For the record, Canadian boy Stephen Amell had nothing to do with the decision to recast the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character Casey Jones as a hockey-mad cop who does his best fighting on blades.
But he's definitely not complaining.
"Like, 30 people made that decision and I'm not one of them," says the actor, better known to TV viewers as the DC hero Arrow, of his role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.[1]
"But I did my own skate stunts. It's 100% me, save for one shot where I crash into a car. That was definitely not going to be me."
A onetime teenage fan of the original live-action movies, Amell is keenly aware of where this rebooted, motion-capture TMNT franchise from producer Michael Bay takes left turns from its predecessors.
"If you've looked at versions of Casey Jones, he's typically more of a wild-eyed, long-haired kind of guy. But we built in this unique backstory for my character in that he's a corrections officer. And a corrections officer is not going to have a man-bun."
And he made a point of NOT re-watching the version of Casey Jones played by another Canadian, Elias Koteas.
"When I got cast my wife was like, 'Oh, this is so awesome. You know what we're doing tonight, right? We're staying in and we're watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!'
"And I said, 'I can't.' And she said, 'What do you mean you can't?'
"I said, 'I can't watch his performance now that I'm cast. It's been 15 years since I've seen it.' And I said, 'After we're wrapped I will sit down and watch it with you, but not now.'" (Amell admits he has yet to follow through on that promise).
TMNT: Out of the Shadows is the followup to the 2014 reboot, featuring Megan Fox as April O'Neill, Will Arnett (another Canadian) as the glory-hogging camera-guy Vernon Fenwick, and a motion-captured Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Pete Ploszek and Jeremy Howard as Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello respectively.
And oh yeah, where would TMNT be without its signature villain Shredder (Brian Tee) and his Foot Clan?
Amell, who is a martial arts-trained engine-of-destruction on Arrow, had to learn to fight like an amateur as Casey.
"He's not going in here as a guy who's fought before. He has some basic police training, and he's just a brawler. If he's ever been in a fight, it should probably have been in a third period of a hockey game. It's not like I had to unlearn things, it's just new choreography. I can't be guessing what a stunt guy's going to do, and a stunt guy can't be guessing what I'm going to do."
Barring an unpleasant box office surprise, Casey Jones will almost certainly be back in the next Turtles movie, possibly as April's love interest (Amell reports paparazzi provided constant background noise because of Fox during filming in New York).
Amell is optimistic. "There is a world I envision where I just volley between Arrow and Casey Jones between now and, like, 2020."
Certainly, the DC Comics universe looks healthy on TV. With Supergirl moving from CBS to the CW, the latter channel has already announced crossovers between Arrow, Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow.
Amell admits he is confounded, however, by DC's decision to keep its TV and movie worlds separate (a different approach than Marvel).
"Everything still seems very separated in the television world and the movie world. I don't know who's making that decision… Well, that's not true, I do know who's making that decision, I don't know if things are going to change, but things always tend to change in the industry."
Amell has publicly disagreed with the decision not to cast TV's Flash, Grant Gustin, in Zack Snyder's upcoming Justice League movie. Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) is getting the movie role.
As for Green Arrow, the generational DC superhero he plays in Arrow, Amell says, "They've actually told
me repeatedly there's not going to be a Green Arrow in the cinematic universe." (Green Arrow is a Justice League member in the comics).
Amell has his own idea of what DC should do with the TV superheroes. "We could make a $30 million Arrow movie with Supergirl and Flash and be tied into one of the seasons if we wanted to. I think it's an absolutely kick-ass, fool-proof idea."
We suggest that these days, they only make $200 million movies or $2 million ones.
"And you know what broke that rule and did it beautifully, was Deadpool," Amell says. "It said, you can make a superhero movie that's more personal and down in the weeds and it can be f---in' awesome."
Twitter: @jimslotek[2]
References
- ^ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. (www.teenagemutantninjaturtlesmovie.com)
- ^ @jimslotek (twitter.com)
- ^ JSlotek@postmedia.com (www.torontosun.com)
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