I just couldn’t get over how good-looking Jared was. Not only the angular face with perfect symmetry, but those eyes. No makeup was required, no special effects, in real life, this guy was gorgeous.

I’d say it made me feel inadequate, but that was trumped by his magnetism. You just want to get closer to someone that special.

So he was born in Louisiana but moved around, played music all his life, his brother started hitting the skins when he was barely more than a toddler. And this same brother followed Jared to L.A. when he became an actor.

And that’s how I know him. As Jordan Catalano, in "My So-Called Life". Which I watched in its original network incarnation, being addicted to every show Zwick and Herskovitz did, having been infected by "Thirtysomething".

Jared was cool in that show and is still cool now.

But he hasn’t made a movie in five years, music’s his full time gig now. However great he was in "Requiem For A Dream".

You see the band was signed in 1998, thirteen years ago. It’s taken that long to break through, to get traction. Hell, Jared’s 39, even though he looks 26. Be prepared for this. Despite the prevalence of prepubescents, our rock stars are going to be older and older, because not only does it take that long to get noticed, but it takes that long to be good. Hell, many 30 Seconds To Mars fans don’t even know about Jared’s previous career.

As for the interview, it was the usual fodder. History, Terra Firma, EMI.

But then we got into albums and the future. I said how it’s about having a body of work, that the album format is an anachronistic revenue event. Sure, if you’ve got something to say in a long form way, go for it, but how many truly do? And that the focus must be on the band/fan relationship. Constantly feeding it. Fans are in charge today, the labels lost their power long ago.

And I spoke about freedom and referenced skiing and it turned out Jared was a snowboarder, and an avid fan of Jon Krakauer.

And I just wanted to tell you because this was so L.A., so not New York. Where you get in your car and behind the wall of a seemingly normal suburban house is a factory of ideas. You walk through the front door and you’re in the center of a dream. It’s exciting, it’s fulfilling, it’s what people come to Hollywood for.