Brandon Routh is never scared

Crave Online: This wasn't the very first thing after Superman but may be the first thing people see, so how carefully are you still choosing things?

Brandon Routh: Still careful, still very carefully choosing. You know, it's important how I present myself and this is a great opportunity to show America who Brandon Routh was outside of the cape and tights, certainly is pretty much all people know me from. And so it's a great opportunity to play a real person, real emotion and I was excited to have a great opportunity to work with Mary Harron who is a fantastic film director who brought a great quality of cinematic feel to her episode. It's a thrilling episode. I didn't really want to do anything that was blood and guts only. Something like this which is very scary because it's almost kind of real. It could happen.

Crave Online: Would you consider a regular ongoing TV gig?

Brandon Routh: Not right now, not at this time, no. I did television a little bit but certainly have never been on a series except for my year on soap opera, but my interest is definitely in film for the time being. Episodic stuff, there's a lot of comedy stuff that would be fun to do. An episode of 30 Rock, something like that. Absolutely, I love doing comedy and there are some great shows out there but film is the thing for me.

Crave Online: What films did you shoot in between?

Brandon Routh: Several. Lie to Me which just premiered last Saturday. My wife, Courtney Ford is in it. That premiered last week at the Newport Beach film festival. We just found out we won Achievement in Filmmaking award in that so we're excited about that. And I did a film called Life is Hot in Cracktown which is still finding a home, a film called Miss Nobody which is a great dark comedy with Leslie Bibb, Kathy Baker, Missi Pyle which may be out later this year.

Crave Online: How are each of those characters different for you?

Brandon Routh: Well, in Miss Nobody is comedic, is a comedic role kind of leading man type of thing. This certainly being a character who is not wounded but is in duress, a lot of duress for most of the episode. And Lie to Me is about an open relationship, a couple that's in an open relationship so it's an emotional relationship movie with I think themes of fear and a fear of commitment that a lot of people my age and older always are really dealing with. And there's also a little bit of real levity and humor in that.

Crave Online: Is Justice League going to come out before the next Superman?

Brandon Routh: Oh, I think it seems as though that's not happening, it's on the back burner right now so it's just Man of Steel now.

Crave Online: When are you doing the next Superman? It's taking a long time.

Brandon Routh: I know, they're busy writing a script and then I trust we'll be starting next year, early next year. That's my timeline anyway.

Crave Online: Are you a fan of horror movies?

Brandon Routh: I enjoy a horror movie. What's happening, at least in my episode, I know that instead of being able to rely on the gore or the sexual gratuity or those kind of things, the episodes are more imaginative. And that's the kind of stuff that I like to see. So I'm excited that this is going to be available for people.

Crave Online: What is your character in Community?

Brandon Routh: My episode, Community, deals with kind of the dark side of humanity and how people can be led. You know, people don't, a lot of times, want to make decisions on their own or live life for themselves. So they begin to follow other people and say, "Oh, this is how I should do it. I should be like this person. This is how my life should be because these people are doing it," rather than thinking for themselves. So my character Bobby and his wife, played by Shiri Appleby, who does a great job in, I want to call it a film. It's a mini movie. We want to have a family, so we need to find a house. So we go to a planned community, and it's not quite what we think it's going to be at first. It turns into something much more. A little too planned. They have their own plans. And so, you know, my guy is just kind of a normal guy wanting to do the right thing by his family and create a safe environment, create a family.

Crave Online: Mary Harron directed it, right?

Brandon Routh: It was a great pleasure, great honor to work with Mary. I was a big fan of American Psycho after my second viewing. The first time, I didn't quite get it. But years later, my moviegoing experience and the way I look at movies changed. After being in movies and kind of growing up, I have a new and great feeling for that movie. So when they said that she was directing the episode, I was like, "Yes, okay, I have to do it." Then dealing with the subject matter that the film does, she wanted to really bring out the human elements of the script and not play on just the thrilling stuff or the horror aspect because it's those human aspects and the relationship between the characters that really makes all that more powerful. The more you care about the characters and the more we are invested in them emotionally, the bigger the payoff or the thrill is. So I was very happy that that was her outlook on it. And she has a very specific view of what she wants to do, and she gets it done. We had a lot of work to do in the eight days we had to film that thing. And we got it done, and I'm excited.

Crave Online: Does it change your job to work on a short film?

Brandon Routh: Yeah. Instead of shooting maybe four or five setups a day, different shots, you're shooting eight to ten, with a crew that has not worked together before, with a different director, with a different cast. So the flow that you normally have from episodic or even a film after a week of shooting, you really get into a flow of shooting on a film, but when you only have eight days, everyone has to kind of band together and create that cohesive unit much quicker. So it's a very collaborative enterprise. Pushing the limit as far as the stories and the detail, I feel like my story is very involved. There's a lot happening. It's not a couple scenes, a couple days. It's a great kind of journey that you go on. So, putting a lot in there.

Crave Online: Do you prefer the long, big budget movies where you may only shoot half a page a day?

Brandon Routh: Well, I've done a large film, I've done independent, and I've done this. I think there's a nice middle ground. There's something nice to being a little bit rushed sometimes because then you're not thinking as much. It's also nice because we as actors, or at least me, sometimes I can think too much about a scene. I think it's nice to have a little more relaxed atmosphere. It kind of makes things a little bit easier. But that being said, I think we made an amazing episode, and everybody made it work and is making it work as they continue to do more episodes. Maybe the crew is getting more used to it, so it's just the actors have to go in and adapt. Generally speaking, we're pretty good at that. That's part of our job, is adapting and working together.

Crave Online: Is there any common theme between your episode and the others?

Brandon Routh: The loss of control is certainly something that happens, is a theme in my episode. It's very scary. It's almost sometimes more scary than a ghost because we don't know how we're going to respond to that. I think that's what's interesting is we get to see how this certain character responds to a lack of control. Do they give in? Are they unable to respond, or do they fight for their life? How much do they care about their life and their existence? How much are they going to fight to change what their situation is? Kind of faced with those situations daily, but on a much smaller scale.

Crave Online: When have you felt like something was out of your control?

Brandon Routh: Oh, that's a real question. First day you show up on set. Anytime you're in a movie or anything. Well, it's not beyond your control. It's all about thinking it's beyond your control. Really my belief is that nothing is out of my control. I have some kind of control in everything that I do. It may not be as much, I may not be able to change the world, but I can change some small aspect of it. We're getting into a different subject matter and philosophy, but it's interesting to think that a horror/thriller genre, you can learn something from it, but you can. I think that's interesting and some people will think of that, and some people just want to be entertained. So it's there if you want it.

Crave Online: What is your real life fear?

Brandon Routh: It's a common question. I don't really have one, and I'm sorry. I think what I did say before is I think things that are definitely scary or am fearful of, I suppose, would be loss of a loved one because probably the worst thing that I can think of. Everything else is physical and I feel like I can manipulate or change or beat it away or stop it with a stake or that stuff. But it's thec emotional stuff that really takes a challenge to get over it and deal with it. I mean, I admit if a lion charged me, I would have a moment of fear and I would do something.

Crave Online: Did you have to learn any special skills for the show?

Brandon Routh: I had to run. Thankfully I knew how to do that. But there was an added element of snow, so I had to run in snow, which may or may not have worked out so well sometimes. I fell once. It was funny. But yeah, just that. I think that's it. But it's still a very exciting episode, watching me run.