"It kept happening, again and again," says the elder Hardesty, a music teacher and ad jingle writer. "Pretty soon, my wife and I just ignored it."

That decision could make their son a movie star.

What Brandon, 20, has been doing in the basement for the better part of two years is videotaping himself playing all the characters in scenes from his favorite movies. It's a bit of cineaste noodling echoed in Be Kind Rewind, in which Jack Black and Mos Def re-create a video store's worth of films for a loyal patron.

"I just did it, you know, for fun," says Brandon Hardesty. "Everyone's got scenes they act out for friends, right?"

So far, Hardesty has posted 32 scene re-creations to YouTube, from disturbingly accurate renditions of the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket (his most-viewed at 270,000 hits) to a hilarious take on Daniel Day-Lewis' oil prospector in There Will Be Blood (complete with Mr. Potato Head mustache).

For a long time, the response to his shtick consisted mainly of surfers' praise or suggestions. But the stakes are rising.

On the strength of his videos, Hardesty landed a role last fall in Bart Got a Room, an art-house film starring William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines that premieres this month at New York's Tribeca film fest. In February, he made a video appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he presented his take on the five best-film Oscar nominees. And a few weeks ago, he landed representation at Endeavor, the powerhouse agency that handles Steve Carrell and Chris Rock.

All on the back of goofing off in his spare time between college classes and bagging groceries at a supermarket.

His mimicry is an ode to the stars he loves. "When I'm doing Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, Pesci already did all the hard work, digging into the character, choosing the tone, everything," Hardesty says. "I'm just trying to copy it. Maybe I'm adding a little of me in the process. Who knows?"

Had Hardesty posted just one or two interesting re-enactments, he'd probably still be rushing off to his grocery gig. But the "incredible range" in the dozens of videos "clearly meant there was tremendous talent there," says Bart director Brian Hecker, who found out about Hardesty in an offbeat way.

"One of my producers knows Joe Pesci, and Joe was saying how ticked off he was that people were imitating him," Hecker says with a laugh. "So my producer plugged Pesci's name into YouTube, and Brandon came up immediately. He shot me the link and said I had to take a look."

Hardesty found his way onto Endeavor's radar screen in that same small-Hollywood-world fashion. Agent Stephanie Ritz had actually seen Hardesty's work online a few years back and was surprised when a Bart producer mentioned they had cast him.

"So many times, you see something online and you laugh, but it's not memorable," Ritz says. "But we wouldn't be representing (him) if we didn't have every faith that he can have a real career as an actor."

Hardesty always thought he'd follow his father's footsteps into music. But he came to acting through roles in ensemble high-school plays such as The Crucible and Godspell.

The foray into the Web career was far less social. "Just me and my camera," Hardesty says. "I didn't even have a tripod. I'd just prop it up on a stack of VHS tapes and hope it didn't fall."

He's not beyond showcasing his sense of humor. For his re-creation of the scene in Blood where Day-Lewis throws bowling balls at his nemesis, Hardesty tossed tiny toy balls at kiddie pins. Kimmel chose the scene to screen on air.

Says Hardesty's father: "There were times when I'd think, 'Here's an idea, Brandon,' and then I'd realize it was best if I just shut up. He knows what he's doing. He's kept us in stitches for years."

Hardesty took a semester off from Villa Julie College in Towson, Md., to appear in Bart. He's a film major there. But he just might wind up graduating with a degree in the real thing.

"So much has happened to me in the past few weeks, it's rather unbelievable," he says, sounding humbled by the attention and big-budget scripts he has been getting. "I'm not sure what's going to happen next. But no, I don't think I'll be going back to college anytime soon."

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