Dennis Hopper’s sought-after son makes film debut

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The late actor Dennis Hopper’s son, Henry, co-stars with Mia Wasikowska in “Restless,” which opens Friday.

Updated: November 10, 2011 10:25AM

At the funeral of acting legend Dennis Hopper in June 2010, friend and producer Mark Canton was impressed by young Henry Hopper memorializing his father with selections from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

“He was incredibly passionate and articulate,” Canton recalls, and the producer was struck by the likeness between father and son. “It’s hard to look at him and not think of his dad. It’s like the second coming from a very original first.”

The very original Henry Hopper, now 21, makes his film debut in the Gus Van Sant-directed film “Restless,” opening Friday. He plays a troubled adolescent who loses both parents in a tragic accident and feels compelled to attend strangers’ funerals.

Despite clear talent and acting pedigree — his mother is actress Katherine LaNasa — Hopper’s first professional acting gig was not a decision he made lightly.

“I resisted being an actor for some time,” Hopper said at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

But “Restless” casting director Francine Maisler long had admired a video of Hopper performing in a theatrical production and knew he was perfect for the part. Even well into casting, she continued to track a seemingly unreachable Hopper, who was studying painting in Europe.

“I wouldn’t give up,” Maisler says. “I kept saying to Gus [Van Sant]: ‘I just have a feeling about him. But he’s in Germany and painting.’ Finally, we got him.”

Hopper’s professional future is a mystery: He has re-embarked to Europe for more painting with no plans for a film encore — despite being a wanted commodity by intrigued directors.

“He is being pursued,” Maisler says. “It’s just whether Henry wants to keep doing it.”

Gannett News Service