ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 4, 1996 TAG: 9605060011
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ACTOR best known as Kevin Arnold in ``The Wonder Years,'' changes his television image by portraying an abusive boyfriend in NBC's Monday night movie.
Remember Fred Savage as the wide-eyed, innocent Kevin Arnold in that slice of 1960s nostalgia ``The Wonder Years''? You might not know him now.
No more the junior high school student of the 1988-93 series, Savage is now a strapping 19-year-old, a sophomore at Stanford University and about to change his television image in a startling way.
In ``No One Would Tell,'' airing Monday on NBC (at 9 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10), Savage plays a high school charmer and wrestling champion who romances another student, Candace Cameron, formerly of ``Full House.'' It seems an ideal match until he grows jealous and possessive - and then abusive.
The movie's title tells the theme: Fellow students remain silent about the boy's abuse until it is too late.
Savage, visiting his family home in the San Fernando Valley during a brief break in his studies, seemed more like his ``Wonder Years'' self than the dark and dangerous Bobby Tennyson of ``No One Would Tell.''
``It was exciting to get to do something a little different,'' he said, over a pastrami sandwich at Jerry's Famous Deli. ``It was very different from anything I'd done. It was fun to play with these emotions that I never got to touch before.
``When I first got the script, I thought, `What made them come to me for this?' I wouldn't have been the first one I thought of. I became enthused with all the things I could do with this guy. I thought it would give people a chance to see me older and as something different.''
Savage noted that we all have a dark side - though perhaps not as dark as his character's.
``We all get angry and frustrated,'' he said. ``The difference between normal and not normal people is that most of us can harness that - we just fume or sigh or go take a walk. We deal with it in ways other than violence.
``I had to stir up that anger. It was frightening that once they said `Cut!' and the scene was done, I still had that adrenalin coming through me. of the set.''
Savage filmed ``No One Would Tell'' in January, missing the first two weeks of the second semester at Stanford, where he is majoring in English and creative writing. Between shots, he telephoned professors for permission to miss two weeks of their courses.
It's somewhat of a wonder that he's been able to combine a career with an education. During ``The Wonder Years,'' he was enrolled at a private school in Brentwood, and he did his lessons on the set when the show was in production.
``I don't think I missed anything,'' he said. ``Going to school in L.A. gave me a whole outlet of friends and activities - football games, school dances, class retreats. I participated in all of that. On the weekends, I was always with my friends.
``During the week, I had this other life going on. I think I gained, because I had what most people consider a normal childhood. On top of that, I had this whole other life.''
Savage has been acting since the age of 6, starting with commercials and voice-overs in Chicago. Hollywood took notice, and he appeared in ``The Boy Who Could Fly'' at 8. ``Vice Versa,'' in which he and Judge Reinhold changed ages, led to the offer to star in ``The Wonder Years.''
He has been famous since the age of 12, but the constant recognition doesn't bother him.
``Most people who approached me did so in a friendly way,'' he said. ``I used to talk to Jason Hervey, who played my older brother on the show. People would come to him with hostility and would not be nice at all. That was because of the way he treated me in the series.
``Everyone was nice to me, because they liked me on the show. I didn't think that I was being pointed out as a spectacle. It was almost like I had all these friends who come up to me and say hello.''
During his first couple of weeks at Stanford, he attracted notice from fellow students, who themselves had grown up with ``The Wonder Years.''
``Once they see you walking in late for the same classes and cramming for the same finals, it's kind of a great equalizer,'' Savage said. ``It completely wore off. Now I'm just a normal student, completely ingrained in the Stanford community.''
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Fred Savage sits at Jerry's Famous Deli in Los Angelesby CNBto discuss his role in ``No One Would Tell,'' airing Monday at 9
p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10. color.