Jonathan Storm: The dream he pursues is a movie

Andrew Lawrence checks in from L.A., where he lives with his brother, the Reptile Man.

Andrew, youngest of three acting Lawrence brothers who are to Abington what the Baldwins are to Massapequa, N.Y., stars in a Hallmark Channel movie tonight. It's called Chasing a Dream, a pretty good description of what Andrew is doing in his own life.

"I just keep auditioning, praying that I get a fricking movie," Lawrence says. "I'm trying my hardest. It's a really hard industry, man, so up and down and all over the place."

Others might see success in a 21-year-old's acting resume that lists 37 credits, many on TV shows with multiple episodes. That's only six fewer than brother Matthew, who's eight years older. Andrew does have his work cut out for him, however, to catch the original Lawrence brother, Joey, and his 52.

Joey, 33, was something of a teen idol with a hit record and a prominent place on one of the signal family sitcoms of the early '90s, Blossom. More recently, he finished third in the third season of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, beaten only by fellow former kid-star Mario Lopez and legendary NFL running back Emmitt Smith.

"That was crazy, man," says Andrew, who appeared on the show a few times for moral support. He got his start on Blossom, at age 1, playing his older brother's character as a baby.

"Having Joe for my brother has given me quite the leg up," Andrew says. "It definitely hasn't handicapped my growth or my career, and I wouldn't trade that for the world."

The handicap may come from middle brother Matthew, who has cut back on acting and now works in the reptile business, breeding scaly creatures, primarily lizards, and providing them to zoos and such.

"There's a giant lizarterranium in our backyard," Andrew says. "It's awesome, really fun, like a carnival house. He has some that are 61/2 or 7 feet, about 60 pounds. They can bite half your hand off."

Andrew had more tangible physical issues making Chasing a Dream, about a high school football star who turns to track to honor a friend killed in a car accident. His character sets out to achieve the friend's goal of running a sub-four-minute mile.

Andrew had to run and run and run, and then run some more, in the oppressive heat of a Southern California summer. "It was brutal, man," he says. "We had a running double, but we lost him after the first day. I'm not a wimp, and I can run, but I was dying. It kind of works for the story, though."

It works well. The story is barely believable and the cheap production budget shows, but Andrew and Treat Williams, who plays his father, mitigate some of the movie's shortcomings with some sweet acting.

"Treat was awesome. He was so helpful," Andrew says. "We hung out and drank some margaritas. A lot of good people work on Hallmark movies. The director, David Burton Morris, has become a good friend of mine."

Chasing a Dream may not be Citizen Kane, or even Jesse Stone: Thin Ice, Andrew acknowledged, but it was a good job. "Just building a body of work and being as good as I can be is all I can really ask for."

This season, on Showtime, the antithesis of Hallmark, Andrew played a bisexual high school student in The United States of Tara, a dramedy about a woman with multiple personalities. His character shared steamy scenes with both her son and her, when she was being ruled by her teenage alter ego.

"Everyone on the set was very talented and kind and generous and made sure everyone, especially me, was comfortable," Andrew said. "I got to make out with Toni Collette, and that's all that matters."

He'd love to move into the big time, and get the kind of roles Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Sean Penn got as young men. In the meantime, could there be a little reality-show work, some star dancing, for instance, like his brother?

"I'll plead the Fifth," says the kid, wise beyond his years. "Those shows are like politics. There are 900 million people behind the scenes that you don't actually see that are driving things.

"So, not yet for me, man. Let's see what happens in the next 10 years."

Chasing

a Dream

Tonight at 9 on the Hallmark Channel