Scott Speedman

THE TEEN HEARTTHROB TURNED TOUGH GUY

EXPLAINS WHY CANADIANS MAKE LOUSY ACTION

HEROES, DEBATES THE MERITS OF KOBE VS. JORDAN

AND COMES CLEAN ABOUT HIS HATRED OF TWITTER

PLAYBOY: After 10 years in movies you returned to TV for the nuclear-submarine thriller Last Resort. Why? SPEEDMAN: It's ambitious. A lot of actors like me are looking to go into cable stuff like Breaking Bad or Homeland. Then this came along and it was the opposite—not in quality but in scope and size. Last Resort is a big, exciting epic. We're not doing bland, generic network TV. I mean, the episode we just shot involves weapons-grade hallucinogens. I'm tripping in prime time.

PLAYBOY: This show is almost the opposite of Felicity, the 1998-2002 WB drama that made you a hero to millions of teenage girls. SPEEDMAIN: That show didn't get massive ratings, but the fans we had were rabid. It makes you wonder what guys like Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson go through. I

close enough to get my feet wet, to sort of peek around the corner, see the hysteria and say, "No, thank you." But (continued on page 188)

SPEEDMAJN

(continued from page 95)

I've thought about a Felicity sequel. People want a reunion. I joke that I'd totally do it if it's years later and my character, Ben, weighs 500 pounds. He's a shut-in, and they're bringing paramedics and pulleys to get him out of bed.

Q.3

playboy: Do you prefer playing a Navy captain?

spkkdmaN: I'm the worst. That part of it's tricky for me, the naval-command thing— the military way he stands, the way he or­ders people around. I grew up in Canada, and when you're Canadian everything comes out as a question. "Um, fire torpe­does?" We have real submariners working as extras, and I always feel they're looking at me like, "That kind of sucked, man."

playboy: As a Canadian, are you espe­cially proud of other Canadians such as

Steve Nash and Pamela Anderson? spkkdmaN: Well, you can take those one by one. Nash, yes. Pamela Anderson, not so much. Nothing against her, but I'm a huge basketball fan. I love the way Nash plays, with that soccer mentality of his. People talk down his athletic skills, but his skills are just different from those of somebody like Amar'e Stoudemire, who can jump out of the gym. Nash's balance is crazy. He's just as good with the left hand as the right hand. He sees the whole floor, sees the pass before the pass. Steve Nash blows my mind.

Q.5

playboy: Do you root for your hometown Toronto Raptors?

speedmaN: I root for whoever's playing against Miami. I'm for the underdog. You can admire the Heat and love watch­ing them—talk about skills—and still root against them a hundred percent. LeBron James? Okay, The Decision was stupid, but when people rip him because he doesn't take the last-second shot and all that shit, that's silly to me. The guy's

an all-time player. He's 27 and he has one ring. How old was Michael Jordan when he won his first, 28?

Q.6

piayboY: A question for the ages: Jordan or Kobe Bryant?

spkkdmaN: Both are great. One big differ­ence is hand size—Jordan's are huge. And he was probably stronger. You're talking about little differences, obviously, but he has an edge in charisma too. He was an authentic on-court character. I would take Jordan.

PLAYBOY: You were a nationally ranked high school swimming champion. How much of a head start would you need from Michael Phelps?

spkkdmaN: A mile. And that was my distance—I was a miler. I was pretty good too, but that guy, with his lung capacity and wingspan, was built in a lab for swim­ming. Michael Phelps has ankles like a fish. My ankles are boards. I hurt my arm and neck swimming, so I don't swim anymore. Pickup hoops, that's my dream game, but I don't really know how to play. What posi­tion? None. I just run around aggressively, get the ball and shoot.

Q.S

PI.AYBOY: Are any of your acting colleagues sports nuts like you? You worked with Paul Giamatti, whose dad was once the commis­sioner of baseball.

spkkdmaN: People don't expect it, but Paul's a real athlete, very mobile and co­ordinated. He can do stunts. And he's one of the smartest guys I've ever met—funny, always interesting, the only actor I've worked with who's without ego or pre­tense. And Channing Tatum was a football player. You might remember me as the douche bag in The Vow, with Channing and Rachel McAdams. He's a cool guy, someone you don't mind seeing break through and do great.

0.9

playboy: You worked with Ice Cube in XXX: State of the Union. Who would win a cage match between Ice Cube, Tatum and Giamatti?

spkkdmaN: That's an interesting match. [laughs] I don't know...Paul's pretty feisty.

