15-year-old Wyomissing actor lands role in 'Hillbilly Elegy' alongside Glenn Close

WYOMISSING, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- A 15-year-old Wyomissing actor has been in the entertainment business since he was a young child, but this year his Hollywood star really started rising.

Owen Asztalos is a sophomore at Wyomissing Junior-Senior High School. He is now sharing the silver screen with Glenn Close and Amy Adams.

"I'm very proud of it," he says. "It's nice being in a small town like this because everybody has known me since I was a little baby. Nobody treats me differently."

Owen says he's the ham of the family, known for always putting on a show and impersonating Elvis Presley.

He started auditioning for Hollywood when he was nine and landed a role in 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid.'

Owen began filming Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy two years ago when he was 13.

He plays the young JD Vance, chasing the American dream in rural Ohio.

He says that he too, like his character, is having a coming of age this year.

"I think this year I learned a lot about work ethic and a lot about discipline," Asztalos says.

"There's nothing more fulfilling than seeing all of this hard work and all of this effort that you put into something for so long pay off," Asztalos says. "This is a dream come true."

During the pandemic, Owen also says he started eating more healthy foods and exercising and has lost 35 pounds using that same idea of work ethic and discipline.

But he says he's also just your average 15-year-old, playing guitar and hockey and taking out the trash and recycling.