Interview with Blaine Anderson and Brendan Taylor of Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics

An exclusive interview with the actors playing Superman’s creators in AMC’s documentary series about comics and the people behind them.

Comic fans often talk about their favorite superheroes, storylines, and creators. Depending on their memories, they’ll what happened in a specific issue from many years ago down to the last panel. They may also boast how many back issues and long boxes are in their collections. What’s rare in these discussions are the stories behind the stories, the ones about the creative process behind their favorite superheroes.

Take for instance, Superman. At the very name, most people will think of a flowing red cape, Clark Kent, Krypton, The Daily Planet, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, “faster than a speeding bullet,” Christopher Reeve flying across a movie screen, and “Up, up, and away.” Mention the names Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and one might recall that they’re Superman’s creators. They may not know, however, that Siegel and Shuster came up with the Man of Steel when they were only teenagers; or, in getting their dreams realized, it would result in decades of legal battles.

AMC is currently airing a new six-part documentary series produced by The Walking Dead creator, Robert Kirkman, which explores these behind the scenes stories of comics. Entitled AMC Visionaries: Robert Kirman’s The Secret History of Comics, the show explores the lives of various comic book creators through interviews and dramatic reenactments. The third episode entitled “The Trials of Superman” (a clip from the episode is provided below) recounts not only the creation of Superman, but the many copyright lawsuits fought over the rights to the character.

Actors Blaine Anderson and Brendan Taylor star in the episode as Shuster and Siegel. Bam Smack Pow talked with them both about working on the series, and what it was like playing the two men who gave birth to the superhero genre itself.

It was an honor to play these characters, who were the creators of arguably, the best-known superhero…It also really connects back to what makes Superman special, which is his fight for justice – something that Jerry [Siegel] and Joe [Shuster] had to do as well.

Bam Smack Pow: Can either of you recall your first exposure to Superman, and if so, what was it?

Blaine Anderson: Yes, the first movie I saw in theatres was a re-issue of Superman (1978) with my mom. It was a very long time ago. I was 4 or 5 years old, but I vividly remember the music and being the most excited kid on the planet.

Brendan Taylor: I definitely saw the original ‘78 film when I was young among my rotation of great ‘70s and ‘80s films growing up, but also playing with toys. I definitely came across Superman that way.

BSP: Did either of you know anything about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster before doing this project?

BT: There were Canadian government-produced Heritage Minute commercials about proud Canadians. Joe Shuster was the focus of one of these ads about being the Canadian who invented the look of Superman.

BA: As a kid reading comics, the first thing I wanted to do was delve into the actual comics, so knowing who created these comics wasn’t big on my kid list, but I did know about Joe Shuster because he was Canadian. I had no real idea of the scope of their legal troubles with the comics until doing this show.

BSP: What was it about the “The Trials of Superman” that both of you found so fascinating or piqued your interest enough to play the parts of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster?

BT: I found it very fascinating that the story went on for many years. There’s an important story to tell – that the story behind the most iconic comic character was a struggle for the rightful owners to be recognized for its creation.

BA: It was an honor to play these characters, who were the creators of arguably, the best-known superhero. Like Brendan said, the length of time that they had to fight was interesting. It also really connects back to what makes Superman special, which is his fight for justice – something that Jerry and Joe had to do as well.

BSP: What did you both find surprising about Siegel and Shuster’s story, and the story behind Superman’s creation?

BA: Something I found surprising about Siegel and Shuster’s journey was from our director, Rory Karpf. He passed on a story that showed how Joe was such a humble guy and so passionate about his creation and just honestly wanted to see how people reacted to it.

He was outside of a theatre for a “Superman” movie screening. I don’t know the exact details, but he came to essentially watch the reactions and the smiles on people’s faces and to see how many of them came to the theatre when he himself didn’t even get an invite or potentially have even had the money to go into the show. When asked how he found the show, he said, “I didn’t see the show, but there were a lot of people out there” and he was still excited and grateful. That was pretty special.

BT: The interesting thing is that the story of Lex Luthor representing a large corporation trying to take advantage and have power over the everyman was repeated in real life when Jerry and Joe are fighting National and ultimately DC Comics.

Joe and Jerry wrote these themes into the story in the early comics of Superman and it pre-dates them as people who were wronged and taken advantage of by a larger, more powerful, and flashier force.

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BSP: Aside from reading the script, what did each of you do in preparation for these roles?

BA: We worked really closely with Rory Karpf. He had done a lot of research to write the script, so he helped us with as many insightful stories that he collected along the way. As well, we watched the very few movie clips or YouTube clips of Joe and Jerry in their later years talking. Amongst the cast, we shared ideas, tidbits and stories.

