Ryan Sands speaks to Hypable about playing caring dad and evil villain Geoffrey Wilder in Marvel’s Runaways.
Runaways begins airing on Hulu this Tuesday, kicking off heady, dangerously modern adventure that, at its heart, probes at the ties between children and their badly-behaving parents.
As Geoffrey Wilder, Sands is at the center of this conflict. Geoffrey is the leader of the Pride, a sinister criminal organization whose roots go even deeper than mortal criminality. When Sands’ on-screen son Alex (Rhenzy Feliz) and his estranged friends discover that their parents’ collective “business” conceals an element of the murderous occult variety, the kids of Runaways embark on an investigation that will defy everything they know about reality.
Related: Runaways is a spiked milkshake of a show for comic fans and newbies alike
That, of course, presents a few problems for their their simultaneously villainous and nurturing parents. Luckily, Ryan Sands and his adult co-stars were up to the challenge — even when the kids are literally running the show.
Interview with Ryan Sands of ‘Runaways’
What was your history with Marvel and Runaways? Is this all new to you?
Oh, no! Yeah, I’ve been a huge Marvel fan forever, since I was a little kid, wearing Underoos and watching Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends every Saturday. Hearing Stan Lee’s voice and going to draw the characters kind of non-stop. So yeah, I’ve been an avid comic book reader and a fan of superheroes in general for a long time, especially Marvel.
But I wasn’t really familiar with the Runaways! By the time the Runaways was introduced in the early 2000’s, I wasn’t really reading comic books. I had kind of gotten out of comic books, maybe around the early ’90s — I was going to college, and then I went straight from college to focusing on the acting career, and so I had my hands full and didn’t really have a lot of time to invest in the comics at that point. But I knew of it because it was so popular, and some of my friends were still reading comic books and still in that world.
So I knew the basics of what the Runaways was, so when the audition came about for this “Untitled Marvel Project,” once I read the breakdown, I knew exactly where to go! [laughs] Like, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait. The kids, and the adults, okay, that sounds like the Runaways. So I opened my Marvel Unlimited app and just kind of went through the whole first volume.
Was there anything in particular that attracted you to this project and the character of Geoffrey? Other, of course, than “I get to be in Marvel!”
Yeah! I was about to say, at it’s most basic, I saw “Marvel” on the audition, like — okay! I’m there. But the first thing that was probably the most intriguing was that Geoffrey, from everything I saw, Geoffrey’s a bad guy. And I’d never really gotten a chance to play in that arena as an actor. A lot of my roles have really been, I’ve played a lot of law enforcement guys, I’ve played a lot of military guys, and basically they’re all guys that are really just trying to do their job.
So I was really excited about the opportunity to do something different creatively, but I really didn’t know what our amazing writers were going to have in store for the character. So once I really got to play and saw who they wrote Geoffrey to be, it was even more exciting.
How do you balance the evil side and the dad side of the character?
Oh boy! An old acting coach gave me a tip one time, years and years ago, and she said “Find the love in the scene. Find the love.” And whether it’s the person that you’re talking to, whether it’s the person that talking to is trying to hurt, it’s just — find the love. And really, it makes it a lot easier because there’s a real connection with my family, and with Alex in particular, with my son.
So that love kind of influences some of the decisions that got us to where we are, and it also really influences how Geoffrey moves in this environment — the decisions that he’s making from day to day, trying to shield his son from the truth of what he’s gotten himself involved in.
So it helps to really ground it in a real relationship, and the love and respect that Geoffrey has for his wife, for Catherine (Angel Parker). It’s really cool that that’s a part of the dynamic, and we’re just not bad guys that are bent on world domination! [laughs] So it’s just a lot more nuanced than that, and that helps it come from a real place.
Can you tell me about the relationship with Catherine and how it might expand in the series? She seems more ruthless than Geoffrey.
Yeah, that’s interesting because we’re both leaders. We’re both strong. Our strengths and leadership styles manifest themselves in different ways, but the cool thing is that we both acknowledge that, and we both give each other room to be leaders and we respect each other. So there are times when we have to hold each other accountable, but there are also just as many times as we’re supporting each other and reminding each other why we do what we do. So it’s a really cool dynamic with that couple, and something that Angel and I were both excited to play.
We get a lot more of Geoffrey’s personal history than we do for the other parents. What was that like to explore?
Oh, that was fun! That was really fun, to have an opportunity to go back and see how this all started. It gave me as an actor, and I’m sure it’s going to give the viewers a place to really connect with Geoffrey and to see how this all came to be. What was his understanding of what he was getting into? It’s just really cool to be able to show that. Because, you know, it’s like, you watch certain shows — like, I remember watching Breaking Bad, and just seeing the descent that Walter White took. It’s just, “Oh Walt, don’t do — oh! He did it, it’s too late now, now he’s in it!” So I hope it’s going to be fun for viewers to see that with Geoffrey and Catherine.
What was the on-set dynamic between the Pride and the Runaways like?
Well you know what is so unbelievably cool about this whole experience was that I really enjoyed going to work. Because we’ve got a great group! Just from the Pride standpoint, we’re the older group of actors and nobody takes themselves too seriously. We know what we’re doing, and we know we’re going to be here all day, and so let’s have a good time. And that’s been the mindset, that’s been the vibe on set. As much as I look forward to working with who I usually work with, my TV family, whoever I work with, I know I’m going to have a good day.
So with watching the Runaways, we haven’t really shared the set often, with all of the Runaways and all of the Pride. But what’s really cool is to see their off-screen dynamic. They have a really great chemistry, and they all genuinely get along. It’s kind of fun to see them interact, it’s kind of fun to see them do their thing at the table reads. So from what I’ve seen, I haven’t seen much yet, but from what I’ve seen in terms of our shows, that chemistry really translates well.
It’s a really cool set to be on — especially that helps on those long days.
Josh Schwartz has a long history of making shows that cross the boundaries between teens and adults. How would you pitch Runaways to older viewers?
Well, I would advise them to look at the track record! Look at Josh [Schwartz] and Stephanie [Savage] track record. The shows, they might skew toward a younger demographic, but it’s absolutely something that someone a little older can watch, and not just be like, “Okay, I don’t even understand this language here, they’re speaking gibberish! What is this?”
It’s written intelligently, and I think it’s especially important because of the dynamic of adapting the material, a property that was out, what, twelve to fifteen years ago? So that audience, say those people were fifteen. Fans of that comic book, they’re thirty now. So you would want something that can speak to fans of the original property, who are now adults, who are now a little older, while still making it accessible to a younger demographic.
And I think that is what our writers — our showrunners have set the tone, and our writers have come in and really created a world where it appeals to a broad demographic, which is really exciting.
Finally, was there a time when you thought your parents might be supervillains?
[laughs] You know what? No! No, the time when I might have had that thought, like, okay this is just extra-mean right here, I was able to see, okay, I brought that on myself. I got it! I did it. But I had some good parents — but I know that there were absolutely some classmates of mine that might have had those thoughts, but I was pretty fortunate.
Yeah, I got lucky! I mean really, it’s my dad bringing the stacks of comic books home, and parents indulging my questions when I was kind of, you know, on the sneak ask them how to create [Spider-Man’s] web-fluid and stuff. They’re like, “Uh-huh, you’re trying to find a liquid substance that’ll solidify, but still be flexible? Okay… I don’t know, man!”
They saw right through it of course, but they indulged it and just let me be this nerdy, artistic dreamer of a kid, so I give them much props for that.
Marvel’s Runaways arrives on Hulu on Nov. 21.
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