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During this year's Sundance Film Festival I landed an exclusive video interview with Tom Cavanagh. He was in Park City to help promote director Juan Pablo Buscarini's The Games Maker, where he plays the father to a gifted games maker played David Mazouz, who currently stars as Bruce Wayne on Gotham. Here's the full synopsis:

To celebrate his tenth birthday, Ivan Drago's (Mazouz) parents (Cavanagh and Valentina Lodovini) take him to an amusement park where he tries his hand at one of the games. Though he doesn't win, Ivan is given a comic book as a consolation prize. The comic contains an advertisement for a "games makers" competition sponsored by a mysterious corporation. Creating games captures Ivan's imagination. Against his father's wishes, he enters the competition and wins. Shortly afterward, his parents disappear in a ballooning accident. Believing them to still be alive, Ivan embarks on a dark, adventure-filled quest to find them, a journey that leads him to learn about his family's past and to meet the head of the mysterious corporation that sponsored the competition: the evil "games maker" Morodian (Joseph Fiennes).

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Image via The CW

During our wide-ranging interview, Cavanagh talked about the experience of making the film in Argentina, his character and the old school gaming aspect of the film, his process as an actor, The Flash, his yellow suit and how the costumes have become much more flattering, how much he knew about the story when he signed on, and a lot more.

As usual, I’ve time indexed the interview to provide an overview of the conversation.

Tom Cavanagh Time Index:

  • :30 – What’s the film about? Describes it as a fantastical story and talks about how annoying it is that the lead actor is so good.
  • 1:35 – How did he get involved in the project? Says the prospect of filming in Argentina was a factor.
  • 2:10 – Talks about the old school gaming aspect of the film.
  • 3:09 – What’s his process as an actor like? Tells a funny story of someone at the TCAs asking him the same question.
  • 4:55 – Has his process changed over time? Talks about his background in theater and taking cues from Al Pacino.
  • 7:25 – The Flash. Says he considers himself a neophyte in that world but talks about how exciting it is that stuff that was only allowed in movies 5 years ago has now made its way to television.
  • 8:55 – Talks about his yellow suit in The Flash and how the costumes have become much more flattering.
  • 10:15 – When he signed on, did he know from the beginning where the story was going to go?

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