article form chicago sun times.


Cutkosky isn't at all like he appears on the silver screen.



Ethan Cutkosky of St. Charles plays a dead child in the sci-fi thriller "The Unborn," opening Friday. Ethan sans makeup -- a two-hour daily task.



"It was two hours in the makeup chair," the youngster said.

The St. Charles 9-year-old, a third-grader at Bell Graham Elementary School, plays a major character in "The Unborn," a science-fiction horror film about a woman slowly being possessed by a spirit and her attempt to fight it off.

"This is me in a scene where I come out of the medicine cabinet," Ethan says, pointing to one of several photographs of scenes from the movie. Writer-director David Goyer compiled the photos into an album -- signed by Goyer and other cast and crew members -- for the young actor.

Goyer is known for his screenplay work on "Batman Begins" and "Blade." He was co-writer of the latest Batman flick, "The Dark Knight," which was filmed in Chicago.

"The Unborn," rated R, opens in theaters on Friday.

In the film, Ethan plays a dead child so tainted with evil that he is denied entrance to heaven. To survive, the demon must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body to inhabit.

Ethan's parents, Yvonne and David Cutkosky, said their son auditioned twice for the part and was notified within days that he landed the role. Filming began last March at several locations in Chicago, including Michigan Avenue, and ended in early May.

The movie, they said, is scary enough to make viewers jump in their seats.

And in the meantime, Ethan is building a college fund.

Ethan's character starts as a boy killed in a Nazi concentration camp whose body is consumed by evil. Odette Yustman co-stars as a woman who is haunted by the child.

"[The child] appears on the street, in the medicine cabinet and in her dreams," Yvonne Cutkosky said. "She goes to see a doctor about an eye condition when she learns that she's a twin. The evil wants to gather souls to build energy. There are all these twists and turns."

Mom and Dad said Ethan acts like other kids his age when his parents ask him to do something. But on the movie shoots, Ethan was incredibly focused and followed the director's lead, they said.

"He was in the zone," David said. "He won't listen to us but he could hear the director with 200 people around."

Yvonne said her son "has a big personality, and people kept telling us we should try to get him into [acting].

"Being an only child, we thought it would be good for him," Yvonne said, adding that agents and directors look for a child's maturity and how well he can follow directions.

They The couple first contacted an agent when Ethan was 4 years old. They said he began auditioning for magazines and commercials and that led to movie auditions.

"It's very competitive. We didn't think he would get [the movie role] because it is so big," she said. "We went on two auditions. ... It's taken a whole life of its own."

People from work and parents with kids from tae kwon do have been calling to say they've seen Ethan in the movie trailer and ads.

"I got to meet a lot of new friends," the youngster said of his first film role.

Turning back to the movie photo album, Ethan said, "This is David Goyer's [signature]."

He signed it with, "That's a wrap