Speedman heads to prime time in ‘Last Resort’
The story of a rogue nuclear sub is a long way from ‘Felicity’
Scott Speedman’s return to television was decided by one question: What would it take for two decorated Navy men to fire a nuke at their own country?
Not that relocating to Hawaii from L.A. hurt. “When I first got here, I was put in Waikiki in some big monster hotel that’s in a major tourist area,” says Speedman, calling during a break from shooting the new ABC drama
Last Resort. Until “I found this great house up in the mountains. It rains three times a day. It’s incredibly peaceful and very beautiful.”
In the “big, sort of romantic epic,” Speedman plays Sam Kendal, a Naval officer whose nuclear submarine, the USS Colorado, goes rogue after he and his captain, Marcus Chaplain (Andre Braugher), refuse suspicious orders from Washington to decimate Pakistan. Now perceived as traitors by the USA, the submarine’s crewmembers take refuge on an island to avoid being extinguished by their home country.
In building the Tom Clancy-style drama, “I started thinking more about how modern-day ballistic submarines can claim a nation’s worth of power in itself,” says co-creator Karl Gajdusek ( Trespass).
The story, Speedman says, is “really about the relationship between these two men. You can have all the nuclear missiles and the political tension, but at the end of the day, if that doesn’t work with me and Andre’s character, we weren’t going to have a show.”
Last Resort marks a big, splashy return to television for Speedman, who has spent the past decade in films like
The Vow, Barney’s Version and Under-
“In a lot of ways, I just sort of feel like I’m just getting going now with my career.”
Scott Speedman
world since wrapping his breakout series, Felicity, in 2002.
“Some of the better scripts over the last couple of years I read were television scripts. So I was starting to tilt that way,” he acknowledges, particularly toward smaller, characterdriven cable shows. But after reading the Last Resort pilot, “I just liked the size of the scope. And for lack of a better word, (it was) a very ballsy show.”
The series threads together a crisis in Pakistan, a power play in Washington, discord among the submarine’s crewmembers and perils that await on the island where they’ve anchored.
“Marcus and Sam are really coleads in many ways,” says co-creator Shawn Ryan ( The Shield). Against Marcus’ resolute strength, Sam is the reluctant hero still trying to get home to his wife (Jessy Schram). “You’re looking for someone that men and women want to go on that ride with. Those kind of actors are very rare, and Scott is certainly one of the few.”
Despite the tropical setting, Speedman assures this is no Lost. “There are no smoke monsters,” he says with a laugh. “I was not interested in doing one of those monster shows at all.”
Playing Sam is a hard turn from his last TV character, Felicity’s mildmannered NYU college student Ben. “I was very much like that guy,” he says, “a wandering kind of kid who didn’t know who he was. This is more of an acting challenge. I would have only lasted about five days in the Navy, tucking your shirt in and wearing the right clothes and all that.”
Now, “I’ve done a lot of running around, a lot of screaming, a lot of running from things,” he says, laughing.
The actor, who dates actress Teresa Palmer but keeps mum on his personal life, is still juggling film work; his indie Barefoot wrapped earlier this year. “I’m looking to push the boundary in any sort of leading man way,” he says. “In a lot of ways, I just sort of feel like I’m just getting going now with my career.”