"Still Incredibly Super!!!"

Brandon Routh made his breakthrough with the highly-coveted role of the titular superhero in Superman Returns. He has since scored subsequent roles in films like Zack And Miri Make A Porno, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Now the 32 year-old’s latest film is a starring role as Joe Logan in the sports drama Crooked Arrows. In the film, he plays the coach of a high school lacrosse team. Routh talks about how his own ancestral background is connected to the sport, which is of Native American origins.

“Definitely. I do have some Native American ancestry, Kickapoo,” Brandon reveals, “But it was far down my life, so this was an interesting project and it helped me kind of feel really in touch and feel the spirit of the people and to be able to help share their story about them.”

Brandon says that while lacrosse has grown as a sport across the country in the past ten years, this is the first film to portray the sport on a major scale.

“This is really the first of its kind, truly pretty much all about lacrosse,” Routh says, “And also starring contemporary Native Americans, there’s another aspect of the movie which I love, because we always see that in a period piece, so that’s another cool thing about the movie.”

Routh says that while the sport at its center is not a common one portrayed in sports dramas, it still hits all the right beats.

“Well, this is a genre sports film,” he notes, “But we got a really great story wrapped around the history of lacrosse, what it means to the Native American people, what it meant to the ancestors, and how that affects how they play the game, and how they live their lives.”

“So there’s so much heart and passion in the lacrosse world,” Brandon continues, “We got it here in the movie. There’s a brother/sister relationship, there’s a father/son relationship, there’s a lot of

"Still Incredibly Super!!!"

different levels to the movie that if you watch it several times, you keep finding different things to pull out of it.”

Brandon adds that by the final third of Crooked Arrows, you end up being really enthralled in rooting for the team.

“I think I’ve seen the movie about four times now,” he says, “The last thirty minutes is non-stop lacrosse action and I still get caught up in it and you feel the crowd get caught up in it and clapping and that’s the response you want in it. It’s really powerful and I think the story plays the culture and the history of the Native American people and really plays this game all the way through it and brings some people to tears, I think, to the audience.”

Routh talks about premiering the film for the first time in Syracuse before a large community of Native Americans.

“It’s a small piece, it’s a small thing, but it means a lot, I think, to really honor them with the first lacrosse movie,” Brandon says, “To honor the history and the heritage of the people who create it, I think it’s really powerful and does mean a lot from those I was able to speak to in Syracuse.”

“And we did have a lot of participation by the Onondoga Nation, which is largely in the Syracuse area,” he adds, “They helped finance the movie and they have been a big part of it, so it’s a really cool thing. It’s opening a lot of doors and conversations and so that any time a movie can do that, it’s a good thing.”

Crooked Arrows features cameos from several players in the sport’s professional ranks, Major League Lacrosse. We asked Brandon if the players were psyched to be part of the film.

“I think it was cool for them to see these Major League Lacrosse guys,” he says, “Some of these players on the team are really good and will probably play pretty

"Still Incredibly Super!!!"

soon on some major league teams, but it was cool. It was cool for me. I didn’t really know who they necessarily were either, like Paul Rabil, he excels, he’s one of the best, if not necessarily the best out of his sport right now.”

“He’s the face of Major League Lacrosse and that’s really cool,” Routh continues, “He’s achieved something that’s great and it’s always neat to meet people that are at the top of the game. And soon, five or ten years from now, a lot of people are going to know who he is. So that’s a cool thing to look forward to.”

Brandon talks about what it was like to film the movie’s impassioned mid-game coach speech.

“That was the biggest challenge of the movie,” Routh believes, “I think everybody looks for the halftime speech to be that big moment in the movie and this was a different kind of halftime speech.”

“This was a little bit more mellow, more emotional, more solemn moment almost, so I wasn’t sure that that was the right way to do it,” he adds, “You can’t yell the speech either. You can’t fire them up the same way. But I think it really worked. It fires the players up and really tells the audience why the Native Americans play lacrosse, so I think it’s a really cool and different kind of halftime speech.”

Routh talked with us about the sitcom he stars in called Partners that premieres this fall on CBS.

“It’s by the creators of Will & Grace,” he says, “It’s about two partners, architects, best friends since they were kids, one is gay, one is straight, so it’s about them and their love relationships. David Krumholtz is playing the straight architect and Sophia Bush is playing his girlfriend and Michael Urie is playing the gay architect and I’m playing his boyfriend.

“Wyatt’s a former club-hopping alcoholic, now a sober vegan nurse,” Brandon continues, “So he’s basically like a

"Still Incredibly Super!!!"

Mister Rogers, very nice, very gentle, and a little bit dim-witted, which is where the fun comes in. Mister Rogers wasn’t dim-witted, but that’s where the humor comes in.”

It’s not the first time Brandon has worked with the creators of Will & Grace as he had a guest role years ago on an episode of the sitcom.

“I did, yeah,” Routh remembers, “I don’t think they remembered me. I stepped in and I reminded them. I said one line. [The creators] Max [Mutchnick] and David [Kohan] didn’t really remember me. We had a good laugh about it, but it certainly didn’t get me the job. But it was funny for that to come full circle now anyway.”

Finally, we asked Routh what he plans to do next with his film career once he starts doing Partners.

“It’s story and an opportunity to do something that I hadn’t done before, a character that I hadn’t played,” Brandon says, “And I’d been really striving to do comedy and that’s where this opportunity came along to do Partners. It’s a comedy everyday. My job is to make people laugh, so that’s a really cool thing, so I’ll have some time during the hiatus to hopefully do some more film work.”