ABOVE: Watch an interview with Robbie Amell on Global Toronto’s News at Noon.
TORONTO — When you look like Robbie Amell, you take your shirt off a lot.
“I’m shirtless in almost everything I do,” the 27-year-old actor said in an interview with Global News.
In the new movie Max he stays covered up in fatigues — and he won’t bare any skin in his next project, the family film Nine Lives.
“I’m keeping my clothes on, which is great. Maybe people are hiring me for more than that at this point.”
Amell has been working steadily on screen since 2005’s Cheaper by the Dozen 2, including starring roles in Life with Derek, True Jackson, VP and the short-lived The Tomorrow People.
He starred in this year’s comedy The Duff and plays Firestorm in the hit series The Flash.
In Max, the Canadian actor plays U.S. Marine Kyle Wincott, who serves in Afghanistan alongside the titular Belgian Malinois. It’s not a big role (no spoiler alert needed: Amell’s character dies at the beginning of the movie) but it’s one he took seriously.
“They shaved my head, fitted me for my army fatigues and put me in a mini bootcamp,” he recalled.
“I just got to hang out with these Marines, hear their stories. A lot of it was just us on patrol and how we would hold the gun and, you know, where you would rest it on your flack vest to keep the weight off your shoulders.
“I wanted it to feel as true as possible because the last thing you want is a service man or woman to watch the movie and go ‘oh there’s the actor.’ You want to do them justice.”
Amell and his fiancée, Canadian actress Italia Ricci, live in California but once he wraps Nine Lives in Montreal this summer, he’ll be back in Vancouver to start work on a sophomore season of The Flash.
His schedule means he won’t have much time to spend in his hometown Toronto.
“Toronto will always feel like home. I still have a ton of friends here,” he said. “I love going to see Jays games and Raptors games. I’m not quite a Leafs fan anymore. I’ve become a pretty diehard Kings fan — but Toronto will always be home for sure.”
Amell vowed to always make time for social media.
“It’s really amazing to get to talk to fans and hear their questions and comments,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky, I haven’t had a lot of hate … but of course there will always be a little bit of it. What’s really fun is when the fans come to my defence, which is pretty funny to read.
“I have some of the best fans in the world and I just thank them for reaching out and being so awesome.”
Amell said he and Ricci are able to have fairly normal lives despite their busy careers.
“People who are getting paparazzi-ed, for the most part, are looking for it,” he said. “We’ve got a nice little place and a good group of friends and everybody keeps us grounded.
“I’ve got a good family here in Toronto and great friends here in Toronto that wouldn’t let me become that celebrity that everybody hates — or at least I hope they wouldn’t. I hope that I wouldn’t. But I’m enjoying the work. I’m at an exciting time in my career and I’m having a lot of fun doing it.”
Amell said plans for their wedding next year are moving along nicely — even though Ricci is doing most of the work.
“I’m the guy who just says ‘yes, yes, yes.’ I figure I have like one or two vetoes and even then, if it’s something she really wants I’m sure I don’t,” he explained.
“She found her dress. We found our venue. I feel like we’re kind of ahead of the game. It’s very exciting.”
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