Scott Speedman
Interview By: Dan Deevy
The last time I sat down with Scott Speedman was way back in 2004 before the release of the amazing indie film, The 24th Day. Now, 4 years later we're across from each other again to talk about his latest character-based low budget endeavor, the Seven-esq detective film, Anamorph.
'I play a guy named Detective Carl Uffner,' he begins. 'My favorite last name of any guy I've gotten to play by the way. Who's sort of a rival detective to Willem Dafoe's character and we've been put together on the same murder case.'
Now for those of you who are expecting the obvious 'recently-made-detective-works-with-seasoned-old-detective' movie you're in for a surprise because that's not at all what this film is. The relationship between the two is far more turbulent and interesting than that.
'It was great because I think you can get into these movies with the older cop/younger cop type of thing where it's the rookie cop learning the ropes from the older guy. (Willem Dafoe) would hate me calling him the older guy by the way, but he knows what I mean,' he laughs. 'But my part was written as the same age as Willem Dafoe's so it was kind of cool to come in and be much more of an adversary. And so he comes on these cases and he [Speedman's character] just sort of has this instinct that there is something going on that Willem's character has some connection to these murders so he's sort of watching him solve these murders and just waiting for the other shoe to drop; just watching and waiting.'
Even with a great script these days it's tough to make a real impact in the overflowing 'Cops and Robbers' market in Hollywood. 'It's really hard also because of television, I find, because there are so many damn cop shows on right now,' he says. 'Inevitably when I read a script that has cops involved all I keep seeing are Law & Order episodes. If you're gonna have generic scenes, unless you have an amazing visualist that can take it out of that sort of TV genre, it's gonna feel to me sort of like television. I mean there are really good cop dramas, but there's a hundred of them so it gets harder and harder to come up with something original within the acting, within the writing, within the directing [and] within the story telling.'
Speedman's prior interest in the genre definitely helped him in envisioning what the final product would be here with Anamorph. 'Whether it's books or movies or whatever I'm a big fan of the genre,' he explains. 'I wouldn't say the 'serial killer' genre or 'horror' genre or anything like that, to me it's much more a mystery, a detective story. I like Dennis Lahanes writing very much, Jim Thomason and Raymond Chandler those sort of novels.'
When forced to draw a comparison between this and other films in the modern cannon there's really only one that springs to mind for Scott. 'This one feels in some ways, mainly because of the main character and I wouldn't compare the two movies in a lot of different ways, but I think it will get a lot of comparisons to Seven in some ways but that's just because there's a style to this movie and it's pretty visual and stuff.'
Now, for a guy there's really very little that can compare with the fun of getting to play detective for a day and bust down a door with a gun in your hand screaming things like, 'NYPD' FREEZE!!!!' We all wanted to do that as kids. But now that Scott is living the dream he's discovering that that stuff actually takes a bit of a back seat to the acting itself. 'For me, my characters climactic scene where I kind of lay the cards on the table with Willem's character and it's sort of a mono-a-mono type of scene, that's my favorite. I love that. That's the most fun. But the gun stuff and the fighting stuff and running around with guns drawn that's super fun too. It's like cops and robbers. It's cool.'
Anamorph actually marks the second time these two actors have worked together. The first time was unfortunately a movie most of us would like to forget. Speedman chuckles a bit as he recalls the other. 'Yeah, it's the second time [we worked together]. The first time was on XxX 2. We were happy to work on this, it's a little different I would say. This was more fun for sure. This was much more our kind of movie. It was really cool 'cause I didn't get to do that much with him on the big action movie but this was great going up against him like that, it was great.'
The other benefit of jumping on board with this film was that Speedman finally got to realize one of his acting goals--to finally film in New York City! 'This was my first movie I've shot in New York City, it was really cool,' he says. 'We were supposed to shoot The 24th Day here and I was kind of surprised when my plane landed in Philadelphia. But I've always wanted to shoot here and see what that was like and it was great.'
There are of course tons of things that are unique about filming in a city like New York, not the least of which Scott discovered were the scarily accurate clich's. 'Obviously you always here that clich' that the city becomes another character but it does in a way; things happen here and it has this energy and it just feels good to be here and shooting. It was great.'
And unlike the attention drawn to projects filmed in small towns or rural areas where it's a major event, in New York Scott found the natives pretty uninterested. 'People more just wanna get home and want you to get the F outta their way! So they don't really care who's shooting, they just want you out of the way' and now.'
For those of you not in the know (as I was before seeing the movie) Anamorphosis is a drawing presenting a distorted image that appears in natural form under certain conditions, as when viewed at a raking angle or reflected from a curved mirror. So basically, it's looking at the same thing from different angles but seeing something different from those angles, and when you think about it that's what an actor goes through when presented with a new role. 'Yeah I guess it's much more of an instinctual thing but yeah that's exactly true,' he agrees. 'When you get something that you really like, you have to look at from different perspectives to find something creative in it, something that inspires you to do it. When I first get something I really like it hits me a certain way but in the weeks and weeks that follow it changes and morphs and that's what's interesting about it for sure.'
But did he know what it was before reading the script' 'Ummm'. No,' he laughs. 'I mean I get it to a certain point, perspective anamorphic lenses all that stuff, but save those questions for the director,' he jokes.
Like most of the most successful actors working today Scott enjoys a healthy balance between the paycheck blockbuster films and the smaller more artistic indies but which does he really prefer working on' 'Well, they're all fun,' he admits. 'Doing something like the Underworld series is fun. Being like a little kid getting to run around, jump around and do fight sequences, that's a blast! It's exhausting physically but it's a blast. And something like this is more fun on an acting level just getting to work with someone like Willem Dafoe in a serious capacity is amazing. Every job has its own challenges and its own fun. I like doing big movies too. Usually these smaller movies are about things that I care about more but everything is fun. I'm not a guy that has a huge amount of choices and has like a hundred movies I can choose between so I try to find the fun in the stuff I get to do.'
So what is up next for Scott' Believe it or not possibly a little vacation time. 'It feels really slow with the strike and there's a potential actors strike now and so all the studio stuff is really slow. And competition is always crazy to get a really good movie and I don't wanna do stuff that I don't really wanna do right now so just trying to find something. Maybe I'll go traveling, run around little bit and be normal. That's probably what I'll do.'
Before packing his bags Scott does have a couple more projects hitting theaters to prepare for as well. 'I've got The Strangers coming out on May 31st, Anamorph comes out this Friday and I've got a movie called Adoration that I did with Atom Egoyan that I'm really excited about.'
So even though he may be sunning himself on a beach somewhere you'll all still be able to get your Speedman fix by checking out all of those upcoming films. Oh and seriously if you haven't seen The 24th Day you really should. That remains one of the most brilliant films I've ever seen and it is Scott Speedman and James Marsden at their acting best! Definitely worth the rental.
