Although the world-renowned music entertainer isn’t new to the silver screen, Justin Timberlake admitted he hasn’t always been awarded the roles he wants.

Timberlake’s newest film, “Runner Runner,” opens in theaters Oct. 4. In the film, the musical artist said he originally wanted to play the bad boy. Instead, he’s playing opposite the token bad boy, Ben Affleck.

“It was kind of nice to be on the other side,” Timberlake said during a Google Hangout interview on Sept. 18. “I’ve never played a character quite like this, so it was a lot of fun for me to be the guy who’s in the eye of the storm that everything is kind of happening to.”

“Runner Runner” tells the story of Richie First (Timberlake), a Princeton University student looking to make a few thousand dollars to help pay his looming tuition bills. He soon finds himself wrapped up in the online gambling business — and making much more money than he anticipated.

His newfound gambling addiction gains the attention of an international ring of online gambling cheats, and Timberlake’s character gets swindled out of the money he acquired. Kicked out of college for not being able to pay his tuition, he decides he has nothing left to lose and flies to Costa Rica in an attempt to win his money back from the man he believes to be behind the gambling racket, Ivan Block (Affleck).

Instead, Richie becomes intertwined in a gambling ring with higher stakes than he ever imagined.

Anthony Mackie, who plays an FBI agent looking to shut down Affleck’s business, also participated in the Google Hangout. Mackie said he was attracted to the role because it’s unlike anything he has done before. Plus, Mackie joked that he wanted to drink rum while on location in Costa Rica.

Although their characters were not very friendly toward each other, Timberlake and Mackie said they enjoyed spending down time together on set. One especially fond memory that stood out for Timberlake was when he had to run down a muddy hallway, then sharply turn and run up a set of stairs — during which he kept slipping and falling.

“Do you remember how many times we had to film running up those stairs?” Timberlake said. “It was comical.”

Mackie added that in the same scene, Timberlake was being chased by “a big, stocky dude and he was beating the s**t out of Justin every take. He was going hard on you — I was like ‘Yo, glad it ain’t me.’ I was in the background laughing at him.”

Since the script only gives directions as “They chase Richie,” “They catch Richie,” Timberlake said he was not physically prepared for that scene. But he did spend time researching online gambling and learning the craft.

And although Timberlake has never attended college, he said he turned to his stereotypical view of college students to try and accurately portray his character. He drank lots of beer.

Published on September 24, 2013 at 12:07 am

Contact Kristin: klross01@syr.edu | @kriskross22