In 2005, Canadian-American actor Jesse Hutch got a phone call that asked him to leave his best friend Jason’s side, hours before Jason’s father’s funeral, to tape a screen test for Superman Returns. He refused to leave. So Jason became his reader, and together they shot the audition on a Hi-8 camera after director Bryan Singer gave him instructions. Jason’s favourite character, as it happened, was Superman.
Hutch just shared his tape on Instagram, twenty years later, and it is worth your time.
A screen test, for those unfamiliar with how Hollywood works, is not a regular audition. Hutch explains it himself: “That means you’re really, really, really, really close. Like, it’s down to a couple people.”
The footage, grainy Hi-8 video shot in what looks like a small room or basement, shows Hutch in a grey shirt, grey tie and black pants. He apologises before the scene even starts: “Sorry about the shoes. I don’t have any dress shoes with me right now.” He is wearing silver and black sneakers. Clark Kent, apparently, could not find his loafers either.
What follows is the classic Daily Planet introduction, Clark meeting Lois Lane and Perry White for the first time – as we saw in the final film. Hutch plays it with the right kind of bumbling charm. When Lois uses the word “swell” sarcastically, Clark tells her, “It sort of comes naturally to me, I guess.” The awkward warmth is there. The physicality is there. Watching it, you understand completely why he made it to the screen test stage.
Hutch also looks the part in a way that is genuinely hard to ignore. There is a strong Tom Welling quality to him, the same wholesome, broad-shouldered presence that carried Smallville through ten seasons. Brandon Routh eventually got the cape for Superman Returns, which was released in June 2006, but Hutch’s tape makes you wonder what could have been if they had gone with him instead.
The man has a career worth knowing about regardless of what happened in 2005. He was born in the same Canadian town as Marvel’s Wolverine, which his IMDb bio cheerfully notes. He drowned at 19. Fell from a 25-foot rock quarry in high school. At 21, he moved across the country alone to pursue acting, boarding a plane for the first time in his life to do it. Sounds a lot like Clark Kent, doesn’t it?
His credits since then include Freddy vs. Jason, The Butterfly Effect, Smallville, Arrow, Supernatural and Batwoman. He describes his own career as a “22-year overnight success story.” Still working on it, he says.
The Superman role went to someone else in 2005, and Hutch is clear-eyed about it. “It didn’t go my way, and it is what it is.” He posted the Clark Kent portion of the screen test first, with a second video coming that shows him playing Superman. His Instagram sign-off on the whole thing is hard not to like: “Some boats have sailed, but I hear they might be looking for a new Batman and Wolverine. Call me. I’m in.”
And you know what, looking at his physique and his jawline, he could definitely pull off those roles.
Part two of his audition tapes is coming. After watching part one, showing Jesse Hutch as Clark Kent, you will want to be there when the Superman tape drops.
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