Devin Ratray is the man who most would recognize as being Buzz from Home Alone. Nearly 20 years post Home Alone fever we find Devin is a humble and funny man who is on top of his game co-starring in the thrilling new Bruce Willis film 'Surrogates' which hits theaters on September 25th.

Eric Stromsvold: Can you tell us about Surrogates?

Devin Ratray: Yes indeed. It's more than just a Sci-Fi thriller; it's really an exploration into human behavior and what keeps us human and what separates us from being apathetic mindless robots.

We've implemented robots in a modern day world to lead our lives while we stay at home in these stim chairs and we control the robots. We feel what they feel, except pain and fear. So we go off on these younger, modified versions of ourselves -- or who we want to be younger -- and we lead our lives vicariously through these robots which actually go out and experience the experiences that we do without the hindrance of fear or pain.

And I guess something goes wrong with that because the lead character 'Greer' who is an FBI Agent played by Bruce Willis has to leave the safety of his stim chair and go back out into reality again.

Something does go wrong; there's the first homicide in 15 years in Boston through one surrogate. You usually get disconnected right before anything bad or dangerous happens [and] somehow that went wrong.

Can you tell us about your character?

I'm the only human in the movie actually. I'm the only one who does not have a surrogate who works for the law enforcement agencies. It's mandated that all police forces and soldiers are all surrogates so that we were not losing lives when we send these surrogates out into the field. I'm head of surveillance for the FBI's Surrogate Division and I never had a surrogate done for me.

The only line that they ever refer to it is that "they couldn't find a machine to handle a brain as big as mine" which I didn't argue with. (Laughing) So, aside from a small resistance group I'm the only human in the film. I track all the surrogates in Boston in this huge cavernous office with banks and banks of video monitors where I can actually see through the eyes of what the surrogate sees.

How did you get involved with the film?

I was lucky enough to audition for it back in February of last year and forgot all about it. Then a couple of months later I got the call that I got the job. First time I had ever auditioned without a call back or anything.

That's great.

It was, yeah.

I heard that John Hughes had a hand in discovering you. Is this true?

Well, he discovered that I'd be the perfect guy for Buzz [in Home Alone]. I had shot Little Monsters (w/ Howie Mandel & Fred Savage) two or three years before I'd ever met him and I had been shooting films since I was six.

Home Alone had become the absolute biggest film I had ever done and it became the third highest grossing film of all time. So clearly it had an effect on me that is unparalleled to any other film experience in my childhood. This film, everybody, I mean everybody saw this film and had an opinion about it. Not that many people saw Little Monsters though.

Do you still get recognized on the street from being Buzz?

Oh yeah, all the time. Seriously, it happens quite frequently.

How do you handle that?

Well, I've had a lot of practice. People don't believe it a lot of times. Some people recognize it right away and then usually those people will tell their friends who are with them and refuse to believe it.

So I go through a lot of "yeah it's me" and then "oh you're lying, shut up" and then I say "okay, I don't really want to get into an existential argument over who I am really when I'm still searching myself." But they always have these shocked, positive expressions or reactions. They really can't believe that it's this character that they grew up with. It's a mind trip for most people.

I've heard people referring to the adult version of you as being the next John Candy. How do you feel about the comparisons to John Candy?

I'm more comfortable with Brad Pitt. It's sort of who I relate myself more to.

How do you relate to Brad Pitt more?

Well, I mean, it's kind of obvious. Put a mirror up to the both of us.

So do you think you'll have a role as Mr. Smith's twin in the sequel of Mr. & Mrs. Smith?

Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Uncle Fred - his fraternal twin and secret agent. We could really make it work.

(Laughing) Getting back to Surrogates, how would you describe the film in one of two sentences?

Surrogates: in a very near future world we have acquired the capacity to live life vicariously through robotic versions of our better selves. Through it we start to live lives of apathy and start to lose the core of who we are as humans…and there's helicopter chases!!!



Did you get to be in any of the helicopters?

No, I never actually even stand up in the movie which was unfortunate. I'm always behind a desk.

What do you think was the reason for your character always being behind a desk and never even standing up at a monitor?

Just showing that I clearly lived in this world of monitoring other surrogates.

Surrogates hits theaters September 25th!


Story by Eric Stromsvold

Starpulse contributing writer