Ethan Embry usually plays the skinny underdog. "I'm always the Anthony Micheal Hall character instead of the John Cusack character," says Embry, 19, who has appeared in White Squall, Empire Records, Vegas Vacation, and That Thing You Do! But this summer, Embry moves into the spotlight with not one but two movies. In the drama Dancer, Texas Pop. 81, currently in theaters, his most difficult scene entailed eating a plate of Spam. "We had to do 10 takes - I threw up about 4 times," laughs Embry, who was born Ethan Randall in Southern California. In this month's comedy Can't Hardly Wait, Embry finally gets the girl (Party Of Five's Jennifer Love Hewitt). "I have a girl of my own [Heather, an aspiring actress] and I haven't kissed anybody else in two years, so that was weird," says Embry. "Maybe I should stick with the underdogs."