Emerging O.C. Star’s Outlook Is ‘Blue Collar’ : Acting: Andrew Lowery will be in the ABC movie “A Son’s Promise” Monday night. That’s a far cry from “Our Town” at Valencia High.

PLACENTIA —  Andrew Lowery’s neighbors here still don’t believe that he is co-starring in a TV movie. To them, it seems like only yesterday that he was doing “Our Town” at Valencia High.

But that was years ago now, and Lowery is enjoying the beginnings of a successful acting career. Last month he was seen as the son of Powers Boothe and Lesley Ann Warren in the CBS miniseries “Family of Spies,” and Monday night he will be in the ABC movie “A Son’s Promise.”

Still, Lowery insists that there are no stars in his own eyes, either. “I just want to be a blue-collar working actor,” he says, “the kind of guy whose name you never know but who always does good work and is respected on the set.”

No stars, maybe, but a glint.

“There is this glint in Andrew’s eye that tells you something creative is cooking,” says Robert Jenson, chairman of the Fullerton College theater arts department, where Lowery was graduated in 1988. Jenson directed Lowery in stage productions of “Terra Nova” and “The Diviners” in 1987.

“He’s so hungry and very demanding of himself,” Jenson says. “His acting is always fresh.”

“I owe a lot to Fullerton,” Lowery says. “The theater department is so wide open. You can take chances, and you can fall on your face.”

Lowery grew up without a TV in the house (“My mom didn’t allow it because my dad watched too much”). To this day, the thought of performing in public makes him nervous.

“There are a lot of exercises that some actors swear by but I feel are a lot of hocus-pocus. I just go on instinct,” he says.

“I get insecure, like all actors. I never believe somebody when they say I did good. I only believe it when I get ripped.”

Lowery’s first screen time was a guest spot on the series “Paradise.” “Everybody thought I knew what I was doing,” he says, “because hey, I was on the set. I was a nervous wreck.”

Roles on “Baywatch,” “Falcon Crest” and “My Two Dads” followed. He delivered a potted plant on “Cheers” and got his first fan letter.

But fan mail--and TV roles--notwithstanding, he still feels “lumped with a lot of other actors.”

At the same time, though, he knows that no one part is going to change his life: “I’ve been up for some major stuff, and they tell me if I get this part or another, it’ll change my life. Well, the other guy gets it, the movie gets slandered and it doesn’t change that guy’s life. Nothing changes your life.

“I still live at home. I get along with my parents. The money is nice. It’s better than delivering pizzas. I don’t have to work a normal job. Someday, I hope I won’t have to audition. But until then, I’m out there all the time.”

He would rather not do commercials if he can help it. “I read for (a jeans ad) directed by Tony Scott (director of the films “Top Gun” and “Revenge”). He liked my irreverence. The Levi’s people hated me. (Scott) sent me to Tom Cruise’s trainer, and I worked out with Sally Fields and Sylvester Stallone. I put on 14 pounds in seven days. Levi’s still hated me. I didn’t get the job.”

But he says he didn’t mind: “On most commercial auditions, they actually tell you how to read the lines. It makes me irate. I won’t do it.

“I want to master film. I learn loads every time I work, just watching. There are technical tricks that take years to learn. I have to get past the technical so I can really release.”

Meanwhile, Lowery still prefers stage work, to the point that if paid roles stopped coming, he would act on stage for free.

“I’ve had fun on stage when I’ve gotten paid absolutely nothing,” he says. “Stage is very physical, continuous motion. You get to take the audience from A to Z in two hours. You get to sweat. You get rehearsal time to build a character.

“Film is doing it a piece at a time, sitting around a lot and getting only a week to prepare for a role you auditioned for for two months. When you get through the audition, when you get the job, you can only think it’s because you’re real lucky.

“Tom Cruise can be cocky. I can’t. I get reminded of that every time I audition.”

“A Son’s Promise” will be shown Monday at 9 p.m. on ABC.