Brandon Routh in the "Dead of Night"

You first saw tall, dark and handsome actor Brandon Routh in blue spandex as the Man of Steel in Superman Returns. The versatile Brandon played a zany, blonde-haired rocker in the recent comic book actioner Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and was a mysterious spy on TV’s “Chuck”.

This week you can catch Routh as a moody private eye who helps police an underworld of monsters in the film version of a popular Italian graphic novel series “Dylan Dog”. In Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, Brandon teams up with his Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington who is now on the TV series “Being Human”) and the real-life pals solve a murder among the crypts and creeps of modern New Orleans.

We’re on the Sunset Strip chatting with this hunk about fun in New Orleans, working with a seven-foot-tall monster who was actually on set, taking a beating and we got his feelings about his version of the Superman character now that the new film will be coming up.

TeenHollywood: Let’s get this out of the way. Bryan Singer, who directed you in Superman Returns, seems to be having this nostalgic look back thinking about what he could have done differently. How do you feel about your Superman movie now that there will be a new one?

Brandon Routh: I loved the movie, I’ll stand by it. Did it do everything that everyone wanted; that every fan boy and girl wanted? No. Do I think there should have been more fighting in it? Yes. It would have been great to have some fighting. Would I have liked to see more of Brandon as Superman flying, versus CGI Superman flying? Yes, because I just think that pulled me out of the film a little bit.

They did an amazing job, but there were still some shots were not as good as the real thing, honestly. I’m six years older now than I was then. I’m so much more mature, so I feel like I could have brought even more reverence and more maturity to the character than I could then. But other than that, I’m really happy with it.

TeenHollywood: You and your partner in this film Sam Huntington worked together in “Superman”. How instrumental were you in getting your buddy the role as your zombie sidekick in this?

Brandon: I had to prove to everyone that Sam was funny, which is really challenging. No! Sam, unbeknownst to me, had actually been in and read for the part when there was a different director attached. Then I was offered the film and read and thought of him instantly and talked to him about it. He said, ‘Oh actually, I already went in for that, I really liked it.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ So, from that point on, it was kind of our mission to make it happen.

TeenHollywood: You two are very funny. Which scene was the most difficult for you to keep a straight face in?

Brandon: I think the gun shot one was actually hard, where I shoot Sam, because he had this squib on and I had to time it right and I didn’t want to crack up when I did it because it was such a funny moment. Trying to keep a straight face when he was reacting to it after, while he was like freaking out (was hard).  

TeenHollywood: “Dead of Night” has a ton of classic monsters in it. Zombies, vampires, werewolves, which is your favorite creature?

Brandon: I like werewolves. Werewolves are cool. Zombies are cool too. I like what we’re doing with them here, and you have Shaun of the Dead, that type of Zombie movie. They can move fast or they can move slow, but werewolves I think are the coolest. If I was going to be one of them, I would want to be a werewolf.

TeenHollywood: Like your buddy Sam on “Being Human”.

Brandon: Yeah.

TeenHollywood: This was a very obscure comic book. Had you ever heard of it?

Brandon: I had a little bit of knowledge, I had a friend who’d spent seven years in Italy, in his teenage years, and so he grew up reading them. And so he’d mentioned them to me before. So when the script came to me I recognized the name and I called him up and I said, ‘Is this the comic book you used to read?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, that’s so awesome.’ And he said, ‘If you did this it would be cooler for me than you playing Superman,’ because he grew up reading Dylan Dog.

TeenHollywood: Hilarious. Don’t you look like the guy in the comic?

Brandon: Dark hair, tall, the character is actually based off of actor Rupert Everett, so they say. I kind of look like Rupert Everett (he’s way cuter).

TeenHollywood: Did you have fun doing the Raymond Chandler kind of narration over the film? It’s like a classic film noir without being a film noir. Did you contribute to the writing of that?

Brandon: A little bit. That came in fairly late in the process. I think it was an idea that had been thrown around. Kevin (Munroe, director) and I talked about it early on, but didn’t shoot the movie with that in mind. We came to realize that maybe it would add a little more character and really intensify the film noir detective story aspect of it, and the hardboiled part. So it was fun. Dylan doesn’t say a lot. Film is a visual medium, but in that respect it was kind of nice to be able to fill in the blanks with moody behavior, to give a little bit of what he’s actually thinking in the narration.

TeenHollywood: Working with the monsters on the set, a lot of them were guys in suits that were really there.

Brandon: Yeah, there was very little CGI.

TeenHollywood: Was that easier or more fun for you as an actor than acting opposite a tennis ball on a stick that is supposed to be a monster?

Brandon: Absolutely. That was one of the things that attracted me to the movie, because that was the intention from the very beginning was to have as much physical make-up as was possible. That’s something I grew up loving and watching in movies like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, Monster Squad, those were real monsters.

I watch the movies now and they do great things with computers. The stuff looks amazing, but it’s still not as real, and sometimes you lose that tension that can exist in a scene when it’s something that’s not really there. So it was great to actually have those big slobbering beasts right in front of me and be fighting them. 

TeenHollywood: And then hang out and have coffee with them?

Brandon: (laughs) Yeah, and then have a real conversation with this guy that’s seven-foot-two, ‘What’s going on Brian?’ ‘It’s hot in here. Wish I could have some water.’  He was the nicest guy.

TeenHollywood: You really get roughed up in this film.  What makes Dylan able to withstand the kind of brutal things that happen to him?

