By Thomas Chau in New York City

Shooting his own cannonballs of flair, style, and talent, Nick Cannon is flying through his career with nothing but smoke and heat in his trails. The 23-year-old star of “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” started out very young as a stand-up comedian, where Nickelodeon quickly drafted him as a writer for the “Kenan & Kel” show. He transferred his comedic talents from paper to the camera when he became a regular on the teen sketch show “All That.” After a spectacular performance in “Drumline,” Cannon has some amazing projects lined up, including “The Underclassmen” with Kelly Hu, and voicing a mouse in the upcoming “Garfield” movie.

Cannon stars as Alvin Johnson in this remake of 1987’s “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Alvin is the school nerd who can barely walk down the “cool” hall without making a fool of himself. He and his friends constantly have their eye on Paris Morgan (Christina Milian), the hottest, most popular girl in high school who happens to be dating a pro basketball player. When Paris finds herself in a tough financial situation, Alvin offers to loan her some money in exchange for a proposition: For him to be her boyfriend for two weeks.

Nick was recently in New York City to talk about this movie about teen love, redemption, and being yourself.

Q: How was it working with Christina Milian?

NICK: Christina was amazing to work with. Do you ever meet people who are, like, genuinely nice all the way around? They don’t have a bad bone in their body? They say nice things about everybody and have no ill intentions whatsoever? She’s one of those people who is genuinely sweet all the time. She’s a singer but an extremely good actress.

Q: How was the set? Was it a really fun set?

NICK: Everybody was my friend on the set. It was amazing because these were people that I knew. I knew Christina for a while. I’ve known Steve Harvey for years. Kenan Thompson was my best friend. A lot of people don’t know this but he was the kind of person that took me under his wing. I was a writer for a television show but I used to have to sleep in my car when I used to drive from San Diego to L.A. He used to say, “Man, I have an extra room in my apartment.” That’s my best friend. I’m doing a movie with my best friend who I grew up with so the set wasn’t like we were working at all. It was like, “Oh, let’s do a movie while we’re all here hanging out.”

Q: What was it about the story that most appealed to you?

NICK: I’m a huge fan of “Can’t Buy Me Love.” I just love the story. I grew up in 1987 and that was the first time I saw it. I was drawn to it because I love playing characters. If you’ve seen any of my work on Nickelodeon, I do characters and this was a chance for me to step into it. I’m nothing like this guy either way: Al or Alvin. I get to go there and that was cool. I got to be a super-duper nerd and then a cocky, crazy guy too at the same time so it was cool.

Q: So before you became an actor, you wouldn’t say you were either a nerd or a player?

NICK: I was somewhere in between. I was more like the guy at the end, that Alvin. My high school years – of course, everyone deals with peer pressure and insecurities but I was more focused on becoming an entertainer and working in stand-up comedy. I didn’t care what people thought. I wanted to be a trendsetter but if people didn’t follow, I wasn’t shaken by that.

Q: Have you done anything crazy to get a girl’s attention?

NICK: Always! Every day! I do silly stuff all the time to get girls’ attention. I grew my hair up cause the girl said I would look good with braids. It’s a girl by the name of Christina Milian! (Laughs) She thought that with corn rolls, I’d be a cuter guy. Guys have egos and we need them to be catered to.

Q: Did you have to work on the choreography for the dance scenes?

NICK: I got flava, playa! (Laughs) You got a dance move, I got it! Definitely no choreography or anything like that. I know a lot of the females did because they did a lot of the cheering and stuff. I would sneak by and watch the rehearsals a couple of times (laughs) but it wasn’t anything like that in this film. It wasn’t like “Drumline” where there was two months of drum training. It was just showing up to the set and having a good time.

Q: Who do you think the audience for this movie is?

NICK: It’s a family film, believe it or not. People say, “How can you say it’s a family film when it’s a teenage comedy?” I would say it’s a family film because of the tone. It’s really a story about a young man understanding that being yourself is probably the best thing you can possibly do. Everybody can be reminded of that at times. The tone is family driven. You have a family who supports this young man going to college and they’re talking about how they want him to become a man.

Q: Will Smith has been like a mentor to you since your standup days. Would you like your career to pattern his?

NICK: Of course, anybody wants a $20 million dollar check! (Laughs) But I definitely want to blaze my own trail. He’s definitely my mentor. If I have any problems or questions, I’d call him up. He can kind of guide me through but I definitely want to create something of my own. But it’s nothing like having a big brother in the industry and someone who can look out for you.

"Love Don't Cost a Thing" opens in theaters December 12th.