On Friday night young stars Evan Rachel Wood, Anton Yelchin, Armie Hammer and Kirsten Dunst joined together at the Mann Chinese 6 theater for the Los Angeles Times Young Hollywood panel. All four rising stars have been labeled as buzzworthy actors and are involved in many of the year’s most anticipated films. 

Dunst started working with stars like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt when she was only nine years old. Now her role as a depressed bride in Lars Von Trier’s "Melancholia" has won her Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. Wood also started acting at a young age and appeared in “Practical Magic” with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock at the age of eleven. She now stars alongside George Clooney in the political drama “The Ides of March." While Dunst and Wood have been working in the film industry since they were children, Hammer is new to Hollywood. After his debut in “The Social Network” last year he is now starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Clint Eastwood’s film “J. Edgar.” Yelchin, who has been in blockbusters like “Star Trek” and “Terminator Salvation,” is now starring in the indie romance “Like Crazy.”

Wood, Yelchin, Dunst, and Hammer. Photo taken by JustJared

To start off the interview, each of the stars were asked to describe their first “Hollywood moments.” Wood recounted how surreal it was to have Jeremy Sisto drove her home in “Thirteen” because it reminded her of when he also drove Alicia Silverstone home in “Clueless.” Dunst, who is an R.E.M. fan, revealed, “When I was younger I used to jump around to ‘Stand,' the song, in my living room. Now Michael Stipe is my neighbor. That’s when I knew I made it.” And recently Stipe, the lead singer of the band, enlisted Dunst to star in the band’s post-breakup music video. But Dunst is not the only one to be star struck. Hammer described when Kevin Spacey introduced him to Clint Eastwood just one day before they started shooting “J. Edgar.” Yelchin had a completely different kind of Hollywood moment when he was younger. While walking with his grandfather in the shadier part of the city he witnessed some punks eat a man’s cupcake of his plate and put it back, and since then that has been his image of Holllywood.

Now that they are in the same realm as big name stars and Oscar winners, the actors talked about working with some of prestigious actors and directors. Hammer talked about the different directing styles of his “The Social Network” director David Fincher and Clint Eastwood. He described how Fincher would be very precise with his directing, making sure every angle was correct, while Eastwood gave him more freedom to do what he wanted in a scene. Wood talked about her intense experience with Woody Allen on the 2009 film “Whatever Works.” From the beginning she was intimidated because of his reputation of firing actors, and also his tendency to do long continuous shots, but she also appreciated the freedom he gave to the actors. Yelchin had a humorous experience when he was eleven while doing a screen test with Anthony Hopkins. He was so nervous that his eye wouldn’t stop twitching. Since then Yelchin said he's realized, “You have to focus on your desire to do a good job and do what you’re there to do opposed to being worried about anything else.”

But when asked about what it was like to work with Mel Gibson, who has had a lot going on in his personal life, Yelchin said that he doesn’t think about that when they worked together. He did admit that Gibson is “an intense human being” and that they had some profound rehearsals together. Dunst also defended her “Melancholia” director, and friend, Lars Von Trier, who faced criticism after he made controversial comments at the Cannes film festival. She said that while it was hard to watch a friend “dig themselves into a hole,” it didn’t affect her experience with the film. 

 While the big name actors and directors can help films with big budgets, Yelchin is inspired by small budget films. He explained, “If you have a story that you want to tell and you can tell it simply, you just need ten people and you need them to all really care about what you’re doing, and you can go make a movie.” His most recent film “Like Crazy” had a budget of only $250,000. In contrast, Hammer will be starring in Disney’s “The Lone Ranger” which has been cancelled because of it’s $215 million budget.

The actors went through the rest of the interview as if it were a conversation between friends. They talked about auditioning woes and script-reading stress, and even had an off-topic discussion about Twitter (which Wood is addicted to). Eventually the conversation closed with some advice the stars wanted to give people trying to get into the industry. While it may be cliché, all four actors agreed that the best thing for someone to do is to be themselves. “You don’t have to conform to try to be an actor,” Hammer says, “The better you know yourself the better you know other characters.” Yelchin also said dealing with rejection is something actors need to learn, and it’s something he used to struggle with.

The enthusiasm that each person had when talking about their jobs really showed how much they love what they do. Wood described the special moments she looks forward to on each film, saying, “I do consider myself an artist, and I do consider myself emotionally connected to something that I can’t explain, that I feel when that camera is rolling, and it’s a whole other level.”

The panel was part of AFI’s 25th film festival, which continues until November 10.

Reach staff reporter Megan Singson here