Courtney Crowder

ccrowder@dmreg.com

Norwalk-native Brandon Routh’s Hollywood success story has all the narrative peaks and valleys of a Golden Age comic book.

Picture it: A handsome young man with charm to match (Routh) leaves the Heartland (Iowa) for the big city (L.A.) on a whim and a prayer with, quite literally, the money in this pocket. Suddenly he’s plucked from obscurity (all the other brunette, six-packed actors) and given the opportunity of a lifetime (to play Superman in a movie). Despite his best efforts, this date with destiny doesn’t pan out and the fall from grace stings (the film isn’t well-received and work dries up quickly).

But the handsome man fights through emotional strife and oh-so-many closed doors to find himself on the precipice of stardom once again (portraying another superhero on prime-time TV).

To Routh, this fairy tale — warts and all — is real.

As the star of "DC’s Legends of Tomorrow," airing Thursdays on the CW, Routh is currently relishing his second chance at super stardom, he said. And with "Legends" premiering as the network's most watched and highest-rated Thursday night show in years, he’s enjoying the series’ warm reception.

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Routh’s life now — flying back and forth to set in Vancouver, pulling overtime to produce a weekly TV show and dodging paparazzi and overzealous fans — is a far cry from the "laid back" nature of Norwalk. But, like the main character in every good superhero story, Routh hasn’t forgotten his roots.

"Growing up in a small town … you learn what really matters in life and what is just fluff," he said. "A lot of who I am is still the Iowa boy I was when I left."

Despite the "idyllic childhood," Routh's life story hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows. As a 26-year-old actor he weathered one of his biggest personal storms when "Superman Returns," Routh’s first full-length film, was met with a tepid if not downright hostile response.

"Brandon Routh lacks charisma," reviewer Roger Ebert wrote of the then-unknown Routh’s turn in the Man of Steel reboot.

"My heart and soul went into that film," Routh said. "When you spend that much time and put in that much passion, it’s very hard when people don’t love it or even like it. But what I know now that was hard to swallow then is you can’t make everybody happy. You just can’t and that’s OK."

In the decade between "Superman" and "Legends," Routh took his lumps and picked up the pieces, finding work in indie movies, short films and, eventually, prime-time TV. He honed his skills and perfected his craft, readying himself for the moment he’d break out again.

He’s "a character actor in a leading man’s body," his "Legends" co-star and TV stalwart Wentworth Miller wrote in an email. "He’s got that classic, old Hollywood matinee look, but at the same time there’s all this other stuff going on beneath the surface: layers and quirks and edges.”

The origin

Outside Routh’s childhood home sits a painted rock adorned with butterflies and whirling script that reads, "Do what you love, love what you do."

It’s a physical manifestation of the Rouths' creed for their children to find their passion and pursue it vigorously, Brandon’s parents Ron and Katie said.

"We have friends who say, 'My kid wants to do this, but we cut him off,'" Katie Routh said. "To me, that’s crazy. There’s nothing wrong with supporting your children’s goals. If we’d cut Brandon off when times were really rough, he wouldn’t be doing what’s he doing now."

The family couldn’t afford new cars or lavish vacations when Routh was a child, but the pair fostered their children’s artistic endeavors. Routh took dance lessons, played piano and trumpet, acted and even preached at his church.

Ron Routh remembered Brandon pretending to be a sportscaster often, offering his play-by-play analysis of whatever he could see while the family drove around town.

"He just had a presence," Ron Routh said, "a comfortableness with being in front of people that he cultivated from an early age."

The rise

Despite Routh’s creative proclivities, his entrée into acting started as a left-brain activity: A freshman at the University of Iowa needed beer money and Routh’s pockets were distinctly light. At the crossroads of money-making and ease, the 20-something found modeling.

His charm and leading-man looks carried him to New York and then L.A., where he started taking acting lessons in earnest and fell in love with performing.

"I put one foot in front of the other enough that I got here," Routh said. "But I was a small fish in a very, very, very big pond when I started and it was scary and daunting."

And it was hard: Routh held odd jobs, packed boxes at a warehouse and spent some evenings hungry, his parents recalled.

"He was dead broke and we were at the end of our monies to give to him," Katie Routh said.

Then, he got a call.

The turning point

Even though Routh’s and former Superman Christopher Reeves’ jaws protrude at the same angles, their chins dimple just so and their dark hair outlines their features the same way, Routh swears he never knew he had an uncanny likeness to the man who played the caped hero in four movies.

Just about everyone else did note the resemblance.

For years, Routh said he was asked to submit headshots and audition tapes to the many producers and writers who were attached to the “Superman” project. The requests became so frequent that as he booked other work, he said he’d be thinking: What if the 'Superman' people call?

"It’s just so stressful when you have something that’s such a potential and you’re so excited about it," his sister Sara Routh said. "He didn’t want to talk about it too much or overthink it. He didn’t want to jinx it."

The casting process was hard on the other side of the audition tape as well, said "Superman" casting director Roger Mussenden. He was conducting a worldwide search for the person to fill Reeves shoes and he had plenty of men with the necessary physical traits — dark hair, tall, nice build — but he needed someone who also had that elusive X-factor.

"I can get you a room full of pretty people, but not all of them will have talent," Mussenden said. "Brandon had trained as an actor, so great, now all I have to do is put him on wires and throw him around and Superman will emerge."

After months of screen tests and meetings, Routh finally got the role. His first call was to his mom, who’d weathered the ups and downs of the audition process with him, and he asked her, "Who do you think you are talking to?"

"B.J. (Brandon’s nickname), I said a couple times," Katie Routh recalled. "Then I got it.

"'Superman,' I screamed."

The fall

"Superman Returns" was successful by most accounts, but its success always had an asterisk attached. The movie made money or broke even depending on the source, but the fans’ reaction was tepid at best — sort of a collective "meh."

"Meh" does not a franchise make, and the two planned sequels were shelved.

The years after "Superman" were difficult, Routh said. Once the large name above the marquee, he went to staring in low-budget films and shorts and landing small roles in bigger-name pictures like "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

"He’s just too good to stay down," said Matt Osterman, director of the recent sci-fi movie, "400 Days," which starred Routh. "If you give him a decent role, he crushes it. He’s on his way back, I’ll tell you. He’s having his own McConaissance."

The second chance

When casting a superhero, you want to be able to picture that actor standing on a roof and believably declaring, "I’m going to save this city," said "Legends" co-creator and producer Marc Guggenheim.

And when Guggenheim began to cast Ray Palmer and his superhero alter ego The Atom, Routh kept appearing on that roof.

He has "all these unquantifiable things: It’s charisma, it’s the gleam in Brandon’s eye," he said. "He has his own innate energy and enthusiasm."

Even with 10 years of perspective and hard work, Routh didn’t make the decision to step back into a hero’s suit lightly.

"There was trepidation," Routh said. But "there was the chance this could be something so much more, so, in that way, it was a kind of second dream role."

Routh’s "Legends" character Ray Palmer is a scientist and tech guru. He’s thrown into the role of hero through brains rather than brawn, so he struggles with what his newfound heroism means.

On some level, Routh battled with a similar feeling after he was catapulted to fame in "Superman."

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"After ‘Superman’ I asked myself a lot of questions: What is it to entertain? Are the characters I play role models? Am I a role model? Who is Brandon in all of this?" he said.

"It’s been my journey to find purpose in what I’m doing, whether that is entertaining or relieving stress for people who are watching my films or shows," Routh added. "If I am able to do that, that’s all I need."

So what adventure awaits Routh next?

Like all good superhero stories, we’ll just have to keep tuning in.