Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a fun and kinda geeky chat with Mr. Brandon Routh for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. As with my interview with the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead, this one took place on the Universal backlot right after Comic-Con. I’ve been on the backlot a couple of times now and it gets my geek up every time. Seeing the tram roll by and the tourists crane their necks to see if I’m Jonah Hill or some other fat celebrity gives me an absurd amount of pleasure. Anyway, in this interview Routh and I chat about Vegan super powers, Edgar Wright’s reserved persona, vintage video games and even some Christopher Nolan Superman stuff. Beware some spoilers regarding his character’s fate and behavior! Hope you enjoy!
Quint: So, how are you doing?
Brandon Routh: I’m doing all right, and you?
Quint: I’m doing fine. So I dug the flick. I was a big fan of the books and I’m a big fan of Edgar [Wright]’s stuff…
Brandon Routh: (indistinct)… not be a fan of Edgar.
Quint: What?
Brandon Routh: It’s hard not to be a fan of Edgar.
Quint: Oh, I didn’t catch the first part, so it was like “I’m not a fan of Edgar.”
Brandon Routh: “He’s made films before this?”
Quint: “Filmmaker, yeah. Person, not so much.” (laughs) But yeah I really dug it. When I heard you were cast, specifically for the character you were playing, I was just… That’s one of my favorite of the Evil Exes, just because that goes the craziest. It’s like as much as the fight with Lucas Lee is kind of like over the top, you’ve got super powers.
Brandon Routh: (Laughs) That’s right.
Quint: Plus having seen what you did in ZACK AND MIRI MAK A PORNO... I think you are funny as shit.
Brandon Routh: Thanks very much!
Quint: So, I was like “Okay, I think this guy will pull it off,” and then I saw the movie and it was one of my favorite scenes.
Brandon Routh: Wow, great.
Quint: Were you approached or did you approach them?
Brandon Routh: I was approached. I was told by my reps that Edgar wanted to meet with me and I was kind of shocked and excited because when we were filming SUPERMAN RETURNS, I spent a lot of time watching movies on the weekends when I had time, so we kept seeing the SHAUN OF THE DEAD trailer, but it was coming out three or four months earlier in the states and we had to wait for it. I was so bummed to have to wait, but finally when we saw it, it was amazing. I probably saw it twice in the theater I think. Down in Sydney, it was a great way to release tension from the heaviness of shooting. Then HOT FUZZ… So I was a huge fan of Edgar and we just had a lunch meeting to talk about… basically just to chit chat and get to know each other.
Quint: He’s a hard person to talk to.
Brandon Routh: Really, right?
Quint: Very reserved…
Brandon Routh: (laughs) You always have to drive the conversation because he has nothing to say and he’s never in a good mood and never has energy.
Quint: The “Anti-Edgar.”
Brandon Routh: The “Nega-Edgar” would be that way. But that apparently went really well and then he told me a little bit about the story and a little bit about the book and after that I went out and got the books. I’m not sure if the fifth was out yet at that time and read them all the way through and really enjoyed them and had never read any comic that funny. With the videogame stuff in there, which I spent a long time playing video games growing up and now… I loved all of that nostalgia and it was something I hadn’t seen. It was kind of like getting the Sunday comics and The Family Circus… When the boy, and I forget his name, but when he would do the little run around town and he would follow the little things… I always loved that, because it’s just the little detail things and that was kind of like… I had that childhood experience a little bit when I was reading the comics with the little video games asides that are in there. So I read that, then had another meeting with Edgar, which was kind of like a reading and we just… He directed me a little bit, tweaked things and…
Quint: Testing you out?
Brandon Routh: Yeah, exactly and you know I came in with the voice, Todd’s voice, which was a little bit deeper than my voice and he liked that, which was great because I didn’t know what I was going to do without that. That was the thing that I really thought made it work and all of that worked out and here we are.
Quint: I grew up on NES. I remember after school… I didn’t have an Nintendo at first, but a friend’s mom looked after a bunch of kids, like a cheap after school daycare type thing, and she had an NES, so it would always be the fight over who gets to play Mario.
Brandon Routh: Oh man, I only had to fight my sister. So yeah I played a lot of Mario Brothers, Marble Madness was a big game, Duck Hunt, of course, with the gun against the screen, you know…
Quint: Cheater…
Brandon Routh: Excite Bike, making our own tracks with the same thing over and over again. It was a lot of fun. Rad Racer… RC Pro-Am
Quint: I went up to LA after Comic-Con and at my hotel they have a little collectibles center where they were selling original arcade marquees, so I bought the marquees for Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man…
Brandon Routh: Aw, yes! That’s awesome. I love Galaga! That’s my favorite. I call it “Galaga” and actually pronounce it “Gal-ag-a,” but that’s my favorite arcade game.
Quint: I miss arcades. We kind of have them now, but they are like two bucks to play a game. It’s not the same as plopping in a quarter.
Brandon Routh: It was weird when that happened. I remember going to this mall back in Iowa, back in Des Moines, and we were going to play laser tag or something and I think it was the first Soul Calibur and it was like 50 cents to play a game. Never before had I had to put more than one quarter into a machine and I was like “What the heck is this?” and I was addicted to that game and spend a few dollars playing that game. We actually had nickel arcades, “Smoken Joe’s Nickel Arcade.” They might still have them in Des Moines; there were two of them. They were older games, mostly older games, but they were a nickel or they were equivalent of a nickel, like some might be 5 credits, so it was 25 cents, but it was a lot of fun. You would go in and spend a couple of hours there and only spend like five or ten bucks.
