INTERVIEW: Griffin Newman hunts for The Terror on revamped ‘Tick’
For superhero fans who have felt a sense of loss in their life, worry no more. The Tick is back.
The creation of Ben Edlund has seen many incarnations over the years, including comic books, an animated series and a live-action series. Now Amazon Prime Video has released the first set of episodes in a revamped live-action version starring Peter Serafinowicz as the title character and Griffin Newman as Arthur Everest.
Arthur and the Tick join forces to find and ultimately stop the dastardly actions of The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley). Along the way, they provide the audience with a belly full of laughs and quite a few dazzling chase scenes.
When Newman got the part, he needed to do some homework.
“I definitely brushed up,” the actor said in a recent phone interview. “I mean, I was a big fan, but I hadn’t rewatched either of the series in a while. And I had never read any of the comics before, so when I started auditioning, I went back and just absorbed everything, you know, trying to track down every issue, every trade paperback, get all the DVD sets and rewatch everything. … I think I started auditioning in January. I think I got the role in March, and then we filmed the pilot in May. So I sort of had five months there for active research, and by the time we started filming, I had sort of absorbed everything. So I came in with a full encyclopedia of pressure of what I felt like I had to live up to.”
Although there have been previous incarnations of The Tick and the Arthur character, Newman didn’t feel burdened by the history. He did catch up on his homework, but Edlund insisted that he make the character his own. That came with a great sigh of relief.
“I couldn’t slack off on this, not that I would want to because, you know, it’s a thing that people care about so much,” he said. “People have been so attached to these different versions over the last 30 years, and you want to make sure you do this character right. So that was a really big responsibility that was exciting to me to be entrusted with that.”
Newman loves that Arthur’s motivations are so clear. His goal in life is to find The Terror, and that simplicity allowed him to stay focused. “His entire psychology, his entire outlook is so rooted in that history, and you know exactly what he stands for and exactly what he’s trying to do,” Newman said. “I mean, he’s got one goal, which is to prove that The Terror is still alive, and everything stands outside of that. He wants to prove to himself and everyone else around him that he’s not crazy … and it’s a gift for an actor to have such a clear thing you can play.”
The actor didn’t have to think up a backstory because The Tick mythology has already been created and crafted by Edlund over the past few decades. This was dipping his toe into a pool that had already existed and now takes on a new form in 2017.
Working with Serafinowicz and company proved to be a highlight for Newman. In fact, he called this ensemble the “best cast” he has ever worked with, which is high praise from an actor who has appeared in Thanksgiving, Cop Show, Vinyl, Graceland and Blue Bloods, among other shows.
“It was a really, really great group of really, really kind, collaborative people,” he said. “It was a very, very collaborative environment, which you don’t always get. Sometimes people are just on their own island, and they come in. And they have their thing prepared, and they do their takes. And they leave, and you never really talk to them. There are tons of movies and TV shows I’ve done where I’m acting with someone every day, and I’ve never had a personal conversation with them. And it’s not like that’s a prerequisite for the job, but this really felt like we were all a Little League team. We were all in it together trying to make this show work very selflessly, and everyone had such a good time with their character and was so keyed into what they were playing that I think collectively it made everyone’s job easier because everyone came so prepared that you just had to play off what they were doing.”
The new series, which is now available on Amazon Prime Video, has the same characters as previous incarnations but different plot lines. Newman stressed that this isn’t a rehash of what audiences have already seen.
“If you’re playing Spider-Man, and you’re the fourth guy to play Spider-Man, and you have to play the ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ scene again, I think it’s probably nerve-wracking to go, well, do I try to do what the guy last time did because he did it well,” he said. “Or do I try to make it my own thing, but if I make it my own thing, I might get away from what it is. With this, I kind of was able to just look at the script and play what was written there because it’s so many new scenes that no other version of Arthur has gotten to do.”
He added: “Ben was always very adamant. He always said, ‘Don’t take too much from the other versions. Those are alternate realities. This is your own character, and I don’t want you to do an impression of what anyone else has done.’ So you try to just find the things that exist in every version of the character that feel fundamental, and you want to represent those qualities, not a technical imitation of what other people have done or trying to get the voice to sound like the other guys. It’s just trying to tap into the heart of who this guy is and why he’s worked for all these decades.”
Truth be told, if Newman weren’t starring in The Tick, he’d probably be watching The Tick. He’s a self-avowed superhero junkie who used to work in a comic-book store and frequently sees superhero films on opening night. This role seems right up his genre alley.
“I remember there were always rumors that maybe they were going to bring The Tick back, and I was so excited and hoping that would happen,” he said. “Now I can’t watch the show without getting stressed out about my own performance because I’m just a neurotic mess.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Tick is now available on Amazon Prime Video. Click here for more information.
