Emile Hirsch's 'Wild' adventures

It's official. Emile Hirsch is the new Leonardo DiCaprio.

Following his acclaimed performance in Nick Cassavetes' "Alpha Dog," Emile stars as doomed idealistic Alaskan adventurer Chris McCandless in Sean Penn's breathtaking new movie, "Into the Wild."

"I think we can all learn something from Chris, but I'm not sure that we should try to emulate his experiences," Hirsch said at last night's L.A. premiere. 

Not only did Emile have to sing with Kristen ("Panic Room") Stewart, go catapulting down real rapids and starve himself to portray Chris in his final days, but he also had an unsettling scene with a very large, very unpredictable costar.

And I'm not talking about Vince Vaughn.

Photo credit: FilmMagic