LOS ANGELES -- Matthew Broderick did it over a decade ago. Kerr Smith is doing it now. What you may ask? No, they are both not doing a Parker girl (as in Sarah Jessica Parker), we'll leave that chore to Broderick. But both men who have such baby faces are known for playing roles with characters at least ten years younger than they are as a person.

Matthew Broderick did it all through the 1980s, most notably in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Now we have Kerr Smith, not only playing the occasional teen on the big screen -- as he does in the current vampire flick "The Forsaken" -- but also each week on television's "Dawson's Creek."

Though Broderick is a year shy of 40, he still has a 20-something looking face and has graduated to more adult roles: one of the leads opposite Nathan Lane in the immensely popular Broadway hit "The Producers."

Twenty-nine-year-old Kerr Smith, though, jokes about his character, Jack McPhee, who has just turned 18 on "Dawson's Creek." "I guess having a baby face isn't that bad after all," he comments, jokingly. "I still get carded at restaurants."

Smith has played the gay character Jack for three years. "When I first started on the show," he says, "I was playing a 16-year-old. The first year, my character was very introverted. He was initially rejected by his father but eventually came to terms with his father and his homosexuality. The second year he got all of his problems off his shoulder. Jack finally became able to express his feelings in a same sex relationship. This year, the third, he has been light, relaxed and funny. "(The last four original episodes of the fourth season of "Dawson's Creek," created by openly gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson, begin May 16.)

Smith made media history in 1998 when his character Jack on "Dawson's Creek," became the first teenage character on a television drama to announce that he was openly gay. And just last week the show did it again when it showed a long -- a very long -- open-mouth kiss between Jack and another character on the show. (See related story, page one.)

"It's been a bumpy ride for Jack," Smith confesses. "Viewers have witnessed Jack face homophobia at school, go on his first date and join the football team. Jack has since begun to re-establish a relationship with his dad and inspire viewers with his courage. This season Jack's ongoing quest for fulfillment includes coaching a pee-wee soccer league, but complications with parents become more troublesome than he could have imagined."

In addition to "Dawson's Creek" and his latest film, "Final Fantasy," Smith has also appeared in the hit film "Final Destination." "It's a lot different being a star in a big budget movie like `Final Destination,'" he jokes, "a film which had a budget, I think, of over $50 million, and going to a film like 'The Forsaken' where the budget was less than $5 million. On the set of `Final Destination,' there was always tons of food lying around. We maybe worked a few hours a day. On `The Forsaken,' since there was hardly a budget at all, we had to shoot 12 or 13 hours a day for four weeks and mostly at night since we were making a vampire movie."

There were some advantages to starring in ``The Forsaken," though. ``Well, I did get top billing, didn't I?" he said, laughing. ``But the whole cast did the same amount of work on the film, so it didn't even seem fair that I did." A humble guy.

Smith grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia where he exceled in baseball. ``That passion of mine came in handy when I was shooting the film, `The Broken Hearts Club,'" he says, referring to the popular gay film from last fall that dealt with a West Hollywood group of friends.

After high school, Smith listened to his father and got an undergraduate degree in ``something sensible" -- business administration -- from the University of Vermont. As a Kappa Sigma, Chief Justice of the Greek Judicial Board and a member of the ski patrol in Stowe, Vt., Smith's college days, by his own admission, were ``very social." After graduation, Smith returned to Pennsylvania to start a business-marketing firm with his father. Realizing that he ``hated the selling aspect, but loved making the presentations," it was time to become an actor. ``It's never too late to start," he says, giving hope to all of the would-be over-20-something actors out there.

Smith's first acting job, as an extra in the Brad Pitt film ``Twelve Monkeys," came immediately. Commercials for Carl's Jr. and Gateway Computers came soon thereafter. He sold his beloved Bronco II and moved to New York City where he landed a part on ``As the World Turns," as Ryder Hughes. In 1996, his performance won him a Best New Actor Award from Soap Opera Magazine.

The year ahead on ``Dawson's Creek" seems like it will be a fun and busy one for Smith. ``I hope I get to direct at least one episode. But I have also made a few suggestions to the writers," he reveals. ``For three years, I have been this sexually unfulfilled teenager. All the other kids on the show are getting laid every other night. I demanded that in the next season I be able to get a piece of ass. It's been too long to have gone without any."

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