Josh Duhamel is a superhero now. However that was by no means actually his plan.

The 48-year-old has performed nearly every thing, from motion (the Transformers motion pictures), to rom-coms (New 12 months’s Eve, When In Rome), to coming-of-age (Love, Simon), to TV (he bought his begin on the cleaning soap All My Kids earlier than breaking out in NBC’s Las Vegas). However he by no means noticed himself changing into a part of the latest increase in superpowered movie and tv.

“I wasn’t actually trying to do it,” he says over Zoom in April, because the solar shines by way of his kitchen home windows. “I by no means actually know what I need to do till I learn it, till one thing actually form of strikes me or speaks to me, and I actually liked this story. I assumed if I used to be ever going to do a superhero factor, it could have been 15 years in the past.”

The story he’s referring to is Jupiter’s Legacy, Netflix’s newest try to get in on—you guessed it—the superhero craze. Whereas the streaming large has tried its hand within the style earlier than (their model of a Marvel-verse included reveals like Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones), they by no means actually bought one to take off fairly like their flagship smash hit Stranger Issues or more moderen successes like The Queen’s Gambit. The hope is that Jupiter’s Legacy—based mostly on a comic book sequence by the nice Mark Millar (who wrote the comics that impressed the movies Kick-Ass and Logan)—could possibly be that hit.

DUHAMEL PLAYS Sheldon Sampson, the slow-aging patriarch of the super-powered household on the present’s middle who additionally goes by the id of The Utopian. The Utopian is outlined not by his powers—of which he mainly has all of the powers and worldwide admiration of Superman—however the various levels of fractured relationships he has with the members of his family; when he tries to steer a household dinner within the present’s first episode, his daughter (Elena Kampouris) reveals up late and below the affect.

The present presents Duhamel’s character—together with others performed by costars Leslie Bibb, Ben Daniels, and Matt Lanter—in two distinct eras: their superhero origin tales, coming simply after the inventory market crash in 1929, and the current, the place they showcase their 90-years-later growing old with some facial make-up and white hair and beard wigs.

That beard, we should always add, meant Duhamel needed to present as much as set daily at 6 A.M. to get it utilized to his face, his face lathered in moist glue. Mixed with prosthetic eyes, growing old make-up, his wig, and his supersuit, he remodeled each morning into The Utopian you see in Netflix’s eight episodes. Maybe this form of prolonged course of was a motive Duhamel hadn’t performed related tasks in recent times—however even this was rewarding. “It wasn’t my favourite, the applying of it, however I liked the way in which it made me really feel,” he says, including that placing on that new face and hair helped him really feel the character’s historical past. “The following factor , you’re feeling such as you’ve been by way of about 300 battles in your lifetime.”

Duhamel additionally mentions one thing else interesting about enjoying The Utopian: there’s by no means been a live-action Jupiter’s Legacy adaptation earlier than. “I did not must be in comparison with any person else who’d play The Utopian earlier than me, which might have been scary,” he says.

“There simply weren’t scenes in Transformers like there are in Jupiter’s Legacy,” he says. “There’s plenty of alternative as an actor and never simply an motion man.”

When considering of Duhamel in a serious, massive funds manufacturing, it’s arduous not to consider his first massive film position (with respect to his movie debut in rom-com aughts tentpole Win a Date with Tad Hamilton): in Michael Bay’s Transformers. He starred within the director’s 2007 franchise-starter, earlier than reprising that very same position in three sequels. Even moreso than Jupiter’s Legacy, Transformers was the venture that basically confirmed him, he says, what it’s prefer to work on a massive, massive film.

“Nothing actually compares to the Michael Bay manufacturing,” he says. “These issues are full on. That was straight up bombs and weapons going off. It was chaos daily, however actually, actually enjoyable to shoot.”

He says that Jupiter’s Legacy, in the meantime, is extra “organized,” and that when doing the Transformers motion pictures, he “felt like a tiny cog on this large machine.” And whereas the Transformers motion pictures gave him the possibility to see how these large blockbusters are made, the expertise on Jupiter gave extra of an opportunity to, properly, act.

