Brandon Routh is still my Superman. I wanted to see how he dealt with his son. They may be rebooting that without him but Routh is still in the comic book world. He’s one of the seven evil exes in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and he’s playing Dylan Dog in the Dead of Night movie. He talked about all of it in a roundtable interview for Scott Pilgrim.
Q: Did your Superman experiences make it easier for you to deal with this, working with green screen and wires?
Brandon Routh: It wasn’t so much for me so I felt a great sense of relief having known what that is like and dreaded it a little bit when I got up there. They’re like, “We’ve got to get up to Toronto early. You have to do some rehearsal and wirework and harness stuff.” And I’m like, “Oh, great.” But I got up there and ended up barely using any of it for me. Satya [Bhabha] had to do a lot and so did Michael [Cera], but I had very, very little. So I was very relieved, but also tried to give little words of wisdom to people. I certainly could understand the work that they had to do and I understand the poise and determination and focus it takes to do some of that kind of stuff. Then again I was grateful that I didn’t have to do any of that myself. I had to learn to play bass so that was my biggest challenge.
Q: What was your experience of learning how to play bass like?
Brandon Routh: It was really fun. Thankfully I had a little bit of a music background before so I took to it fairly easily. Playing the bass was fun. There was a lot of pressure off and I was relieved that I didn’t actually have to record any of the music I was playing. I just had to look like I was playing it. I would have liked to have had it be my recording of playing the Black Sheep song by Metric because I actually learned that pretty good, and our band was really pretty good at it. It’s actually Brie’s voice, Brie Larson’s voice singing, but the rest of the music is Metric and not us, not Tennessee Thomas who is our drummer and myself.
Q: After all this time, what was it like finally spending the weekend at Comic Con?
Brandon Routh: I had this fun moment in an elevator with my reps and stuff and we went to the wrong floor. We went up instead of down at one point, and three guys stepped on to the elevator and were kind of talking to each other and didn’t notice who was in the elevator for a second. One of the guys turns around and he’s like, “Oh, you should be wearing this,” and it’s like a Superman T-shirt. He’s like, “Hey, how you doing?” I shook his hand and he’s like, “I love the movie…whatever.” But that was a chance meeting. That that happened was just kind of funny.
Q: In your informed opinion what are the differences between Superman fans and Scott Pilgrim fans?
Brandon Routh: I don’t know. I mean, I feel like it’s a lot of the same people but I think often times with Superman and Batman and Spider-Man, people have their favorites, where everybody can come together and all be fans of Scott Pilgrim because it’s such a different type of comic. So that all those people can kind of have a common meeting ground. I also think that probably a lot of Scott Pilgrim fans may not have read Superman or any other superhero comics because they are a different type of book. So the Superman comic Superman fans may have a deeper comic book history. Not saying that Scott Pilgrim people don’t have that. But potentially, since Superman goes way, way back to the ’50s and beyond that they’re a little bit more well read.
Q: A lot of us are bummed that we won’t get to see Bryan Singer’s sequel to your Superman. What would that have been?
Brandon Routh: I don’t know. There was probably some political intrigue. Maybe some terrorist themes in their because of everything that’s going on since. A politically relevant issue that maybe Superman can have some insight and deal with in a way that no one else can.
Q: There were a lot of relationships to deal with.
Brandon Routh: You have to deal with Jason and a lot of stuff. I have my own theories on that, that someday whenever a new movie comes out maybe I’ll talk about that.
Q: Dead of Night will be your third comic book movie. Do you feel a close connection to the world of comics?
Brandon Routh: Yeah. You know, it’s hard not to as an actor these days because TV shows, you’ve got Human Target, you have Chuck now. It’s a TV show but they havet done a comic spin on it. It’s everywhere. It’s infiltrated. Comic books are winning the war in creativity at this point which is because they’ve been out there for so long and there’s so much great talent in both the writing and the inking and the drawing, that it’s cool to see this take-over, and they’re original ideas. You know, Hollywood has so many re-dos, remakes of this and that that it’s great to see new energy and life come about. Look, when you play a character like Superman, that hits big in that world so I’m going to attract other projects of the like, especially this, playing the antithesis of the Superman character. So I embrace it and I’ve been blessed to have all the characters that I play be totally different characters and also be three totally different comics, ideas of comics, and from different countries.
Q: What can we expect from Dylan Dog?
Brandon Routh: You can expect a lot of kick-ass monster fights. Great comedy, buddy comedy between Sam Huntington’s character of Marcus and myself. Some scares, definitely. Some fast-paced action. Something you haven’t quite seen before.
Q: Scott Pilgrim is also about video games. What are your top five video ames?
Brandon Routh: Dragon Warrior because that started my love of role playing games. The original Warcraft. Sim City. World of Warcraft. Oh and Shining Force 1 and 2. And then if I have to put a sports game in there, Joe Montana.
Q: Have you checked out your character in the Scott Pilgrim video game?
Brandon Routh: Actually I’ve seen a little bit of the video that’s been on the internet, but I haven’t. I’ve been so busy that even at Comic Con I didn’t get to play it or see much of.
Q: Do you expect any reaction from vegan groups?
Brandon Routh: I have no idea. It’s certainly putting veganism, veganity we call it in this movie, the vegan lifestyle is put out there. Todd isn’t necessarily the nicest promoter of the vegan lifestyle but it speaks well of it to say that you get the power of telekinesis and superpowers because you’re more clear, you’re more healthy, all of those things. So I think that they all have a good sense of humor.
Q: Was the elaborate explanation of how you would dust Scott Pilgrim in the script, or added later?
Brandon Routh: Thankfully that was part of it and that was something I keyed in on, being able to pull the dumbness of Todd Ingraham out of there. I think my little feather dusting gesture was something that kind of just happened. But other than that, credit to Bryan Lee O’Malley and Michael Bacall and Edgar for that.
Q: Was playing deadpan something new for you?
Brandon Routh: It’s the first time that you’ve been able to see it I guess. I’ve either played with those in theater or in improv or auditions for things in the past where I’ve had that character in my back pocket and I’ve been waiting to really bring it out on a large scale like this. It’s something I love to do, the kind of not-so-smart character, for whatever reason it’s great fun for me.
Q: What else do you have coming up?
Brandon Routh: I’ve just got Dylan Dog coming out sometime somewhere in a theater near you I trust sometime soon.
Q: With the Marvel and The Avengers, is there any jealousy or resentment you won’t be part of a Justice League movie?
Brandon Routh: Not resentment. I would have liked for DC to have had that just to help move [things along]. I think that would have issued forth a second [Superman] movie more swiftly had there been a different plan in place with both the Batman and all the entities that DC has. It’s a great company and the people involved are really great, and I want them to have the best and bring their characters to light in a better way. I know they’ve been meeting in the last couple years and finding a game plan that works for them, so I trust they will have success with that. It’s one of those things. It’s still hard for me to envision an Avengers movie just because how do you put all of those fantastical characters together? Apart they work, because they have their own separate universes. Creating a universe they can all exist in is something that can be done, but it’s hard for me to imagine. I look forward to see it in both them and the DC Universe because I think there’s a place for both of them. DC versus Marvel someday, if they can figure out a way to share the profits.