BT: Our co-star Emma Middleton, who played Joanne Siegel – she’s a big reader and was reading a biography about Jerry and Joe that exists. Through that, we found out other little interesting stories that weren’t even in this episode. There was too much to fit in, but having all these surrounding stories helped us delve into the details of these characters.

BSP: Do either of you take a different approach when it comes to playing a real-life figure as opposed to playing fictional characters?

BT: I don’t. There are really not many differences, in my opinion, to playing a character, whether they are fictional or not. It’s important to understand their story and where they are coming from. One difference in playing a real-life character is to understand any kind of unique accents or mannerisms.

BA: I do! I think that being able to see a live person and finding out a little clue from any kind of mannerism helps get into the skin of that person. Also just seeing how Joe and Jerry interacted in a couple of their YouTube videos gave me a sense of an idea of their friendship, but it wasn’t all that different from my friendship with Brendan.

BSP: What was it like working on set?

BT: It was a really great experience working with the co-stars and the crew. They were all very excited to be working on the project and it was very fun to show up at work every day.

BA: It was also very busy. There were very few breaks between our scenes. There was a lot of improvisation within the characters and within the script. We were lucky enough to have Rory let us roll with things, just as long as we got to the end of the scene.

Maybe we would have a break for lunch and a break if one of us was on a single shot, but every day we were on in front of the camera 90% of the time, which was very different from most shows. Often times, you come on, you do your scene, and you go take a break for an hour as they set up for another shot. Here, it was like they set up for the shot while we were standing there and then we did it.

Credit: American Classic Movies (AMC); from Robert Kirkman’s The Secret History of Comics, “The Trials of Superman”; Blaine Anderson as Joe Shuster (l) and Brendan Taylor as Jerry Siegel (r)

Learning [Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s] story has made me really interested in the business aspect of comic book industry itself…the complications of rights and claiming ownership to intellectual properties. Knowing that is important to understanding where these things come from and how they came to be.

BSP: For those who aren’t all that familiar with who Siegel and Shuster are, other than that they created Superman, how would each of you describe them as individuals?

BA: We both realized they were nerds before that was even a term, I think. They were not reclusive, but they were happy to sit around and talk. Even from their kids’ point of view, they were just big kids. They wanted to talk about things like, “What if a guy had super powers?”

They lived in their imaginations and they lived in storytelling. I think Joe was really meek and mild-mannered. He was also practically blind, which is such an interesting trait for a guy who’s an artist who draws with his eyes.

BT: Jerry Siegel was a very prolific writer, storyteller and science-fiction writer. He was also shy, not a popular young man, and bullied – something I can relate to. It was just so great that Jerry and Joe found each other and shared so many interests and were able to combine their imaginations to create what we know today.

BSP: What do each of you think it was that made Siegel and Shuster work so well together? Do you think it was their common interests and temperaments, or something more?

BA: I looked at them as soulmate friends by the time this was done. They struggled so much throughout their lives and they went through a lot together.

BT: Not only were they similar in personality, but each of their skills complemented the other, where one couldn’t work without the other.

BSP: Is it because Superman is such a personal creation of theirs that made Siegel and Shuster so determined to receive fair compensation? Or do you think their copyright lawsuit was strictly for monetary reasons?

BA: It would seem that at the time, Jerry and Joe weren’t the most adept businessmen and the deal they made was awful. But before money, it was more about their character and then being paid for the work that they had done.

BT: In the end, I think it was about the principle of it. The money was definitely an important aspect of being able to share in the wealth that was created by Superman, but it was about truly being recognized as they watched their idea change from their original concept because National or DC had full control over this. They really did care about Superman and how he was shown. To date, he’s still one of the most protected characters that it is out there.

So ultimately, I don’t think it was strictly for monetary reasons, although it was a big deal. They were quite poor for much of their lives, but it was really about the principle and the morals of the situation.

BSP: I imagine it’s difficult looking at what happened with Siegel and Shuster, and the time and place in which they lived, from a detached perspective. As actors, how do each of you deal with this, or can you?

BA: As actors, we deal with rejection on a daily basis – multiple times a day. Like Jerry and Joe, one side is business and one side is art. Art keeps you alive and keeps you going, but you just tuck your head down and keep working. That’s what you do.

To play these roles, it’s about the ability to “live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances” – as Sanford Meisner once said – and take personal experiences from our own lives that are similar to our characters to connect to an emotion or a feeling. That’s how I deal with looking at these characters and how I get inside where they may have been.

BT: In terms of when it happened, I think anyone can relate to what they went through, but from an acting perspective, there’s no way I could know exactly what it was like in the time and place historically.

