Though it opened in only six theaters this weekend, The Wackness, a coming-of-age tale set in New York City in 1994, managed to take in $24,177 per venue, impressive numbers for a little-promoted indie flick. The film teams indie-vet Sir Ben Kingsley with two relative newcomers, Josh Peck of Nickelodeon’s comedy “Drake and Josh” and Juno’s Olivia Thirlby, to tell the story of Luke Shapiro (Peck), a drug-dealing slacker confronting life after graduation. Despite coming from different backgrounds, however, the cast gelled well, creating a thoughtful, if dark, summer change-up.

The story pairs Luke’s maturation with a kind of digression by his psychiatrist, Dr. Squires (Kingsley), who trades therapy for weed. While Kingsley, best known for his Oscar-winning turn in the title role of 1982’s Gandhi, certainly supplies the film’s biggest name, he maintains that it was Peck’s performance, and in particular his maturity, that allowed the cast to mesh.

“What’s very gratifying, I think, to all of us involved with the film is that Josh allowed me to be the adolescent and him to be the adult,” says Kingsley, 64. “The only reason that Dr. Squires can become adolescent is because of the strength of Josh’s performance.”

Peck’s tender age – he’s 21 years old – does belie some solid showbusiness experience. Besides starring on “Drake and Josh” for four years, the actor has been doing stand-up comedy since he was eight. The Wackness’ serio-comic tone certainly represented a change for the actor, but it was one he felt prepared for.

“This part was something that I always knew was inside of me, and it was something that really spoke to the kind of actor that I hope I could be one day and the kind of material that I really respond to,” explains Peck, who can next be seen on the big screen in the another indie drama, American Primitive, due for release later this year.

Thirlby plays Peck’s romantic interest in the film, “hot girl” Stephanie, a role similar to the one Thirlby played in 2007’s surprise hit Juno. Thirlby, Shakespearean trained, doesn’t see herself as a natural high-school “popular girl,” claiming that she’s “not very good at being sexy or trying to be sexy,” but she did feel strongly enough about the character of Stephanie to break her own rule about showing too much skin on screen.

Says Thirlby, “It comes up all the time – women in scripts, girls, teenagers especially – are always supposed to be scantily clad or naked. And I’ve passed on roles, sadly had to turn things down, because people weren’t flexible.” 

 “And for The Wackness, it was a special thing,” she continues. “This was a special script and a special character, and the sex is an important part of the story.”

So it’s a complex story, combining sex, teenage ennui, the New York summer heat and a not-too-healthy amount of marijuana, not to mention a knighted thespian, a kid’s sitcom star and a Shakespearian-turned-teen-bombshell, but keep an eye out for The Wackness as it rolls into more theaters over the summer.