After being heavily involved in the creation of bills and policy, Korsmo realized he should have a law degree to properly fulfill similar roles, so he enrolled at Yale Law School. Instead, he earned his degree at MIT and went to Washington, D.C., where he worked in various positions, ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to a post-9/11 Homeland Security Committee. “I think I managed the trick of leaving voluntarily just about the time I would have been thrown out anyway,” Korsmo joked. Yet even with this great experience, Korsmo again decided film was not his passion.

It’s more fun to make movies when you’re 19 than when you’re 10.” “But I had the most fun doing Can’t Hardly Wait. “My favorite actual role was ‘The Kid’ in Dick Tracy, as that is the movie I cringe the least during when I happen to see parts of it,” he said. The film ended up being his favorite to make. While in college, Korsmo returned to Hollywood for one movie: Can’t Hardly Wait, co-starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry and Seth Green. “I never saw acting as a lifelong career ambition.”Īfter a slew of leading roles, Korsmo left the movie business to begin the “relatively normal” life of a high schooler.Īnd though he’d initially entered acting to escape school, after returning to formal education, he realized he actually enjoyed doing school work-so much so that he went on to study physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “As I recall, I mostly wanted to get out of school and make enough money to buy a Nintendo,” Korsmo said. He remembers thinking, “Gee, this looks pretty easy,” so, upon returning home to Minneapolis, he and his parents found a talent agent through the Yellow Pages. While on a family vacation to Los Angeles, Korsmo and his family attended a taping of the sitcom Punky Brewster. (For tickets, visit cia.edu/cinematheque.)Īfter the film, Korsmo will discuss his acting career, which began when he was 8. His first film, Men Don’t Leave-starring Jessica Lange, Joan Cusack, Kathy Bates and Chris O’Donnell-will be screened at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque tonight at 7:30 p.m. But there’s one person in particular who people may recognize from more than simply a passing glance on the quad his is a familiar face from the big screen.Ĭharlie Korsmo, assistant professor of law, is a former “child actor” who starred in several major hits of the 1990s, including Hook (as Jack Banning), Dick Tracy (as “The Kid”), What About Bob? (as Siggy Marvin) and Can’t Hardly Wait (as William Lichter).

Korsmo and Bill Murray in What About Bob? (Touchstone Pictures)įamiliar faces abound at Case Western Reserve.

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