Brandon: There might be something going on underneath there with Dylan. I think there is some backstory that he may not be totally mortal I guess. That’s kind of the fun thing about Dylan. He takes a hit and keeps on tickin’. And that’s where his heroic anti-hero character comes from, which I really liked about it. That was fun. And, realistically you’re going to get the crap beaten out of you by these monsters. I probably shouldn’t be getting up from some of the fights. Probably some ribs broken there.

TeenHollywood: You shot in New Orleans. What fun did you guys have off set?

Brandon: We did the culinary tour of New Orleans. We had this really amazing place that we stayed at, this rooftop apartment that we had rented and it had a pool and big huge wrap-around deck so we had a couple of parties towards the end for all of the cast and crew, a barbecue. Sam had a little cabana.

TeenHollywood: Was it a weird contrast then? Amazing places like that and then the rundown part of New Orleans?

Brandon: Yeah, driving through town you could see different phases of things being worked on (since Katrina). We actually did a build with “Building Together” which is an organization down in New Orleans. There were some cast members and some of the crew and we went and worked on a house in the Ninth Ward which was cool. There were some houses that had been worked on but you could still see some houses across the street still boarded up and marked up where, four years later, they still hadn’t been touched.

TeenHollywood: That’s so sad but glad you could help. You have a great rapport with Sam on screen. Is that from working together before or was it there immediately again?

Brandon: We became friends. We basically met on “Superman” and then became friends in our lives as well. So that was the most preparation for Marcus (Sam’s character) and Dylan’s character interaction. The way it was on the page was kind of how we talk to each other. So it was pretty natural. He’s freakin’ out and I say “calm down, Sam”.

TeenHollywood: This seems set up for a sequel.

Brandon: I’d think we’d all love to work together again. We had a great time but it’s all of to the moviegoers. I think the movie is fun but we’ll see.

TeenHollywood: It took a long time to come out.

Brandon: We shot two years ago, 2009 so it took a little time to get it out but now seems like a good time actually. We’re opening up against a movie called Fast Five. I’ve never heard of it. With Vin Gasoline or something (we laugh).  

TeenHollywood: How much to you watch your own work?

Brandon: I watch it. It’s always been important for me. I feel like part of that is because my dad used to film things all the time whether it was soccer or swimming meets or music performances and I got used to that. I’m able to critique and see, at least engage in that conversation of questioning myself. Sometimes, maybe too much.

TeenHollywood: So do you watch the playback even on set?

Brandon: Yeah. I want to see if I’m doing better. When it’s physical though, that’s important. I got used to watching playback when we were shooting “Returns” because so much of what I did for months on end was flying stuff so it was all about the movement and the choreography. I wanted to make sure my arm was doing the right thing and my face didn’t look silly if I had some emotion while doing all those other things. I used it as a tool that way sometimes.

TeenHollywood: As a teen, did you never get annoyed with your dad taping everything?

Brandon: It didn’t bother me because I wanted to see it too. I wanted to see if my start on the freestyle was good or how I could improve. It was really good for sports. It was always a comfortable thing because my parents were musicians and performers and performing was always part of my growing up so I was never afraid to look at it I guess.

TeenHollywood: You and Sam are funny and funny together on screen. Could we have a future comedy team here?

Brandon: It’s been suggested and as soon as it was suggested, we killed that person. No. That would be amazing. Working with Sam is awesome. He’s incredibly hilarious. He makes me more funny.

TeenHollywood: Did anything creepy happen on set in this creepy Voo Doo town?

Brandon: I don’t know if anything creepy like ghosts or paranormal necessarily but we did shoot the scene that’s in the big power plant and it was very eerie because it was a huge structure and it was decrepit and rundown and rusty all over with pools of water, “Don’t go in that pool of water because we don’t know what kind of sewage…” because it had been flooded really bad and we probably all got some kind of toxicity from being in it for several days. I actually got cut and had to get a tetanus shot. I got cut on one of the bars in a fight scene.

TeenHollywood: Ouch! You also shot in a cemetery?

Brandon: Yeah and there had been a couple of murders there before or shots fired the day before.

TeenHollywood: What are we going to see you in next?

Brandon: Missing William. That was shot in October and it’s finishing the post production process and I trust that will be getting into the film festival circuit soon and find an audience.

TeenHollywood: What’s it about?

Brandon: The story is kind of a childhood love story. My wife Courtney Ford is the female lead in the movie along with Reed Scott and Spencer Grammer ( of “Greek”) who are great so you see us as kids. I’m moved away by my mother really quickly and I come back into her life seventeen years later and she’s the only person I ever really loved. Meanwhile, she’s engaged and gets married then her husband has this tragic accident. He’s can’t speak but he moves around and I’m trying to help her cope with that.

TeenHollywood: Do you need an extra acting tool when working with your real wife?

Brandon: No. We’ve done it before in a short and another film called Fling. Because our characters knew each other that worked to our advantage in having a relationship. She’s an amazing actress and we work very well off each other. I can see where there might be problems but, for us, it’s a joy actually.

TeenHollywood: Are you through with “Chuck” now?

Brandon: Through with “Chuck”, yeah.

TeenHollywood: Did that guy die or….?

Brandon: Actually we don’t know what happened to Shaw. The Buy More blew up and I was handcuffed and knocked out but who knows if they dragged me out or not.