QAO

playboy: Was making out with Kate Beckinsale in Underworld: Evolution a high or low point? Her husband, Len Wiseman, was the director.

spkkdmaN: Awkward! That was crazy. It was the first and last time I'll kiss a man's wife while he's filming, I hope. But we all got through it. He didn't give me any notes. All he said after the take was "Scott, you're fired." But he hired me back. Screen kisses—they're never really a hot moment, you know? You're trying to be respectful to the actress, but you have to be true to the situation too. Of course there are ground rules. No tongue, that's understood, unless it's specified in the

script. It would have to be specified for me to bring out the tongue.

ft"

PLAYBOY: We heard you hate social media. What do you have against Twitter? SPeedmaN: I hate stuff that breaks the wall between a movie or a TV show and the people it's made for. You want people to buy in, to believe this fiction we're work­ing so hard to make. So when you have cameras at rehearsals, people blogging and tweeting everything behind the scenes, what happens to the magic? "Hey, every­one, Scott's eating a sandwich." Your per­sonal life becomes your currency. I hate that. So if you see a tweet from me—and they're out there—you know it's fake.

PLAYBOY: A magazine once raved about

your "out-of-control dimples." Care to

comment?

speedmaN: [Laughs] That magazine was

correct. You can't control these dimples.

They are uncontrollable.

Q.13

playboy: Have you ever had a stalker? speedmaN: I've had weird experiences here and there, but overall I've been lucky. People get a little crazy sometimes. I had a guy fall off my roof a couple of years ago. He'd been in the house—that was a little creepy—but when it happened I was just sitting around. I heard a crash and ran outside. He knew my name. "Hey, Scott." He had separated his shoulder, and he asked me to pop it back in. I'm like, "Well, no, let's call the professionals."

Q.14

playboy: Last Resort is filmed in Hawaii. That's a far cry from Canada. SpeedmaN: It's great, different. I live on this crazy old property in the moun­tains over Honolulu, in a house from the 1880s. It had a broken-down tennis court that I turned into a little basketball court. I put up a really nice hoop. And I'm not the only one shooting. It's like a rain for­est there, and these giant wild boars run around. The boars are big and fierce, and they cause agricultural problems, so every Saturday a pig hunter comes over. He sits up in a tree with a bow and arrow, taking down the wild boars.

Q.15

playboy: Did you watch submarine movies to prep for Last Resort? There's a whole

subgenre------

speedmaN: A lot of them! Crimson Tide, with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington, is very effective. It's underrated. The Hunt for Red October is pretty good. And now I have to watch Yellow Submarine.

Q. 16

PLAYBOY: It was only in 2010 that the Navy allowed women on submarines. speedmaN: That's right. They figured you can't have that sort of fraternization 300 feet down. For one thing there's nowhere to walk out to.

£.17

piayboY: In Last Resort you and your crew are basically at war with the U.S. It's a mu­tiny: You're ordered to nuke Pakistan, and when you won't, America wants to destroy you. Is there a political message here? speedmaN: It's a drama. You'd never make a show about a real nuclear submarine, because nothing ever happens. Which is good! The goal is no drama, since drama equals nuclear war. So you need a plot— a crazy captain, a conspiracy—to make it exciting to not fire your nuclear weapons. It's not political, but I hope it tracks with real life, you know? Because I hope we can avoid war. That's not a Canadian pacifist thing. It's common sense.

£18

playboy: Is there anybody you think of as a role model for the part? speedmaN: Pat Tillman, the Cardinals safe­ty who left the NFL to fight in Afghanistan and was killed there. To look at him you'd think he was a straight-upjock, but he was this driven, fascinating guy who would figure out what was right and then do it, no matter what. I'm trying to bring a Pat Tillman quality to my character.

£19

PLAYBOY: If Last Resort doesn't blow up the world, will you make more movies? With your jawline, dimples, athleticism and great hair, you'd be a natural for X-Men or The Avengers.

speedmaN: I'd love to do a superhero mov­ie. It's not as though it hasn't come up, but not every superhero script is Christopher Nolan's Batman. I've had an ambivalent energy about some of those projects, and that's not the way to get the part. They want you to come in fierce. It's an Ameri­can energy that doesn't come easy to me. They want you to grab it—take it by the balls and run with it like Captain America!

£•20

playboy: Maybe you're more cut out for another part. Captain Canada? speedmaN: Ha! That's me. But he might not be the best action hero. Captain Can­ada would be the polite one, so where's the drama? He's the superhero who never fights anybody.