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Josh Duhamel's Quandary

The man who loves Fergie has a hit TV show and a new blockbuster film, but what he really wants to do is…act

Who hasn't had a taste of this classic career quandary? You do one thing well—really well—and soon enough, that's all the boss sees you doing. You become invaluable in your role, the go-to guy, and your unique talent becomes sort of a cage. A golden cage, perhaps, but it's still a cage.

In the case of Josh Duhamel, typecasting is turning him into a movie star, the kind of actor who is handpicked by Steven Spielberg to do his thing—his one thing—really well. It's a champagne problem, but for Duhamel, a problem nonetheless.

"It always feels like I have to prove myself to be more than what people think they see," says Duhamel. "That's part of what I'm fighting right now. People don't know what you're capable of until you actually do it."

Peeling a professional label off your forehead is not as easy as peeling one off the side of a beer bottle. And Duhamel is not the first actor to try. Think back to the early years of some of our most respected thirty- and forty-something actors: Depp, DiCaprio, Pitt, Clooney. All are recovering pretty boys who have forged powerful, respected careers. Duhamel wants to follow their machete trails through the show-biz jungle.

This drive has already produced substantial results: Each project Duhamel has done has been a step up from the one before, and this month, when Transformers opens, he graduates into a new realm: the megabudget Hollywood action blockbuster. He's acquiring the trappings of adulthood: a new home and an almost-three-year relationship with Stacy Ferguson, who is so gorgeous and famous that all you have to say is "Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas" for any male to know exactly who you mean.

But at age 34, the small-town guy from Minot, North Dakota, considers himself to be just getting started. "My biggest fear, basically, is sucking. There are actors my age who are just incredible. They set the bar, and that's where I want to be."

The drive to prove himself was an unintentional gift from his college football coach. But this is not a charming story about a boy who found his mentor. The Minot State University football coach recruited him—a local kid—along with others from as far away as California. And in Duhamel's eyes, those out-of-staters won preferred playing time over the hometown kid. That really pissed him off. "At that time, everything regarding sports was life or death to me," he says. "This killed me. When it's happening in the moment, there's nothing worse. But in retrospect, that's what ultimately fueled me to come out to L.A. and just say, 'Okay, you don't believe in me? Watch this.'"