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Scott Speedman on XXX: State of the Union and Underworld 2 (2005)
Scott Speedman Becomes the Man in Charge in XXX: State of the Union: “I’d like to do the young cadet thing again for sure, but that’s why I wanted to do this, to see if I could do it. I took the scenes out of the script and put them together and read them as one little arc, story and that seemed to work.”
Scott Speedman on the Physical Stunts in XXX: State of the Union: “For me that’s pretty easy. That doesn’t intimidate me. And I’d love to tell you it was harder than it was. It wasn’t that difficulty. People seem to think it was crazy and very dangerous, but for me it wasn’t that bad."
Scott Speedman on His Character Arc in XXX: State of the Union: “You do as much work as you possibly can before you start the movie and then you get there and it’s a crazy scene. It’s very chaotic and it’s about a lot of the stunts and the special effects and the action. You work hard before the movie and then you just try to have fun.”
Scott Speedman on Overanalyzing his XXX Character: “It’s the only way I know how to do it. I don’t like listening to actors talk about the process. For me I’ve played a lot of guys, dudes, boys in a sense and this was a challenge for me just to play that official character. And I’m not going to get into too much as you say, you’re right. But that was a challenge for me to do that. But you’re right, and you’ve got to have fun with a movie like this. That’s the point.”
Scott Speedman on Another XXX Sequel: “Who knows? Because they kind of dismantled it after the first one, so we’ll see. I have no idea. I believe I am signed. [My role] depends who they hire to be the next XXX I guess. If they do one. I don't know, we’ll see if they do one. I have no idea. That’s a great question and I don’t have an answer.”
Scott Speedman on Ice Cube in XXX: State of the Union: “I remember listening to Cube’s music when I was like 14 years old, my friends listening to it up in Toronto. I had no idea what it was and it scared the sh*t out of me, but it was good music. To be honest, I don’t know his music very well at all but I know him much more as an actor.”
Scott Speedman on Playing a Tommy Lee Jones-ish Lawman: “I don't think I could do a good imitation of Tommy Lee Jones. I guess there is sort of a similarity there but that guy’s pretty amazing. It’s hard to compare myself to what is he, 65.”
Scott Speedman on His Action Kick: “My friends ask me that all the time. I have no idea. After I came off of doing a TV show, just trying to find work that would enable me to do other movies. And I did a couple of small movies that I really like and trying to find something else to do. This movie in particular came along at the right time and I just decided to do it. It’s not like I have 10 choices. I have to audition for anything reasonable.”
Scott Speedman's Career Goals: “At this stage in my career, I want the directors that I respect to see something and go, ‘Oh, I saw him do My Life Without Me playing this awkward, small movie, kind of an awkward interesting guy. And he can do this, so maybe he can do this.’ It’s not like I want to parlay this into playing authoritative, official characters. To be honest, that’s not what I’m more interested in. I just want people to see that I can do other things and maybe if you can do that, maybe you can do this.”
Scott Speedman on Underworld 2: “That was physical. That I’ll brag about. That was physical. That was really physical for me. I finished that two weeks ago and I’m still tired from that. They knew after the first one. In a way I kind of proved to them that I could do a lot of stuff, so in the second one, it was just taken for granted that I would do most of everything in the movie, so it was a hard workload.”
Don’t expect to learn too much more about Speedman’s character. “It’s more about the relationship. I wish I could say more about it, but in a lot of ways, I’m still very much supporting that main character. It’s more I’m the sidekick. A good one, but I’m the sidekick to be honest. It’s really her movie in a sense.”
But you’ll see him wolf out a lot more. “They changed it up a little bit, but they added to that whole thing for sure. I was in it a lot more also.”