Heyborne takes a 'Free Ride'

Despite the fact that Kirby Heyborne has starred and co-starred in almost a dozen movies, the Utah native finds himself a "wide-eyed . . . naive" newcomer in Hollywood right now.

After years of working on small-budget independent films, he's co-starring in the new Fox comedy "Free Ride," which premieres Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. on Ch. 13.

"It's awesome. Fox is amazing," Heyborne said by telephone from his home in Southern California. "They're the nicest people. Everybody from the executives on down to the production company — everybody treats me so nice. I haven't run into the attitude yet. Maybe it's because I'm so naive and just walking around all big-eyed — 'You mean I get a trailer?!? What?!?' "

"Free Ride" is a partially improvised comedy about recent college graduate Nate (Josh Dean) who has no idea what to do with his life. He returns to his Midwest home to find his parents are having marriage problems and they've turned his room into a gym, so he has to move into the garage.

Heyborne co-stars as Dillon, Nate's buddy who's married and settled down, and who competes with Dove (Dave Sheridan) — a guy who peaked in high school and has been cruising downhill in his monster truck ever since — to be Nate's best friend.

Other than a national auto ad and a guest spot on "Everwood," this is Heyborne's first foray into the Hollywood mainstream. To date, his career has been mostly inside the Mormon movie subgenre, both highbrow ("The Best Two Years," "Saints and Soldiers") and lowbrow ("Singles Ward," "The R.M.," "Sons of Provo").

"This is the first time that all I need to worry about is showing up on set and doing the best I can as an actor," Heyborne said. "Whereas, on independent films, it's — let me help load in the lights, or whatever. Which I enjoy doing. That's the one thing I love about independent film is, it's a big community where all the lines are kind of blurred and you're helping move lights or helping carry cable. But it was a lot less pressure."

Heyborne's "Free Ride" role is recurring — he's in the first episode for just under a minute and doesn't appear in the second installment, but he is in four of the first six episodes, and his role expands in later installments. And he got the part through the traditional audition process.

The show's creator/executive producer, Rob Roy Thomas, hadn't seen any of Heyborne's film work when he cast him in the show. "I just think he's very funny. Didn't you think he was great in the show?" Thomas said. "But I've heard about those Mormon movies. I'm going to have to take a look at them."