In the words of Alice Cooper, “he’s back, he’s the man behind the mask”. OK, Uncle Alice was singing about Jason Voorhees, but with the first appearance of Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, that still seems appropriate. Arrow star Stephen Amell steps up to the puck as the heroic human vigilante fighting alongside the heroes in a half shell. We chatted about masks, CGI characters, and stuff.
FLICKS: Hey man. Your voice sounds a lot more clear without a mask in the way.
STEPHEN AMELL: That’s right, when I’m not doing an Arrow voice or I’m not speaking through a hockey mask my voice sounds much more clear.
There’s a good gag in the film when you’re trying to talk through the hockey mask.
Yeah that was fun. People laugh, they tend to laugh when they think of that and I’m glad because it’s sort of the seminal moment of Casey Jones in the hockey mask and it’s good that people are engaged.
What were some of the key differences from working on this film from your week to week gig on ‘Arrow’?
Well, my week to week gig on Arrow is usually Monday to Friday and always super busy. So this is a little bit different because I’d have weeks where I work five days a week but typically on TMNT2 I was working two, three days a week and you know, it’s a much more relaxed setting. Because it’s a feature film and you’re going to film until you get done and obviously it’s a much bigger budget so it just tended to be a little bit more collaborative, felt a little bit more like a creative space and less like a work space. There really is a procedural element to television where it’s not always about getting it right. Sometimes it’s about getting it done. And I think that we get it right more often than not. But this was definitely a different feeling on set.
There must be very different requirements placed on you as a cast member as well, right?
Yeah I mean on Arrow I’m number one on the call sheet and on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I was number seven so I was very much a passenger. And I just wanted to keep my eyes open, keep my mouth shut, keep my ears open and just be a good, solid member of the team.
Obviously a lot of what you need to do is react to CG characters and environments on set. What challenges did that present to you and is it harder or the same when you’ve got your face obscured by the mask?
Well, I mean I don’t have to talk to the characters that much when I was wearing the mask. With the mask on it’s easy. With the mask off, you’re looking at ping pong balls above a Mo-Cap suit character’s head as opposed to looking at them in the eye which is just something you have to get used to. But the guys who play the turtles will never get enough credit for the amount that they bring to those performances. You know if acting is reacting we’re still getting a chance to react to what they’re doing on a daily basis.
Congratulations on being a human being on this film but I think the human beings have to do a lot of standing on the sidelines, I suppose because they’re ways for the audience to project into the film. Do you think that’s accurate?
Yeah, I mean, they’re important. I think that one of the nice things that Casey Jones brings to the movie is that so much of what the turtles get to do – the beginning of the movie, when they go to Brazil and obviously the final fight – are these really fantastical moments. And when Casey’s having a fight, he’s having a fight at street level and it’s something that people can relate to more. So I think it’s a nice element that we’ve brought to the movie and kind of a nice counterpoint to some of the things that the turtles get to do.
It’s probably a space that puts you a bit closer to what you do on ‘Arrow’ than necessarily the CG sort of stuff that makes up the centerpiece fight.
Yeah I mean all my stuff was incredibly practical which is why I got to do all the stunts in the movie save for, I think one shot.
You obviously seem to know your way around a hockey blade…
Yeah I’m Canadian so I grew up playing.
No more needs to be explained. With Casey differing a bit from the character that I’m familiar with, do you have a take on why the insanity of the character was dialed down in favour of what we see in this film?
Well, one of the nice things that we did was give Casey a much more practical back story which gives me a fair crack at interpreting him in my own way and bringing him to the screen in a way that is going to be unique. And that was the fact that he is on the path of a corrections officer and wants to become detective in a New York police department. So we see some elements of him and he literally says in the film when asked “are you out of your mind?” he says, “Getting there.” So this film is really an opportunity to introduce Casey Jones. And I think that we only see sort of hints of the full-fledged vigilante that he could eventually become.
The broader comic book or CG action genre is filled with things that would make people go a little bit crazy if they saw them. How’s a normal human being going to deal with either talking turtles or even worse, Krang, seeing that in the flesh?
Yeah my character doesn’t see Krang. I have no idea how or who’d react to that but I mean he does have to wrap his head around talking teenage mutant ninja turtles pretty quickly and a warthog and a rhino. You have to strike the balance of going, “Alright, how would I deal with this in real life and how am I going to deal with this in real life while also considering that we are in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.” So you have to strike that balance. I probably wrap my head around the idea a lot quicker than I would in real life but you know, you got to stick with the times of it being a fun, fantastical world that we’re creating.
Tonally it is a bit different to ‘Arrow’. Did you have any second thoughts about taking on another property that’s got really strong fandom behind it?
No, not at all. I love being involved in a world where people have a passionate opinion about the character. I think that it ratchets up the pressure up a little bit which is fine by me. And it creates a series of opinions and you know, those are always welcome. I’ll have plenty of opportunities in my career to create my own characters but for now to be a custodian of characters that people are passionate about for a time is good enough.
‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2’ session times
