TV Times Scott Speedman Article

Fast track

Felicity's Scott Speedman finds himself in a whirlwind of TV fame

if Scott Speedman had any doubts about the popularity of Felicity, they were quickly erased during a recent visit to a Toronto classroom.
Speedman, who plays sensitive college stud Ben Covington on the first-year drama series, was mobbed by his big sister's starstruck Grade 8 class.
"The place went nuts," recalls Speedman, who was born in London. ON, but raised in Toronto. "Two girls kept crying. My sister didn't know what to do. [The students] had scrapbooks on the show already."
You can't blame Speedman for being caught off guard. Less than a year ago, the 23-year-old actor was a complete unknown. Now he's being touted as TV's latest hunk, juggling movie offers and magazine cover shoots.
"I try to steer away from the teen-based interviews,"says Speedman, who winces over a recent interview for YM magazine. "They asked me all about my first kiss - that was such a nightmare. I hate that stuff."
Lean and laid back, the tousle-haired actor orders a Corona but settles for Heineken (with a lemon twist) at an arty little eatery in downtown Toronto. Ironically, the restaurant is just a block away from the ChumCity Building - the home of cable's MuchMusic network - where Speedman inadvertently launched his acting career.
A competitive swimmer since the age of eight, Speedman made the Olympic trials as part of the Canadian junior national swim team. However, by the time he was 18, a nagging neck injury had forced him out of the pool.
"Basically, I was burnt out," he admits now. At loose ends as to what to do next, Speedman got an idea when a girlfriend suggested he make a pitch on Speaker's Corner (MuchMusic's open-forum television booth) to get in on auditions to play Robin, the Boy Wonder, in an upcoming Batman movie.
"She dared me to do it,"says Speedman, who liked acting but never thought about doing it professionally. As luck would have it, a freelance casting director caught his pitch on a Speaker's Corner tape and invited him to an open casting call in Toronto.
"It was very scary," says Speedman, who remembers being herded in to a crowded hallway with scores of other professional and amateurs. To his surprise, he got called back and ended up being the last person tested out of Toronto. (The part in Batman Forever eventually went to Chris O'Donnell.)
Although Speedman didn't land the role, the casting agent offered some encouragement - and the name of a good agent.
After graduating from high school, Speedman acted in a short film for the Canadian Film Centre as well as in an independent feature called Kitchen Party. He tried going to theatre school in New York, but quickly dropped out. He had been back home only a month when the call came through for Felicity.
"This agent in town called me up and said I should do it," says Speedman, who had never read a pilot script before but knew that the Felicity script was a good one. He put together a demo tape and landed the part.
Although Speedman admits he is short on experience, he credits all those years of early-morning swim practices for providing him with the discipline to be an actor. "I find a lot of kids in Toronto or L.A. don't know how to schedule or dedicate themselves," he says, "Swimming is 11 times a week! That's discipline!"
Speedman credits Felicity executive producer J.J. Abrams (who wrote Armageddon) with allowing the actor to find his own voice on the seires. "He writes the way I speak," Speedman explains. "And when he doesn't. I try to naturalize it, to make it my own. I try to bring myself to the role."
Speedman is aware that his TV character - the big high-school crush of the show's central character, Felicity (Keri Russell) - often comes off as aloof. "I don't mind that some people think he's not the most likeable character," he says. "I don't like the pressure of having to be likeable."
Speedman himself is quite friendly and appreciative when approached by a fan inside the restaurant. He shows no signs of succumbing to his mom's big fear - "that I become a Hollywood dick" - at least, not so far. Besides, if Speedman needs any larger perspective on life, he can find it only too close to home: his father continues to wage a fierce battle with cancer.
"He's doing OK," Speedman says. "Compared to what he's going through, this is nothing."
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