So, all you have are the given circumstances – it doesn’t matter what they are. All I can do is do my research and trust the training that I have to inhabit the character. As long as I’m honoring the truth of those circumstances, then I’m honoring what happens in the story.

BSP: Given Siegel and Shuster’s legal battles with then National Comics, which later becomes DC Comics, over the rights to Superman, have your perceptions about Superman changed?

BT: Learning the story has made me really interested in the business aspect of comic book industry itself. This does happen in the comic book world and art in general – the complications of rights and claiming ownership to intellectual properties. Knowing that is important to understanding where these things come from and how they came to be.

I don’t feel like it has changed my perception of Superman, because his ideals are so similar to those of Shuster and Siegel. He’s still managed to stay the same.

BA: Like Brendan, I think my perception of the corporate side of the comic book industry has changed, but I also think the story behind the Man of Steel and his creators has solidified Superman’s fight for truth and justice.

BSP: Do either of you see Siegel and Shuster as naïve wide-eyed idealists, victims of crooked and unfair business practices, champions of creator rights, or something else?

BA: A little of all of them at points. It was such a learning curve for Joe and Jerry. They were artists and I don’t think they were well-informed going into the deal and they were pretty desperate. I think they were victims to an extent, but then they fought for creators’ rights for most of their lives. So I think in the end, their journey is one of champions.

BT: Something I come back to is that I think it would have been hard for anyone to know at the time how big Superman was going to be. This is something we take for granted now. Superman became the huge enterprise that it is, so the larger it got, I think that the drive for Siegel and Shuster to get justice increased, just given how important was Superman had become. So it was directly proportional to how much they wanted recognition.

BSP: Considering the struggles and hardships both men endured, do either of you see Siegel and Shuster’s story as tragic, or, like the character they created, one of heroism?

BT: I think it can be both. I think the story is tragic because of the stress that they were put under for their entire lives. But I think tragedy is paired often with heroism because of the sacrifices that heroes make.

BA: I think it’s tragic from the day that they sold off the rights to pay their rent and do what they could with that meager amount of money and then just have it explode. People just pulled it off the shelves. To have them see their product become so popular and be helpless to do anything about it was tragic.

BSP: If there is anything you would both would like viewers to take away from the episode or from your performances, what would it be?

BT: I would hope that people take away a deeper understanding of Superman. Knowing the roots make you have a deeper understanding of your interest. Hopefully, people will just become bigger fans of Superman.

BA: I hope they have a sense of the passion that Joe and Jerry had for their character and how that correlates to how pure Superman is as a hero.

Episode Three of AMC Visionaries: Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics, “The Trials of Superman,” airs Monday, November 20th, 2017 on AMC at 10pm EST/PT, 9pm CT.

Next: Interview with Joseph McCabe on ‘100 Things Batman Fans Should Know…’

Credit: Kristine Cofsky Photography

 From Blaine Anderson’s bio adapted from BlaineActor.com:

"Blaine Anderson has built a multi-layered film and TV career using acting and creating. After early TV appearances on projects like Psych, Masters of Horror, and Traveler, his ambitions led him to direct, produce, write, and star in the 2007 short thriller Congestion of the Brain, which played at the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival. He combined acting and directing again for the 2011 short sci-fi project, Men in Mind, a selection of the Charleston International Film Festival.In 2017, he hit a new milestone by co-starring and co-producing Residue, a horror and film noir mix that the Crypticon Kansans City Horror Film Festival named as its “Most Shocking Horror Feature.” Next up, he appears in “The Trials of Superman”, playing comic book artist Joe Shuster in the third episode of AMC Visionaries: Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics."

Blaine Anderson can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and his personal website.

Credit: Taylor Farrah Aviva Photography

From Brendan Taylor’s bio adapted from Brendan-Taylor.com:

"As an actor, Brendan Taylor makes every opportunity count. A movie, comic book, and cartoon fan at an early age, he got started in acting classes in elementary and high school. After revisiting it as an adult, he started working on film and TV sets in the Art Department before making the leap into acting professionally on screen and on stage. Guest roles on series like Olympus and Arrow followed, but he got an unexpected break by appearing in a Doritos commercial that aired during the 2015 NFL Super Bowl as part of a contest.More recently, Brendan has appeared on Supernatural, Fargo, and Bates Motel to go along with recurring roles on The Magicians and The Arrangement. Coming up, he will make a childhood dream come true by portraying legendary comic book creator Jerry Siegel in “The Trials of Superman” episode of AMC Visionaries: Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics."

Next: 50 greatest super heroes in comic book history

Brenden Taylor can also be followed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and his personal website.