Hot List 2012: Ben Walker

Photograph by Kristiina Wilson

The first time Ben Walker was president, nobody could stop talking about his tight pants in the Broadway musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. This year, he'll get a decidedly different reaction when he portrays a kick-ass Honest Abe in Timur Bekmambetov's highly anticipated adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

"It's the kind of gig you imagine doing when you're six years old with your friends," Walker says. "You get some sticks and pine cones, and one of you pretends to be Abraham Lincoln, the other pretends to be a vampire, and you go at it. What's not to love?"

But what about that prosthetic schnoz he had to deal with? "For an actor, that disguise is kind of perfect," he says. "You get to play an amazing American hero, and nobody's gonna bother you on the street."

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter opens June 22.