Scott Speedman likes to keep busy.
Calling from the set of the film "Adoration" in Canada, he is wondering how the threatened writer's strike might impact future projects. Whatever happens, he has already completed the thriller "The Stranger" opposite Live Tyler and mext week, has the release of the quirky indie flick "Weirdsville" which casts him as a slacker/druggie who endures a night filled scary but sometimes goofy mishaps.
It's a role that takes him the furthest yet from that of Ben Covington on "Felicity," the WB series that made him a star and a hearthrob to many.
“The script came along, I started reading it and it looked like it was a lot of fun to do. I just wanted to go and do something fun... and just be loose and have a good time,” he says. “I wasn’t sure if it was gonna work or not but at this point in my career, I feel like I can go and do that. I’m not a big movie star so I can go and do crazy projects.”
And a crazy project it is: Dexter (Speedman) and Royce (Wes Bentley) are disaffected slackers whose lives get turned upside down when Royce's girlfriend, Matilda (Taryn Manning), overdoses. The guys decide to bury her in the basement of a Drive-In. But they stumble upon a Satanic cult and have to escape them while also try and find a way to pay back the drug lord the money for the drugs.
Matilda turns out not to be dead - just in a coma for awhile and it takes many twists and turns from there. I enjoyed the movie a lot, mostly because it showed a different side of Scott.
Speedman and Bentley have terrific low-key comic chemistry, something the actors says developed off-screen: “The looser we got and more fun we had as friends, then the better the movie. My favorite parts of the movie are he and I together.”
Filmed in 2005, he says “Weirdsville” was a hard six-week shoot with he and Bently filming on a lot of nights: “We were running and gunning the whole time.”
While Speedman has experienced the highs of a box office hit with "Underworld" and its sequel, some of his big studio films in which he's appeared have not fared as well ("Dark Blue," "XXX: State of the Union."). He's learned not to stress out about box office and is keeping expectations for the commercial prospects of "Weirdsville."
“Seeing me in an off-the-wall comedy, how it’s gonna do in theatrers is beyond me. I hope it gets word-of-mouth and picks up steam. I think it’s the kind of film that can develop a small cult audience. That was always my goal, it’s never gonna be a blockbuster but it’s perfect if you want to turn your brain off for an hour and a half.”

In 2003's "Underworld," he starred opposite Kate Beckinsale and the film was a surprise hit opening in first place. Last year's sequel, "Underworld: Evolution," also had a solid opening but faltered quickly: “It was cool. It wasn’t like it catapulted me into the stuff I want to do. It was the boyfriend role. But it was good to get those movies and it helps me to get these kinds of movies.”
Speedman has thrived in the indie world with plum roles in the film "The 24th Day" and “My Life Without Me.” In “Adoration,” he will play a rudderless tow truck driver whose life changes completely when his sister is killed and he inherits her son.
Unlike some television stars who are concentrating on film, Speedman is wistful for the days when he was on "Felicity" as Ben, competing for the affections of the title character (played by Keri Russell) who spent the four-year run of the series torn between Ben and Joel (Scott Foley).
“I’m always super nostalgic for that time in a way," he says. "I was 22 and I got that show four days before shooting began. I went to L.A. and met really great people. That show is the reason why, more than anything, why I don’t want to do television right now. But if something special like that came along...”