- [Narrator] Remember when you and your friends
used to have crushes on guys you knew you'd never meet?
Great Big Story remembers.
(angelic harmonizing)
- [Narrator] The dumb but cute one.
This is Clayton Snyder.
He played Ethan Craft, Lizzie McGuire's crush
on the Disney channel show, "Lizzie McGuire".
- He was the lovable jock athlete at school
that people wanted to be or be with.
- Hey what's up guys?
- Hey.
- Let's be clear, Lizzie had a huge crush on Ethan.
- Do you see Ethan?
- [Narrator] A sentiment echoed by many others.
Let's break down his look.
- [Clayton] Cargo shorts were a must.
He needed pockets for all the scrunchies
that were going to get thrown at him throughout the day
and puka shells or some sort of necklace.
- [Narrator] Ethan's character was cute,
but not necessarily the brightest crayon in the box.
- My eyes.
- Ethan was known for a few things.
One of them would be how he couldn't do long division.
- How many times do we have to go over this?
- And the other is that he has the hair.
The hair is a big part of who Ethan was
and he knew it as well.
- [Narrator] Ethan was originally written as the bully,
but once everyone came to set,
the production rewrote his character.
- Playing Ethan was so much fun.
There's one episode of that was this school dance night
where the actual line just said, Ethan dances like a madman.
And I went with it.
They had to tell me to calm down
because my feet were making too much noise on the set.
- [Narrator] As far as crushes go,
Lizzie and Ethan never got past friendship.
- Ethan didn't kiss a soul on "Lizzie McGuire",
not in the show, not in the movie.
I think that says something about Ethan.
I think he was a class act.
- [Narrator] Since the show ended Clayton's done a few gigs,
played some water polo, sold some houses,
but most importantly,
he's been working on the "Lizzie McGuire" reboot.
The pretty boy.
Robert Ri'chard's roles tended to have one thing in common.
- A lot of my roles became
Robert Ri'chard with his shirt off.
- [Narrator] But before he became known as the pretty boy,
he had humble beginnings,
playing the sweet and smart Bobby in "Cousin Skeeter"
The producers of the show wanted to make him
a relatable nineties kids.
- [Robert] My outfits were a lot of Levi's jeans,
Reebok sneakers, traditional 1990's polo
or a tee shirt and a jacket,
that was sort of like the style for Bobby
'cause they wanted to make him very much crossover
that sort of every kid in America
can see themselves in his role.
- I'm into it, how about you?
- [Narrator] But let's be honest, as much as we love Bobby,
It's Arnaz from "One on One" that we were crushing on.
- Arnaz turned out to be pretty much as a heartthrob
on the show, I mean, he played a guitar.
He wore sleeveless shirts, he had his muscles always out
and very much baby oiled.
He's very much a Lenny Kravitz type character.
- A man can't watch a movie naked in his own house?
- [Narrator] Despite being a well known actor,
Robert fell into it completely by surprise.
- I was actually avoiding a fight.
And I tucked into a random building to avoid the fight
and that building happened to be an acting school.
So I was in there stalling and I was just like,
asking for tour and asking like,
oh can I fill out an application?
And then 23 years later,
I'm now an Emmy award winning actor.
- [Narrator] The bad boy.
Back in 1991, when "Hook" was released
and Dante Basco took to the silver screen as Rufio,
he stole the hearts of more than just the lost boys.
- [Kids] Rufio.
- Rufio was a bad ass kid who's the leader of the lost boys,
tough and a sword fighter
and a little rash, bad boy turned good by the end.
- [Narrator] Let's talk about the look.
- [Dante] So the Rufio look, three Mohawks,
the trihawk on top, red, black shredded leather jacket,
midriff shirt black and red, black skin tight holey jeans,
red tights underneath, red suede boots.
Those hair pieces were actually dyed antelope tail.
Which sounds crazy but that's what it was.
- [Narrator] Dante couldn't have been
more right for the role.
He got the part after a single audition.
He didn't even have to read lines for Steven Spielberg.
- He looked at me and he was like,
well you know Dante we audition
thousands of kids across the country.
I was like, yeah?
He goes, and out of all of them,
you're the only kid that scared me.
- Looky looky, I got Hooky.
- [Narrator] After "Hook", Dante went on to voice
an anime character known for having the most
redeeming character arc in animation history,
Prince Zuko in "Avatar: The Last Airbender"
- I understand.
- It's interesting to be a teenage kid
and people have crushes on you as a teenager,
and then it's interesting,
people to have a crush on you again
and specifically because of your voice.
I don't know if I totally get it 100%
but I think it's better that way.
- [Narrator] The player.
Okay, Andrew Keegan.
Where do we start?
When we think about Andrew Keegan, one thing comes to mind.
- "Camp Nowhere" was my first studio film
so that would have been my first kiss on camera.
- Trish.
- Oh hi daddy.
- And the girl, her name was Marnette Patterson.
- [Narrator] Then there was "Seventh Heaven".
- Jessica Biel, how could I forget that one?
We kissed a few times.
I also had a kissing scene in "The Broken Hearts Club"
which was with Dean Cain.
I remember a lot of nervousness.
- Why was I so scared to tell everyone?
- Did I mention that I kissed Jessica Alba?
- [Narrator] In "10 things I Hate About You",
he got to date Bianca Stratford.
Well briefly.
- I'm shooting a nose spray ad tomorrow.
- I think it's fair to say that I'm most well known
for the Joey Donner role.
I think he was a bad guy.
He had elements of ego and bravado.
There was an endearingness to his qualities.
- [Narrator] Endearing? Maybe.
- As opposed to a bitter self-righteous hag
who has no friends?
- [Narrator] Player or not, his picture was still on
a lot of our walls.
- I've certainly heard about the posters up on walls.
It is obviously somewhat, you know,
an awkward conversation when it comes up now
that I used to have your poster up on the wall
and it's happened but it's always a very sweet encounter.
- [Narrator] Well, there you have it.
Some of your boy crushes
and some of the stories behind their iconic roles.
(soft upbeat music)