Chris Wood talks reuniting with Grant Gustin outside the Arrowverse to play brothers in Snowshoe
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Chris Wood and Grant Gustin are trading in their Arrowverse superhero suits for some snow gear in Snowshoe.
After playing DC comics characters Mon-El on Supergirl and Barry Allen on The Flash, respectively, the actors have reunited to play brothers in the short film, written and directed by Wood. Snowshoe follows the brothers as they take a snowy hike that ultimately changes them forever. "One continuous take, in the snow, at the top of the mountain — I really stacked the deck against us and we somehow pulled it off," Wood tells EW with a laugh.
Watch an exclusive sneak peek clip from Snowshoe above, and check out what Wood told EW about reuniting with Gustin for the film below.
Courtesy of Chris Wood Chris Wood reunites with Grant Gustin in 'Snowshoe'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where did you get the idea to make Snowshoe?
CHRIS WOOD: I've been doing a lot of writing and just wanted to change gears. This idea started with wanting to talk about familial relationships, specifically brothers, and connection and disconnection, and also coming out of the pandemic when there was so much emphasis on checking on people and all the endless Zoom group meetings and FaceTime calls. I was thinking about what happens when people don't reciprocate or don't make themselves available to listen when someone is reaching out for their support or their help, so I started with that.
When did you start working on it?
I was up in Vancouver working in early 2021. My wife [Melissa Benoist] was filming, and I was about to pop over to my wife's show Supergirl for the series finale when I came back to reprise that role one last time. Grant was in the midst of shooting — I guess it would've been The Flash season 7 — and we shot at the end of March up in Whistler.
How did Grant get cast to play your brother?
I've been friends with Grant for a long time — I went to college with him. Also, I think we pass as brothers; we have the same-ish color hair and similar enough faces. First, I wrote the script, and I reached out to him before I talked to anybody else, and he was on board. We ended up making it all happen within five weeks from draft to completed film. It was pretty fast. There was a lot that could have gone wrong, and we got really, really fortunate. We had an amazing crew that really had to go through it with this one.
What was it like working together on something not in the Arrowverse?
Oh my gosh, we had a great time. We had worked together in crossovers before, but I had worked with Grant in college doing plays and theater, and it was really trippy to work together 14 years later — and so intimately in a very different way. And obviously [there are] a lot more F-bombs than I think my mother would've cared for me to use. But hey, it's just these guys. That's how they talk. I don't know what to tell you! [Laughs]
And in the same way that I was, he was hungry for a different challenge. He'd been doing The Flash for so many years. I hope it shows people how much more he can do from what they've already seen, because he really is such a gifted performer. That's also why I thought of him right away — because there's a lot of Grant's abilities that I don't feel like I have seen captured on camera yet. When he read the script, he just totally got it off the page. We met up a couple times to rehearse, and it was just a blast getting to dig in and really flesh these guys out so that when we got there on the day, we felt like we knew every beat of the dynamic inside and out, and why the characters make the decisions they make. I'm so grateful that he did this with me, and I feel closer to Grant after playing his brother. We still call each other brother now. I think it's permanent.
Where did you get the inspiration to do it all in one take?
There's a really long single take in an episode of True Detective, where it moves through this vast location. They're in and out of doors and over fences, and I remember being blown away by how it put you right there in the footsteps of the person. And then also Birdman and that style of filmmaking, something about it felt right for what I was trying to do with this. The long single take changes the pace, because when we're cutting, we can manipulate the energy, but the long take exposes the gaps and pauses and drama. It also sometimes makes it more comedic — I wanted to ride that line right in the middle. We had to rehearse a lot on dry land so that when we got up into the mountain on the snow on the one day of filming, we actually knew where we were going and had everything all charted out. It was a lot of Saturday gatherings, spending as long as we could figuring it out.
That's what was so exciting for everybody — drive two hours up to Whistler, get on a bunch of snowmobiles, ride an hour up the side of a mountain, literally to the middle of nothing, shoot this thing, and we only get three takes, and hopefully we nail it. And then we have to get back down before the sun sets. It was attractive to our whole team because of just how many ways it could go wrong.
Courtesy of Chris Wood 'Snowshoe'
What was it like filming up there on the day?
We were like kids playing around in the snow and literally carting our equipment on sleds, and there was a lot of overlap of responsibilities because we had like 12 or 13 people on location that day. We were doing our best to make sure we could get it all done. But it was terrifying — when we first got up the mountain on filming day, that was the first time that we all went, "Should we leave? Should we do some tree wipes, or do the Birdman technique where we find something to pass that we could create a cut if we needed to?" Going into the third take I didn't feel like we had really gotten it yet, and based on the position of the sun, we only had one more take — either get this now, or you maybe don't have a film.
We ended up only getting three takes, and thankfully we got it on the last take. We were all really working through it, and Grant and I worked up a sweat hiking through the mountains in those old-fashioned snowshoes. I know Grant was so worried because it's a long scene, and it's also very technical, and there's things like a tackle into the snow, and there's just so much that could trip you up or throw you off. At the end of the day, what we were all drawn to was a challenge, and we all had an incredible time. It's one of my favorite filming experiences to date.
Why is mental health something you want to focus on in projects like this?
Back in 2017, I founded IDONTMIND, a mental health awareness nonprofit, and our work is centered around the idea that your mind matters and you need to talk about it. An important piece of that is having friends, family, and a support system you can lean on, and to have people in your corner who can help you along your mental health journey, and to make sure that they're there for you in times of need, and vice versa. It's hard for me, when I'm developing anything creatively, not to have mental health stories front, medium, or back of mind.
With this film, I didn't want to tell an overt, literal story about someone struggling with depression who can't get out of bed. I wanted to tackle an issue about how disconnected we can be even with the people we feel most connected to. It's two people not getting it right, and I'm always drawn to that versus a perfect picture of people handling mental health and conflict well. This is a prime example of two guys getting it very, very wrong. Statistically there's a even higher number of men who don't open up and talk about mental health, and a lot of the time, myself included, we suppress our feelings or don't have the vocabulary to communicate what's going on. With masculinity, there's a culture of disconnect and holding back on this stuff that really matters.
How do you explore that in Snowshoe?
We have one brother who's desperately trying to connect with his brother and finding strange ways to get through to him because he just wants to get a response from him. And the other brother is so preoccupied with himself and his work that he's not even interested or open to responding. I was drawn to a story about that friction of people on different pages, and seeing what happens when you turn them up to their highest levels.
I gravitate towards stories that lift us up, and even if it's a depressing tale or something that ends on a really tragic note, I like the takeaway to still be optimistic. I have a 2-year-old, so forgive my expression here, but it's like putting vegetables in the mac and cheese: "This is fun to eat, and this other part is good for you." If I can do both of those things and people don't realize I'm doing it, that's the winning recipe for me.
What are the chances we'll see you back in the Arrowverse before it all ends with The Flash series finale?
[Laughs] I think my spandex days are over — at least that set of spandex.
Snowshoe premieres 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT on YouTube.
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