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After 'Felicity,' Speedman finds a role with teeth (USA TODAY / Sept. 16, 2003)
NEW YORK — Scott Speedman goes the distance for his movies.
He spent six chilly weeks in Budapest last fall shooting the horror romance Underworld, which opens Friday. He spent up to seven hours a day in hair and makeup to be transformed into a werewolf. The action novice punched and kicked and did some of his own stunts.
After scaling a wall for a photo shoot, Speedman says over cappuccino that he has to draw the line somewhere.
"I'd really have to say no to taking my shirt off. It shouldn't be about publicity for publicity's sake. I think you lose your way when you start doing just that."
Speedman, 28, has done his best to stay levelheaded even as his star has slowly yet steadily risen. It all started with the WB's angst hit Felicity, which turned the unknown Canadian actor into a bona fide heartthrob with its 1998 debut. The show ended its four-year run in 2002 but left behind a legion of die-hard "nice and open" fans who still stop Speedman on the street.
Now, they'll have to accept sensitive Ben Covington as a vicious werewolf who leaps from buildings and woos his enemy, sultry vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale).
"I've done all these other pretty emotional roles, so it was really fun to strip it all down and just have a good time and not think about it so much," Speedman says.
Of course, there was little time to kick back during the $20 million shoot in Budapest last fall. Speedman played basketball for three weeks straight to get in shape for his numerous action sequences and then shot fight scenes immersed in water while wearing contacts that rendered him nearly blind. But he doesn't want sympathy. "I don't like sitting here saying I did my own stunts," he says. "I threw a couple of punches. Those guys do amazing things."
The resulting film is the gory antithesis of the touchy-feely Felicity.
"It is quite violent," Speedman says. "I mean, huge amounts of gunfire and action. I've never been in something like that, so I don't know. I've never really felt worried or anything about violence."
But luckily for Speedman, he got back in touch with his kinder, gentler self in the tear-jerker My Life Without Me, which opens in limited release on Sept. 26. He plays the marginally employed husband of a dying woman (Sarah Polley). Yet the resolutely sedate Speedman comes alive when discussing the low-key flick. "Nothing taken away from Underworld, but this is the stuff I will continue to gravitate toward," Speedman says. "The human stuff, the relationship stuff, that's really special. But I don't want to be Mr. Indie Guy."
That's why Speedman is taking his sweet time trying to "find something that really inspires me. I don't need to feel validated by just being on set. I'm not desperate."
When he's done promoting his two movies, he says he looks forward to returning to his house in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles and going on solo road trips. The once-competitive Canadian swimmer, who got burned out and then quit at 18, doesn't jump back in the pool, just for fun.
"With swimming, like when you're really good at something, and then you lose it, it's hard to go back and not be as good at it."
That's partially the reason Speedman steers clear of Hollywood's red-carpet circus. "I'm not much of a sound-bite guy," he says.
Plus, Speedman says with a laugh, "I'm not dating Demi Moore."
Speedman says he's stolidly single. All those Internet rumors notwithstanding, he's not back together with former girlfriend and Felicity co-star Keri Russell, who's now shooting The Upside of Anger with Kevin Costner and Joan Allen. The two are still in touch, but his romance is not something Speedman is willing to discuss.
"When you're dealing with two people, it's out of respect for the other person that you don't talk about it," he says.