With DC’s legends of Tomorrow about to hit the small screen, Brandon Routh who plays superhero Ray Palmer/The Atom talks about what he loves about the show
Why is DC’S legends Of Tomorrow better than having your own show based on The AtomIJ
This way, the cast of characters that we have is much more dynamic than just having one character in their own show. It’s a little bit less work for me, but I still have the pay-off of a great show and the pay-off of having the time to travel from Vancouver back to los Angeles to visit my wife and my son.
What was it like to shrink for the first time as the character of The AtomIJ
It was cool. One of the benefits was I didn’t have people tweeting me anymore, asking when I was going to shrink. I think it turned out really well. On camera, we shot it with a couple of different camera lenses and they moved the camera up with a cool effect to make it happen. Seeing the lego-sized Atom running was pretty sweet. We’re going to have a lot of fun with that in this new show. And another cool thing is that, because I’ll be small, it will add even more humour to the show as I fight in new and different ways.
Which aspect of the character do you enjoy portraying the mostIJ
The best part for me, most of the time, is working on a scene that has humour in it. Coming to a set and working with an actor who’s willing to play and go back and forth a little bit, and make magic happen is great with me – especially if a scene can come off the page in a different way than is expected. That’s what I got to do pretty much every day with Emily Bett Rickards, who plays Felicity. Almost every scene of the show that featured the two of us together, we went at them and had so much fun. I’m going to miss that energy. Hopefully on legends there will be someone with a similar energy that Ray can tap into and find that again.
This is not your first time playing a superhero. Do you feel more comfortable having taken on comic book icons before with Superman ReturnsIJ
While it’s a completely different character, there are actually a lot of similarities. I took a lot of what I knew and experienced from Superman Returns and put it into this role. Obviously you have the difference between making a film and making a television series, but the costume fitting process is very similar and the demands of the job are very similar.
If you could be a female superhero, who would it beIJ
I don’t think about being other superheroes or villains, so this question sort of stumps me. Maybe Wonder Woman perhapsIJ Because then I’d get an invisible ship, rightIJ And she’s in the same world — although that would be weird because Superman and Wonder Woman had a thing, rightIJ It’d be like dating myself! I’d probably get along pretty well with myself though.