...at least not in the title. But before Birdman was an official indie darling, commercial smash, and successful comeback for Michael Keaton, we caught up with Constantine's Matt Ryan to talk about his upcoming NBC superhero show which debuts this Friday at 10 p.m. Among topics such as the comic's long-running mythology, Keanu Reeves' movie adaptation, and meeting Hellblazer super-fans at Comic Con, Ryan let slip his deep love for Birdman himself, a.k.a the man formerly known as Batman:
Birdman—I know! We were just sitting downstairs and I think it’s Entertainment Weekly with him on the front cover. What's so funny is, I open the picture and he’s wearing a trench coat—like the exact same trench coat that I wear as Constantine. I don’t know whether it’s a photo shoot for the movie, or from the actual movie. I think it was a photoshoot, but I was like “Wow, Michael Keaton." I grew up with his stuff. He’s fucking awesome. He’s such a fucking awesome actor, and I think he’s so underrated. Well, not underrated, but not fashionable for a while. Birdman will really kick it off for him and I can’t wait for that.
Click to the second page for our complete interview.
How did you first get into character and get to know Constantine?
A friend of mine had been telling me about Constantine for years. So I called him up the day before the audition, like “Man, this is the character that you keep going on about? Shit! I can’t read 300 comics the day before the audition.” He was like “Right. And this is the way it has to be done, and this is the way you have to do it.” He took me through the whole thing, and the whole character breakdown—the whole history breakdown. Once I got the role, David Goyer and Daniel Cerone and the DC guys gave me a bunch of comics. We only had two and a half weeks to prepare before we started shooting the pilot. There was only a certain amount of comics I could read, so [they gave me] the ones that they thought would be relevant to what we were doing at the time. I just dove in.
What’s great about having a character like this is that he’s got such a huge cannon of material. You still have to create and make it your own, but you can always find little resources in the comic books. So for two weeks I was reading comic books and going to the gym. I had the most terrible time of my life man, it was awful. [Laughs.] No, it was great, I was like “This is my job—to wake up, read comic books, and go to the gym? Awesome.”
I’ve been really lucky in my career that I’ve never worked with any assholes.
I was a huge Lost fan so seeing Harold Perrineau was a cool surprise for me. What it’s like working with Harold and the rest of the cast?
You know, I’ve been really lucky in my career that I’ve never worked with any assholes. I've met a few people who have and I’ve only been doing this 13 years, but I’ve been lucky—and I’m not just saying this when I say it, but they’re the best man—like, they’re fucking awesome. Harold is probably the most experienced out of all of us, like the daddy you know? He’s been the guy that we turn to for advice—especially me. He’s such a pro and he’s such a good actor and he really is the real deal. We have such a good laugh, and we have really have good chemistry on set. We have a good crack you know between all of us.
Charles Halford that plays Chas Chandler, it’s really funny because his name is Charles but then his name is Chas, so on set we’ve turned his name into “Charles Chippy Chas.” It’s become this whole thing. He’s actually the kind of character he plays in the show that’s John’s best friend, and he backs him up, and he’s kind of taken that role in real life as well. He’s helped me a lot when we go through lines, and he’s read all the comics. He’s an on-set expert for anything that has anything to do with the comics. And then Angélica Celaya has come on as Zed, which is just awesome. She grew up around a bunch of brothers. In a cast of guys, she has a whale of a time. She gets in John’s face and she doesn’t give a shit. And Angélica, she’s actually done that to all of us—the boys. It’s a really good dynamic on set.
How has it been interacting with the die-hard fans who care so much about this character?
I did Comic Con for the first time in years, for Assassin's Creed. The fans were really supportive. They seemed to really like the pilot, and I had such a great response from them. It’s such an iconic role, and you want those hardcore fans to like it, and you want to stay true to the DNA of the character, and you want to do the best portrayal you can. The fans are the reason why I’m here, and they’re the reason why the comics were made, and they’re the reason why the film was made, and why TV show’s being made. Those are the people you ultimately want to please, but at the same time, if you think about that too much then you’re going to be second guessing yourself at every point. You can’t please everyone and you have to trust your instincts, and you have to do your work, and throw yourself in there and trust your instincts, and just trust that you’re doing a good job that I can be proud of as well.
I’ve become a huge fan of the comics since reading them. I’m constantly trying to mine the DNA of John Constantine and stay true to that character in the comic books.
Speaking of the film, have you seen the movie adaptation? What do you think of Keanu Reeves' take on the character?
Well to be honest with you, I wasn’t really familiar with the comic books yet when I saw the movie. I enjoyed the movie for what it was. Because I saw the movie so long ago, and because I wasn’t in touch with it’s [source] material, it’s kind of in a different space in my head.
1.
Growing up, who were some of your favorite superheroes?
It was Christopher Reeves' Superman and Michael Keaton’s Batman. Those two superhero movies were my favorite. I love Michael Keaton, I think he’s awesome—he’s such an awesome actor—like the BeetleJuice films. I just love that Tim Burton stuff. Then Christopher Reeves as Superman was great as well. I actually was in L.A. before we started, and I went into the storeroom, and they asked me what I wanted. I took a little Superman statue and a little Batman statue, and I put them in my room. When my friends came up they were like “Oh wow, you’ve got a Batman and Superman statue." I'll keep them in my study or something. Those are my two favorite comic book characters.
You know, Keaton is doing Birdman.
Birdman—I know! We were just sitting downstairs and I think it’s Entertainment Weekly with him on the front cover. What's so funny is, I open the picture and he’s wearing a trench coat—like the exact same trench coat that I wear as Constantine. I don’t know whether it’s a photo shoot for the movie, or from the actual movie. I think it was a photoshoot, but I was like “Wow, Michael Keaton." I grew up with his stuff. He’s fucking awesome. He’s such a fucking awesome actor, and I think he’s so underrated. Well, not underrated, but not fashionable for a while. Birdman will really kick it off for him and I can’t wait for that.
Now that you have read the comics, is there anything you're excited about bringing to the screen later on?
We’ve got some great characters coming in from other DC series. From Constantine and Hellblazer, we’ve got The Newcastle Crew coming. A really good friend of mine, Jonjo O'Neill, who I worked with at the Royal Shakespeare Company 10 years ago, is playing Gary Lester—that’s going to be a fucking kick-ass episode. We had such a good time man, such a great episode. Then there's Richie who comes back as well...and Papa Midnight too, and they’re also going to be introducing Jim Corrigan, who ultimately becomes the Spectre. We’re getting darker with it. It’s like “Wow, can network television even do this?” There's so far we can go with this TV show and hopefully we can take it there.
It's cool to hear how much of the mythology that’s going to be brought in.
Yeah, like Pandora’s Box. In the Mill House where we base our season, there’s Doctor Fate's Helmet! There’s Pandora’s Box! There’s all these things that every time I go in back in scene in there, I always find these little things, and these little trinkets. I actually stoll a crystal the other day from a sack. I was like “I’m going to take this home and store this in my little collection.” It’s just like cool shit man.
Nathan Reese is News Editor at Complex. He tweets here.
