We all love a great story in Hollywood. After all, this is the place where dreams become reality, reality blurs into fantasy and art imitates life.

Hollywood is also the land where stars are made, practically overnight from people just like you and me. Take Jonathan Chase, one of the actors in the sci-fi/action stunner, Gamer.

The film is sure to be a hit; it’s a high concept story that centers around a crazy billionaire named Ken Castle (played by “Dexter”’s Michael C. Hall) who has built the first shooter game in the world called “Slayers.” This multiple player online game allows gamers to use real prisoners as their avatars – each fighting to the death.

Big screen badass Gerard Butler stars as Kable. He’s a dude who has the blessing (or curse) of being tapped into the MMO as one of the characters. For anyone who’s dabbled within the video game world, I think it’s safe to assume that can be pretty frightening.

Chase portrays the unnamed geek leader – he’s the sidekick of the crew of bad guys led by Hall.

“There’s a lot of characters in [Gamer] that don’t have actual names,” says Chase. “It’s actually a lot like Blade Runner.”

Gamer was penned by the same team who created the Crank films (which starred Jason Statham). This is one team well versed on frenetic action sequences, insanely funny dialogue and crazy scenarios in which action will take place.

Chase – a very quick-witted guy himself – admits he was hooked on the tone and storyline of Gamer from the second he picked up the script, which is written entirely from the POV of the main character.

“I read it, and it read like you were playing a video game,” he says.

For a video game lover like him, that was a huge plus. Chase is no stranger to the universe in which Gamer takes place. He’s got an Xbox 360 and is a fan of “World of Warcraft.” He also has his favorite pastime – literally at his fingertips.

“I just got the iPhone, so I’m starting to play the applications,” he admits.

Did all his technological fun and admiration of gadgetry have any affect on his performance? Not really. Instead, he was deeply affected by the outrageous mohawk his character dons for the movie, as well as the daily goings-on among his cast members – in particular Butler and Hall.

“My character had no emotion,” says Chase. “He actually had to be stagnant.”

So Hall tried his best to get his co-star to break character during takes. As for the star of the film, Chase considers him “charismatic.”

“[Gerard] is no holds barred – totally committed. He is a machine,” says his young co-star.

Unfortunately, Chase refuses to give specifics about Butler’s on-set bad behavior.

“I actually can’t tell the story because it was so crazy,” he admits. “[Gerard] pulled some shenanigans, and it’ll get him into trouble.”

Since he’s not dishing about the big guy, Chase was quick to divulge some secrets from the film that you’ll have to see to believe. He boasts that Gamer (which was shot on location in downtown Albuquerque, N.M.) is full of awesome tools and gadgets that will blow audiences away when they appear. His character gets to have a blast with one of them in particular.

“At one point, I kill some people with a cube,” he says, laughing. “So maybe we should just stay away from cubes.”

Gamer isn’t the only late-summer release in which Chase will appear. He’s also set to make another breakthrough performance in the Sandra Bullock/Bradley Cooper comedy All About Steve. While he hopes that his career can detour into the type of meaty indie projects he counts among his favorites (such as Garden State), he admits that he still adores bigger projects.

“I love the big studio films,” he says. “They’re cushy.”

Chase is the only contemporary actor lucky enough to have two projected studio-backed hits to open on the same day. This isn’t lost on the 20-something in the least.

“That’s never happened before,” he says. “I’m very excited! I’m pumped.”



 Gamer releases in theaters Sept. 4.