Quint: I had a birthday party at an Aladdin’s Castle where it was like after hours and they turned every machine to free play. There was no better birthday party before or since. Being 10 years old and having the run of an arcade for you and all of your friends...
Brandon Routh: That is fun. I remember playing Gauntlet at the skating rink. I spent more time playing that than I did skating.
Quint: I’m sure this videogame tangent is fascinating to everybody who is going to read this, but if they are cool, they’ll like it, right?
Brandon Routh: That’s right!
Quint: But let’s go back to the superpowers stuff. Here’s what’s great about the character of Todd for me. You not only have all of these crazy vegan powers, but then the turn that it takes with not only the reveal of the powers and how Scott figure out how to defeat you… It’s just layer upon layer upon layer of crazy shit happening. No other Evil Ex has anything really like that. What did you think when you read that for the first time?
Brandon Routh: Todd is an interesting character because although we don’t see it fully in the movie, he’s intriguing because he’s dated two of Scott’s exes. He’s currently dating one of Scott’s exes and the one that broke his heart, so there’s even more animosity for Scott I think against Todd and maybe even Todd thinks he’s got the upper hand because he’s dated both of his exes, but I was really excited to have as much to do in the film and to have the beat where I’m on top of the world and then have that come crashing down and to play the weakling again and to be de-veganized if you will was a lot of fun and had a nice little arc there.
Quint: Are you at all worried about people turning on you a little bit, because you hit a girl?
Brandon Routh: (laughs) It’s a good moment.
Quint: The screening at Comic Con, the Thursday night screening, when it happens, there’s literally like a [Makes a gasp]. Not only do you hit a girl, you hit like the most adorable, sweet girl…
Brandon Routh: I know, right?
Quint: Did you enjoy it; I guess is what I’m saying.
Brandon Routh: Oh, yes.
Quint: Answer truthfully!
Brandon Routh: Knives really deserved it. Ellen Wong really…
Quint: (Laughing) She was really getting on your nerves that day.
Brandon Routh: I knew it would be a shocking moment, so I was pretty excited about it, actually, and we tried to make it as vicious as possible. Edgar really wanted me to swing full force and as always with that you want to make sure you are not going to swing and hit anybody because that would be terrible with the force that I was throwing, that right hook… (laughs) But it’s a great statement about who my character is and gives the audience good reason to hate me.
Quint: And what I love about all of these characters is that they are in that kind of weird grey area. Todd almost doesn’t really understand… He’s kind of like “This is what you expected me to do, right? That’s kind of what I’m here for, right?”
Brandon Routh: Right.
Quint: He’s not doing it out of like “Screw women, I’m going to beat them.”
Brandon Routh: Exactly. He’s in Envy’s trance, really. He looks to her and she nods and it’s her basically giving him the go ahead to silence (Knives). It’s not really to hurt her necessarily even, he’s more like a child doing the bidding of the beautiful woman, which is what we all do, isn’t it?
Quint: (laughs) You’ve obviously got a ton of press left for this, but then what are you moving on to? Have you got anything coming up?
Brandon Routh: The world is open and I’m ready for whatever comes my way. I trust that more comedy will come…
Quint: I hope so, man. I’m not blowing smoke when I say I think you are hilarious. I mean, I thought you were great in SUPERMAN…
Brandon Routh: Thanks.
Quint: … which is absolutely not a comedic role…
Brandon Routh: Clark is, though.
Quint: A little bit… Yeah, you’ve got the bumbling thing. I can see that, but again ZACK & MIRI, that’s nothing like Clark Kent in there.
Brandon Routh: Right, no not at all.
Quint: But yeah, I just think that you’ve got great timing. I like you in comedy, so keep doing more.
Brandon Routh: I appreciate the cheering squad and cheer loud and clear for that. I’m very grateful to Edgar for thinking of me for it and giving me the opportunity to… It’s really was what I was wanting and intending to do, find a character like this and this couldn’t be a better role for me in a better movie and a bigger showcase I think, so I’m excited about that. DYLAN DOG will be coming out some time…
Quint: That’s more of a Noir thing, right?
Brandon Routh: Yeah, a detective story, comedy, action, horror, movie… Great buddy pic as well I think with Sam Huntington and myself. Sam is amazingly funny in the movie. He just booked a show, BEING HUMAN, which is a remake of a British show, a BBC show. He’s playing a werewolf and so the undead is kind of chasing him around a little bit, but I look forward to that coming out as well.
Quint: Are you going to go stalk Christopher Nolan now? Are you going to keep up the campaign?
Brandon Routh: (laughs) I have been! No… (laughs)
Quint: I’d hope so because you’ve got quite a substantial fan base that loves you in that role.
Brandon Routh: Well, you know, he knows that I’m here and I would love to have the opportunity to at least sit down with him and talk to him about the character because it’s a character that’s near and dear to my heart and even if I’m not the guy to continue on, I care that whoever does takes care of it and cherishes it. There was a great line before me; a great history behind it and it deserves to be taken care of.
Quint: Cool, well thank you. That’s about all I’ve got.
Brandon Routh: Sweet. (pushes ketchup packets on the table towards me as I stand up) These are for you…
Quint Oh sweet, I’ve always hoped for these!
Brandon Routh: A parting gift.
Quint: Excellent!
Gotta say I dig Routh’s sense of humor. That shit with the ketchup packets is pretty much my regular every day humor with my friends. I also really dug his enthusiasm for vintage games and nostalgia for arcades. He’s a stand-up chap and really funny in the flick. Looking forward to seeing where he goes over the next few years. One more Scott Pilgrim interview to go before I’m out of ‘em. Mr. Jason Schwartzman is up next! Stay tuned! -Quint quint@aintitcool.com Follow Me On Twitter