“There simply weren’t scenes in Transformers like there are in Jupiter’s Legacy,” he says. “There’s plenty of alternative as an actor and never simply an motion man in Jupiter’s Legacy, which I totally recognize.”

A few of that chance is available in flashback scenes, as Sheldon goes by way of a psychological well being disaster.

Proper across the time of the inventory market crash, within the present’s first episode, Duhamel’s character, the pre-superpowered and a bit naive Sheldon, witnesses a very traumatic occasion that sends him spiraling. For a pair episodes, his character offers with the aftermath in a means that worries these round him. And Duhamel took the chance to essentially dive into that character second when the sequence referred to as for it.

“It took me an excellent week or two to form of come out of that, for the clouds to form of disappear,” he says. “As a result of I went to a darkish place for just a little bit, and it takes a toll on you. But additionally, what different job can you might have the place you are pressured to go to those locations mentally and you are not going to get truly put in a psych ward? You get to expel these things that you do not even know is in you. And that was what, for me, is actually cathartic.”

And, as Duhamel says, even when filming that a part of a narrative got here to a detailed, it took him just a little little bit of time to snap out of it within the aftermath. “I used to be like, “Okay, I may need to go see any person as a result of I am nonetheless feeling that,’” he says.

JUPITER’S LEGACY, in a means, seems like two separate motion pictures becoming like two sides of the identical coin. Whereas the present-day scenes are actually in that acquainted superhero style, the flashback scenes really feel like an journey story, nearer to the Brendan Fraser model of The Mummy or one thing set on Cranium Island.

However whether or not the present’s setting discovered Duhamel flying by way of the air combating dangerous guys, operating a metal mill in 1929, or on an journey spanning the seas and a mysterious island, the present did have one massive requirement: get in form. The solid was break up into three teams that might work out commonly in scheduled instances all through the day; Duhamel was grouped with Daniels, Bibb, and Lanter. And whereas he liked having the present make them work out—”When else am I ever going to be instructed I’ve to go to the health club at this time?” he says. “It is an effective way to remain in form, as a result of it’s important to.”—he’s additionally fast to notice that, properly, not every thing we see in these supersuits is totally actual.

“For me, as Josh, it is simple to get caught up in your work and exit and attempt to obtain, obtain, obtain,” he says. “However in case you’re not there as a gift guardian, on the finish of the day, what’s all of it for?”

“Clearly, the muscle go well with helps, if you get to place a muscle go well with on, after which the costume excessive of that,” he says. “It’s kind of emasculating if you take that muscle go well with off and also you understand what you truly seem like beneath that factor, however I was stronger than I have been in a very long time capturing this, that is for positive.”

However in the long run, the story of Jupiter’s Legacy is considered one of duality. And considered one of a life to return, and a life discovered. Most individuals gained’t be capable of replicate on their life selections 90 years later. However if you’re a superhero, and you’ve got a superhero spouse, and superhero kids, these are the alternatives you grapple with. And Duhamel sees that duality as one thing that’s extremely participating.

Beneath all of the vitality beams, muscle fits, and “superhero badassery,” he sees the story. And that story is considered one of a person so caught up with dwelling life by his code and attempting to assist the world at massive as a superhero, that he wasn’t as current as he might have been in elevating his youngsters, and that precipitated fractures. And when his youngsters begin diverting from his codes and recommendation—his daughter is rebellious and abuses substances, whereas his son desires to comply with in his father’s footsteps, however makes a key misstep of his code—the present kicks right into a excessive, nearly soapy gear.

Duhamel, father of a 7-year-old son, significantly pertains to that half.

“For me, as Josh, it is simple to get caught up in your work and exit and attempt to obtain, obtain, obtain,” he says. “However in case you’re not there as a gift guardian, on the finish of the day, what’s all of it for?”

The superhero style, in 2021, is at all times going to be crowded. However the place Jupiter’s Legacy is hoping to search out itself standing aside is by telling a relatable, human story. These folks have superpowers. This man might be about 130 years previous, has superpowers, and has a beard like he’s Zeus. However his battle—feeling like perhaps he wasn’t there all alongside for his household—is one thing that anybody who would possibly get too caught up of their work can relate to, whether or not they’ve bought a muscle go well with below their outfit or not.