Alan Ritchson as Arthur Curry/Aquaman in Smallville. Photo copyright of The CW Network.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Alan Ritchson talks about his role as the underwater superhero Arthur Curry a.k.a. Aquaman on Smallville.
If you grew up reading DC Comics then more than likely you’re familiar with Aquaman. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, this ocean-dwelling superhero made his debut in More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941) and has since been battling evildoers beneath the sea as well as on dry land. Aquaman a.k.a. Arthur Curry possesses superhuman strength, speed and stamina along with the ability to telepathically communicate with all types of marine life.
Over the years, the character has made the transition from comics to TV cartoons and even the occasional live-action appearance, including the series pilot Mercy Reeffor the now-defunct WB Network. In 2005, Aquaman took centre stage in the fifth season Smallville episode Aqua, and was played by the hunky and talented Alan Ritchson. For the young actor it was an unexpected yet welcome job.
“I’d only been out here [Los Angeles] for a couple of months and was working on a feature film called The Butcherwhen I met my current manager,” recalls Ritchson. “She sent me on some general auditions, including one at the WB. Someone I met there said, ‘You’d be perfect for this Aquaman project that we’re casting.’ Over a period of two weeks and six or seven auditions later I finally booked the part. It was one of the more intense audition processes I’ve been through to date. I think the show’s producers were looking ahead to a pilot, though, and possible series, so they wanted to find the right person from the very start.
“One of the things they may have liked about me as opposed to the other people who read for the role is that I tried to bring a sense of realism to it. I didn’t have a special stance, voice or other superhero ‘gimmick,’ do you know what I mean? Coincidentally, after I got the job, one of the Smallville producers commented that they loved the fact I didn’t give Arthur some quirky feature. The character just seemed very real to me and that’s how I decided to play him.”
In Aqua, Arthur Curry rescues Lois Lane (Erica Durance) after she’s accidentally knocked out while diving into Crater Lake. Clark Kent (Tom Welling) later follows Arthur back to a secret underwater base where the two fight before Clark is thrown out of the lake after being hit by a water ball generated by Arthur. The mysterious teenager is, in fact, trying to destroy ‘Leviathan,’ a weapon being developed for sale to the military by Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and that’s responsible for killing local marine life. Lex manages to capture Arthur, but Clark sets him free and together they go after the weapon. Ritchson describes his first day on the Smallville set in one word.
“Overwhelming,” chuckles the actor. “It was a whirlwind. I got off the plane in Vancouver that first day and was rushed to the studio where I was immediately introduced to some of the show’s executive producers. Afterwards, I was taken to wardrobe, hair and make-up where I was ‘made up’ as Arthur Curry. Then I was brought to the set to meet all the people I’d be working with, including the episode’s director, Bradford May, and Erica Durance, who showed me around. Before I knew it I was doing my first scene with Erica. It was a very intense one that, sadly, was deleted from the final cut of the episode. As we shot it, there was an army of people waiting behind the camera to tell me what I needed to do next.
“My head was still spinning when I got back to my hotel room that night,” continues Ritchson. “Initially it was a lot to take in, especially as it was my first big TV role. I felt much more at ease when I returned to the set the next morning and everyone there was like, ‘OK, this new guy seems to know his way around now.’ For the next three weeks I spent a great deal of time in the water. We shot a number of scenes at a Canadian glacial lake where the water was something like 52 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was pretty chilly. I was diving in and around tunnels that had been formed in the mountainside. The work was physically challenging, but I fed off that and enjoyed that aspect of my character.
“We also filmed several scenes in a pool of water at a large research facility. I had to take some scuba lessons so that I could stay underwater while we were shooting. I’d breathe in some oxygen from a tube, swim in front of the camera, do my scene, and then someone in scuba gear would swim over to me and give me more oxygen. The whole thing was quite an experience and one I won’t soon forget.”
Although the Smallville producers were very pleased with the actor’s performance in Aqua, they ultimately decided to recast the Arthur Curry role for the aforementioned Mercy Reef pilot. Unfortunately, the pilot never aired on TV, but it was shown on iTunes. As for Ritchson, he was invited back not too long ago to guest-star yet again as Arthur Curry in the sixth season Smallville episode Justice. In it, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Justin Hartley, who starred in Mercy Reef) asks Clark as well as Arthur Curry, Bart Allen/The Flash (Kyle Gallner) and Victor Stone/Cyborg (Lee Thompson Young) for help to take down LuthorCorp’s secret lab. When Bart and then Clark are taken prisoner by Lex, their friends mobilize to rescue them.
“That episode was so much fun to do,” enthuses Ritchson. “I especially liked filming the ‘team’ scenes where Arthur and the rest of the super-guys were together because they got along so well, and so did us actors. That was apropos in that Justiceis about this sort of brotherhood that forms among our heroes and that was definitely true both on and off-screen. It wasn’t like acting at all. We just had a blast. To be honest, working on this second episode was doubly enjoyable for me because there was no pressure. I’m the guy playing Aquaman on Smallville and I don’t have anything to prove. For that reason alone I think I was able to embody the character even more so in Justice and was really pleased about that.”
Steve Eramo
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