Actor’s superpower is keeping secrets
The Internet Movie Database lists him simply as Drone Pilot in the credits for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” but the Internet has been rife with rumors that the character that Dan Amboyer — perhaps currently best known for his role as Hilary Duff’s boyfriend on the TV Land comedy series “Younger” — plays is actually Hal Jordan, a.k.a. the Green Lantern. If that is true, this is the small role that might shoot the actor into the stratosphere. But on the phone he’s cagey.
“Oh, my gosh! Right? Who do I play?” Amboyer, 30, laughs. “I play a man, an everyman, really. It’s funny. I’m not allowed to say anything about who, so it’s frustrating for me. I’m in it and that’s really exciting. It’s an awesome thing to be a part of. I’ll be there! It could be anything. It’s fun to have that element of mystery.”
Whatever it is, it is one more step to fulfilling a wish he’s held since he was 8 years old and his parents took the family to see “A Christmas Carol,” a big stage production with flying ghosts, explosions and kids his own age in the cast.
“I said, ‘How can I be a part of that?’ ” Amboyer says. “My parents helped me type this little ridiculous resume. I brought it to the box office and slid it through their window. But then it kind of took off and became a thing for me. I eventually had to choose between that and sports.”
Twenty-two years later, he’s still at it. He kept his focus through studies at Interlochen Arts Academy, a Michigan boarding school, and later at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. He’s been active in the theater, appearing in off-Broadway shows and regional productions. A cherished experience was playing Ferdinand to Christopher Walken’s Prospero in a theater workshop.
“The character I was working on was the guy that wanted to marry his daughter,” Amboyer says. “So we had some funny interchanges that I have kind of seared in my mind as special moments.
“His preparation was so remarkable to me, because with an actor like that — I’ve worked with some other name actors before. Sometimes they feel like they don’t have to come in and impress anybody. They show up and kind of read the words for the first time through and they’ll all be cool, but I was so impressed with how much he cared and how much work he put into it beforehand and how he had so much special meaning for each
Amboyer can’t talk much about “Batman v Superman,” but he hints at how big the action is by mentioning that he saw green screens for outdoor scenes that were stories tall. Whether he got to perform in front of them, he won’t say.
line of text. For me, it was a reminder that … you have to be constantly pushing yourself.”
Like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Peter Sarsgaard and many a New York actor before him, Amboyer made his small-screen debut on a 2007 episode of “Law & Order,” playing a church arsonist. Amboyer’s focus in school was always the theater. The show was the first time he’d been on camera.
“The very first scene that I shot was with S. Epatha Merkerson,” he says. “She was grilling me, ‘I know you did this!’ and all that. It was a scene where I was supposed to cry. I was terrified. We shot it and I cried and I did all the emotional stuff and I was like, ‘Score! Did it. Done.’ I went back to my dressing room in my costume, and they came back, ‘We haven’t shot you at all. The camera was on her the whole time.’ ”
By now, Amboyer is comfortable on TV and movie sets. He loves working on “Younger,” where he co-stars not just with Duff but also with Tony winner Sutton Foster, a hometown hero who grew up in Troy, Mich., not far from Amboyer. He remembers visiting New York when he was in high school and seeing her in her breakthrough role in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Now he gets to share scenes with her.
“I’ve always had that kind of halo floating over her head in my mind of how cool she is,” he says. “It’s been awesome to get to work with her and see what a consummate professional she is and how funny.”
Amboyer can’t talk much about “Batman v Superman,” but he hints at how big the action is by mentioning that he saw green screens for outdoor scenes that were stories tall. Whether he got to perform in front of them, he won’t say.
“I got to see a lot of different characters and see the different sets, which were pretty amazing,” he will allow. “As you might guess, it’s totally nuts. To be there and kind of observe and take in the stuff happening around me when it wasn’t my scenes was pretty awesome.
“I’ve worked in TV for a bit now, and this felt like 10 TV productions all at the same time. … It felt like a huge circus. It felt bigger than anything I’d ever seen.”