DuPage native glad to go 'Greek' -- if only on TV

Ask a 24-year-old guy to name his favorite movie and you probably won't hear "The 10 Commandments" in response. Unless that 24-year-old guy is Winfield native Scott Michael Foster, who plays good-guy, fraternity president Cappie on "Greek," the ABC Family series beginning its third season March 30.

"It's a really good movie," says Foster, who claims he knows the classic Charlton Heston film backward and forward.

"I grew up Christian," he says "and to see (the story) on the big screen was cool for me."

He also cites among his favorites the 1980s time-travel romance "Somewhere in Time," starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, which has become a cult classic.

"I was a sucker for sensitive love stories," he confesses.

That's fitting because on "Greek," a drama set on a college campus, he plays a sensitive coed. Foster describes his character as a Van Wilder type who loves college so much he doesn't want to leave and probably never will.

Romance, power plays and schemes tend to occupy most of the characters, but Foster says "the show has done a pretty good job of making sure it's not just fun and games, romance and parties all the time."

"It shows you the balance," he says.

Foster attributes the show's appeal to the fact viewers can relate to it. While shows like "Privileged" and "Gossip Girl" give viewers a glimpse into lifestyles they may never experience, a show like "Greek" gives them insight into a life that they may well experience.

Not that Foster experienced it. He spent his early childhood in Carol Stream and moved with his family to Michigan City, Ind., when he was 5. At 12, the family relocated to Texas where the home-schooled Foster attended his first public school and took theater as his elective. He joined the choir, performed in school musicals and eventually landed a job performing at Six Flags Over Texas.

After high school, Foster headed to Los Angeles.

"It was either stay in Dallas and work at Six Flags until I was 30, or go out and actually try," he says.

He lived on his savings and went on auditions. After six months, he took a job at Starbucks. A year later he snagged his first commercial. Four or five others followed, but Foster hit another dry spell and turned to waiting tables to make ends meet. Six months later, he went "Greek."

"Thankfully, I haven't had to go back and wait tables," he says.