Rob Brown was in a bind. He had run up a $300 phone bill and needed cash - fast.

The 16-year-old Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School (Brooklyn, N.Y.) junior saw an ad for an open cast call, and although Brown had never acted in as much as a school play before, he went with the hope of making a few bucks.

"Basically, I just needed money to pay off my cell phone bill," says Brown. "I figured I would just be an extra and make a little extra money. It worked out a little better."

Slightly better. Brown wasn't cast as an extra. Instead, he earned a starring role opposite Sean Connery in the movie "Finding Forrester," to be released nationwide on Jan. 12.

	Poly Prep's (N.Y.) Rob Brown earned a starring role opposite Sean Connery in the movie 'Finding Forrester.' Sony Pictures Entertainment Co. All rights reserved.

"Just being with the cast and meeting everybody, meeting Sean Connery and Busta Rhymes, the whole thing has been something I'll never forget," says Brown, who plays Jamal Wallace, an inner-city teenager at a prep school struggling to decide between a writing career and a future in basketball.

Brown's rise from high school student to Hollywood headliner hasn't changed him, he says. He still hangs out with friends, studies hard and plays football.

"It's not like it's a real surprise because everybody knows about it," says Brown, who was born in Harlem and grew up in Brooklyn. "Everybody has been real supportive. My close friends, I got them spots as extras. There has not been a lot of pressure, but there's been some amount. I think I've gone about it pretty well. I'm happy to have gotten the experience."

Filming for the movie was completed in the summer, and Brown has since gone back to being a normal high school kid. He started at wide receiver on the football team for the first time in his scholastic career this past fall and helped Poly Prep continue its amazing streak of 42 wins in its last 44 games. The 6-foot, 175-pound wideout caught 12 passes for 204 yards this season.

Though Brown stopped playing basketball after his freshman year to focus on football, he portrays a basketball player in "Finding Forrester." No problem, he says. He can still glide on the court.

	Rob Brown in 'Finding Forrester.' Sony Pictures Entertainment Co. All rights reserved.

"I played basketball, so I know what I'm doing [in the movie]," says Brown. "I can play. I just don't play for the school. I played basketball my freshman year on JV, and we went undefeated, 20-0. I just liked football better, and the feeling felt more like a family, and I enjoy practice and playing the games more than basketball."

Poly Prep athletic director Craig Jacoby says Brown has had a pretty good year, both for the Blue Devils and for himself.

"He's a very smart kid, and this is a tremendous break for him," says Jacoby. "He's a very solid player, and he stood out this year. He's just a very gifted kid, very hard working and comes from a tough background. For him to get this break is unbelievable."

Brown is enrolled in a non-profit program called Prep for Prep, which selects gifted and intelligent minority teens and prepares them for placement in the nation's best prep schools. Prep for Prep is designed to help these inner-city teens achieve goals they most likely would not be able to without help.

"Prep for Prep is about leadership training for children from minority-group backgrounds," says Ed Boland, the organization's director of public affairs. "Robert is a great example of the Renaissance students we have who really excel in so many different areas. These kids go to elite schools, and when they get there, they compete on equal footing."

Brown, who maintains a B average and says he wants to pursue a career in electrical engineering, enrolled at Poly Prep in seventh grade. Before that, he was a student at PS 20 in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

"We identify very talented students in New York City public schools and prepare them for placement in the nation's best prep schools," says Boland. "When our kids go to college, they earn places in these schools based on their merit."

Like his character in "Finding Forrester," Brown has a career decision looming. If the movie is successful, will he consider becoming a full-time actor?

"I've never done this before, so I'm not sure," he says. "I still want to be an electrical engineer, but if the movie does well, why not?"