Every year they didn’t make another Superman movie, the pressure on the poor new actor to play him got bigger. On June 28, the whole world will hold Brandon Routh up to their scrutiny, but Routh was already one of them when he was making the film. Superman already had a big impact on his childhood.
Brandon Routh Talks Superman Returns
“I did not read the Superman comics,” he said. “I was a big fan as a kid. I think I’ve told this story many times about the first time I saw the movie wearing the Superman costume or pajamas with a little cape my mom still has. I was so excited to see the film at age five or six that I gave myself a migraine. I had the little silver bowl next to the couch in case I had an upset stomach through half the movie. I was always throwing things up in the air and seeing how they would fly. Making parachutes out of things and seeing how things would fly and my parents were like, ‘This kid is crazy.” I didn’t read the comics, but I was a big fan of the films.”
With his physical resemblance to Christopher Reeve already striking, Routh set out to honor Reeve’s performance. “The film is written to be the vague sequel to the first two films. Inheritably in the script there are many homages in the character and especially written from that character so there are similarities because of that. The only thing that was done really only to mimic Chris’s performances pushing the glasses up with the forefinger. I did that sometimes and sometimes Bryan would love a shot and I didn’t do it, you know he’d tell me to do it because it fit in a certain shot or sometimes I adjusted the glasses like that.”
Now that it’s done, Routh gets to watch Superman Returns as a Superman fan again. “It’s weird. We basically shot the film in chronological order for Superman anyway, so I think I actually feel that way about it. I feel more confident in the end of film. I think the character is actually making that journey in the film. Even though he’s only been gone for five years, he’s still kind of getting back in the swing of things. So I actually feel that emotionally when I’m watching it. It’s still weird for me to watch because I’m Superman and it’s weird. It’s much easier for me to watch Clark. I enjoy watching Clark and it was great fun to be able to play him.”
Superman Returns will fly into theatres on June 28th.
For movie clips, movie stills, the trailers, TV spots, movie info and synopsis,
go to the Superman
Returns Movie Page.
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