Brandon Routh on playing both Superman and the Atom

Stevivor sat down with Brandon Routh earlier in the year to discuss both DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and the actor’s breakout role as the iconic Man of Steel in Superman Returns.

Routh has had starring roles in a variety of superhero films and television shows. He first flew onto the big screen as Superman in a direct sequel to the Christoper Reeve series of films. Then, he took a role as the villainous Todd Ingram in Scott Pilgrim versus the World. Most recently, Routh has donned an impressive suit of armour to play Ray Palmer, the Atom, in both Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

“You know, I didn’t think that I was going to have the opportunity to play a superhero again really, [after] playing the pinnacle of all superheroes in my mind,” Routh said. “But it’s been a really cool thing and a great fan base to be involved with.

“Without Superman I wouldn’t be here playing Ray Palmer,” he stressed. “Superman, in that role as an actor and as a person changed me in multiple ways too. And as far as an actor, it allowed me to have much more success and skyrocketed me to the world stage, and as a person it forced me to kind of see the world even bigger and to envision what we can all be as people even bigger. You know, we can all be like Superman if we just put our mind to it. I’m still working toward that.”

Routh’s new role as scientist and entrepreneur Ray Palmer is quite different to that of mild mannered Clark Kent.

“This role is an opportunity for me to do a lot more comedy,” he said. “It’s been something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. Ever since I started acting I really wanted to do comedic roles, and this has really allowed me to — well, to do that on a daily basis because I get to do that. And that, I trust, will catapult me into more comedic roles, whether it be film or future television.

“[With] Superman, you have to believe you’re the greatest being on Earth,” he added. “And in this, as Ray Palmer, it’s believing that kind of Ray always has an answer or he can find the answer or that there’s goodness in the world and those kind of things. To make his energy.”

Even computer-generated (CG) work is different between the heroes, Routh confessed.

“The costume weighs about 25 pounds, I think,” he said. “I don’t really feel it that much. Thankfully it’s all kind of [distributed] — it’s not all in one spot. All the weight is dispersed evenly. I have gotten used to wearing it now as it has been about a year that on and off I have had it on.

“The most challenging thing about it really is knowing what is actually going to be used of me physically in the suit and then what is being used in CG.   We kind of — because TV is such a fast-paced machine. It wasn’t like in the days of Superman [Returns] where they had everything planned out ahead of time and had a complete video of everything, a pre-viz of what everything was going to be, and they knew exactly what my part was and what I needed to do. Like a puzzle piece. The needed me to do this specific action. Here it’s just about we need you to do this and then do these couple various actions, fire up here, do this in front of the camera, move your head this way, that way, and then we’ll figure out how we’re going to work it in. Some of it is going to be used, some of it’s going to be CG, and some of it’s going to be just a face replacement. So as an actor it’s a little bit challenging because I don’t know — it’s hard to prepare for that.”

Stevivor’s currently running a contest that’ll net you the first season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on Blu-ray, alongside the second season of The Flash and the fourth season of Arrow.