Actor Lucas Till talks ‘All Superheroes Must Die’

Actor Lucas Till, whose film credits include “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” “X-Men: First Class” and the upcoming “Stoker,” recently spoke with Phoenix Movie Examiner about his latest project - the superhero-themed thriller “All Superheroes Must Die.”

In “All Superheroes Must Die,” which will be available beginning Tuesday, Jan. 29 on Blu-ray and DVD at retail stores and rental outlets throughout the Valley, Till plays one of four superheroes who find themselves abducted by their arch nemesis and forced to compete in a series of challenges in order to save an abandoned town full of kidnapped innocent civilians.

All Superheroes Must Die (Trailer)All Superheroes Must Die (Trailer)

Question: What about this project appealed to you and how did the whole thing come to be?

Answer: Well, first of all, my best friend Jason Trost wrote it, directed it and stars in it with me. And I had enough money laying around to make a fun movie and be creative. The whole idea came to fruition within a week and I was like, “All right! Here we go!” And then I found out that I was probably going off to shoot another movie - “X-Men: First Class” - so we had to really hurry up and we shot it in 3 weeks.

Q: That is a very short amount of time to shoot a movie. Was your friendship with Jason ever challenged?

A: We have been friends for 5 years. We are actually more like brothers. I have known his family since I was 12 years old. When I go back to Los Angeles to see my family, I wiIl also go spend some time with Jason’s family up in the mountains where we shot “All Superheroes Must Die.” The conditions that we were working in were a little rough. I mean, you have two dudes in skin-tight costumes, one listening to the others’ orders and everyone trying to help each other out but they all end up stepping on each other’s toes. It was very stressful. But he and I never got into any arguments because when you are working with a friend and someone who is in the same mindset and has the same goal as you, it kind of works out. So, no, our friendship was never challenged.

Q: Tell me about your character as you see him. Who is Ben a.k.a. Cutthroat?

A: Cutthroat is super fast. He is a slim guy, he talks fast, he is short-fused and he has an ability with knives. But he was basically a sidekick. Whether you read comics or not, you are familiar with these relationships between the leader and the sidekick and the love interest and her affair with maybe someone else. And that is not even superheroes. That is just life. Ben filled the role of a sidekick who could never get past being a sidekick despite how much he really respected his leader. It is kind of the classic Batman/Robin/Nightwing thing

Q: You mentioned “X-Men: First Class,” in which you play Alex Summers a.k.a. Havok. Neither he nor Ben a.k.a. Cutthroat are the happiest of characters, to say the least. Did either superhero role influence the other in any way, shape or form?

A: Well, Ben needed to be angry. He is stuck in this town, he has lost his powers and he is meeting his rival again really and trying to get over that. Then you have got Havok, who is not really an angry character. He is just a troubled character. But when I watch “X-Men: First Class” now, I see that I was [angry] throughout the whole movie. So maybe Cutthroat directly influenced my anger going into playing Havok. Maybe I carried that over into my next superhero role, which was literally days later.

Q: Finally, did Ben a.k.a. Cutthroat teach you anything about yourself?

A: That I could look angry literally 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 2 weeks straight. That is really hard to do. I like laughing.