Taking a popular franchise from best-selling book to big-screen blockbuster isn’t easy. “I’m being compared to Daniel Radcliffe a lot these days,” says Logan Lerman, who stars in this month’s Percy Jackson & the Olym-pians: The Lightning Thief, with a sigh. “Honestly, my character doesn’t have much in common with Harry Potter besides the fact that he’s an unlikely hero who’s thrown into a huge situation.”

It is, admittedly, a familiar trope: Boy discovers latent superpowers, attends a magical training school, joins up with his bumbling buddy and feisty gal pal, and–hopefully–saves the world. But the Percy Jackson odyssey is quite literally the stuff of legend; the film adaptation follows the adventures of a teen who discovers his father is a Greek god. “I’ve been studying mythology for months, reading about Perseus, Poseidon, Apollo, Medusa,” Logan says. “I don’t know if the movie will reach Twilight levels of obsession, but if it does, I’m ready for it!” With a roster of Hollywood heavyweights costarring (Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, and Rosario Dawson, to name a few), the movie certainly has potential. “It was amazing to work with all these people I look up to and whose careers I aspire to,” says the eighteen-year-old.

Unlike Percy, Logan’s path was not exactly destined. Although he grew up in Los Angeles, none of his relatives were in the entertainment business. “They’re all doctors–I’m the black sheep,” he says. “When I was five I thought auditions were a great way to get out of school! At twelve I landed the TV show Jack & Bobby, and I realized that acting was something I wanted to do forever.” And after starring alongside Jim Carrey in The Number 23, Christian Bale in 3:10 to Yuma, and Ren??e Zellweger in My One and Only, Logan seems to be the Lerman with the most interesting career. “Lately, when I go to family events, my aunts will ask me to invite Pierce over for supper,” he says, laughing. “My life is pretty incredible. I still wonder how I finagled my way into this.”

Source: Teen Vogue