'Ick' brought back Mena Suvari, Brandon Routh's early roles

UPI

5 days ago

1 of 7 | Mena Suvari, seen at the 2018 premiere of "Book Club" in Los Angeles, stars in "Ick." File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
LOS ANGELES, July 24 (UPI) -- Mena Suvari and Brandon Routh say their new movie Ick, in New York and Los Angeles theaters Thursday, brought them back to their earliest film roles.
The pair play Staci and Hank, who were high school sweethearts in the early 2000s but have gone their separate ways. Suvari portrays both her adult and high school self, recalling her early roles as a high school choir girl in American Pie and high school cheerleader in American Beauty.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Suvari, 46, said paying homage to her early roles was surreal. De-aging effects, like those used in Marvel movies and Gemini Man, made Suvari and Routh appear as they did in their past films for the high school scenes in Ick.
"Wearing a cheerleading uniform again as a mom in my 40s was just all too surreal, something I never thought would happen," Suvari said.
Ick director Joseph Kahn said he cast Suvari as Staci because of American Beauty. Hank pines for her even after Staci marries classmate Ted (Peter Wong).
"Who is worthy of pining for for 20 years?" Kahn said. "Well, they made a movie about that girl in the 2000s. It was called American Beauty and she's on the poster."
The American Beauty poster is intended to represent Suvari's character holding a rose. The midriff on the poster is a body double, however, and the hand belongs to a different model.
Christina Hendricks shared on Instagram in 2019 that she posed as the hand model in 1999, something Suvari still wasn't aware of until this interview
"What a small world," Suvari said. "That's the perfect example of this business in some way."
Routh, 45, said young Hank is closer to his 2006 appearance in Superman Returns. Though the actor appeared on One Life to Live in 2001, Superman Returns was the earliest reference material for his looks in film grade quality.
"I was sending them as many photos from college and stuff that I could find, but there wasn't any good quality stuff," Routh said. "The soap opera I was on was recorded on tape. So it was not good for making a [digital] model, I guess."
Kahn said Superman Returns gave subtext to the character of Hank. Though Routh has continued to act, including in The CW's DC Arrowverse superhero shows, Kahn thinks the actor deserved more success.
"Brandon when you meet him, he's a superhero," Kahn said. "He can make you laugh, can make you cry. He's really that charming. So we as an audience on a certain level have failed him I believe. Someone like this should have a much bigger career."
At the film's Screamfest premiere in October, Routh discussed relating to Hank, who had a promising football career until an injury on the field took it all away.
As an adult, Hank remains in his hometown of Seabrook as a high school science teacher. Routh previously said the film helped him make peace with unexpected career paths and realize he still had some maturing to do.
Now, Routh says he approaches acting with more confidence and collaborative spirit.
"I feel much more worthy of being here," Routh said. "I feel like I've earned my stripes to a degree. This is my chosen profession. Instead of just thinking about me, I guess, I'm often thinking about the whole product and everybody involved because that's the fun of it too."
On Ick that collaboration extended to editor Chancler Haynes, who helped both actors with some of Kahn's more complicated techniques. The opening montage of Hank and Staci's high school relationship was shot at various points over the course of filming.
Often, when at one location, they would film both modern-day scenes and flashbacks to over 20 years ago. Haynes would edit scenes so quickly he could show them what came before and after each scene they were about to film.
"I don't think that that would've been as easy or possible if we didn't have such a great resource like someone like Chancler on set," Suvari said. "It was so fast paced."
Kahn admitted even he wasn't sure it would work until it was all complete.
"That opening sequence was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to do," Kahn said. "I didn't know what it looked like until the final shot. Then you press play and oh, it worked."
Ick is not just a high school love story, however. The title refers to a mysterious substance that grows in Seabrook and has overrun the town after 20 years.
The film never explains what Ick is or where it comes from, though many characters offer their own conspiracy theories. Kahn said this was intentional, because in real-life crises like 9/11 or COVID-19, people debate different theories even when an explanation is given.
"We don't agree about anything," Kahn said. "So what the Ick actually is is never defined because we don't even define our monsters in real life."
Kahn includes a clip of the 1958 film The Blob on a television, and wanted to bring back that sort of classic monster movie. Kahn laments that scary movies have gotten too intense for kids and families, like the graphic Final Destination franchise.
"I wanted to make a monster movie, a true monster movie again. and also make one that didn't scar you," Kahn said. "Not too much sex, not too much drugs, not too much alcohol, still relevant and fun that you could safely watch with a 9-year-old to your grandmother. That's the idea."
Hank and his student Grace (Malina Weissman), Staci's daughter, believe the Ick is dangerous. They struggle to convince others to do something about Ick before it is too late.
Staci is one of the adults who chooses to ignore the Ick; she is more concerned with sending Grace to prom.
"I just loved this character," Suvari said. "She was so checked out in so many ways."
Hank believes Grace might be his daughter from the time he dated Staci, so he sends away for a DNA test. Whether it is confirmed or not, Routh believes that the Ick crisis has connected Hank and Grace in a positive relationship.
"They've already bonded and created a friendship that definitely is different if they're not blood related, but also equally interesting," Routh said. "They have patterns that are similar in how they are dealing with the reality of what's happening, even if they're not related."
Ick plays theaters everywhere beginning July 27.