DC FanDome: Doom Patrol Panel Coverage

From DC FanDome to FanDOOM! Join the “world’s strangest heroes” — the Doom Patrol — for a deep-dive discussion into the beloved and bizarre series. The panel will feature executive producers Jeremy Carver and Chris Dingess, co-executive producer Tamara Becher-Wilkinson, and series stars Matt Bomer, Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Joivan Wade, Timothy Dalton, Karen Obilom, Abigail Shapiro, Riley Shanahan, and Matthew Zuk.

Host Christian Holub (Entertainment Weekly) starts the panel off by asking a few questions to the cast and crew!

Particularly those of you who were part of the show in Season 1. How did the experience of filming Season 2 differ from Season 1? Were you a little more used to the weirdness and ready to roll with the craziness? Or do you still find yourself getting caught off-guard by the things in the scripts?

Wade: First of all, you can never really get used to the craziness and the weirdness, because this show is so phenomenal and our team comes up with such amazing ideas. And we’re constantly looking for scripts as actors, and completely baffled as to how we can get crazier funkier, wilder in each episode. I think for me, personally, one of the best things was that we got to come back and do it all over again, and we have a family which we all resonate with and which we all now understand, and a show in a world which we don’t fully understand, but we’re getting to grips in this wacky and weird world. And so, yeah, you know, being able to come back and do it all over again, knowing what we’re getting ourselves into, was a big thing for me, definitely.

Well, I wanted to do the flip side of that and ask Roni and Abigail, since your characters are introduced to the show this season. What’s it been for you guys, navigating this weirdness, and have your co-stars made you feel any more at home?

Shapiro: It’s been really cool, actually. This is my first TV gig ever, so I’m just so grateful that I had such a great experience and everything, And to be working on this show in particular, I’ve gotten to do things I’ve always wanted to do as an actor. That’s been really cool. And I just had such a great time reading all of the scripts. They’re so well-written and insane and I couldn’t wait to read the next one.

Obilom: Same, I mean, those scripts are just insane. I was like, “How are we gonna film this?” I love that my character also is like a sliver of normalcy. It kind of gives you a break from all the wackiness. I feel bad for taking Cyborg away from his friends, but, hey, she needs love. It was for a good reason, Roni.

Guerrero: Yeah, we’ve seen and liked every scene you guys are in.

Obilom: In the bed.

Guerrero: In the bed.

Obilom: In the bed all the time.

You know, even though so much happened in Season 1, in Season 2, we’re really digging in even more on some of these characters. Learning things about their backstories, especially. You know Larry and Rita come to mind. As characters, we’re learning a little bit more about their family relationships and things before they joined the Doom Patrol. I’m just curious, you know, Jeremy, Chris, Tamara, what kind of conversations did you guys have with the actors going into Season 2 about how the characters are gonna develop or what more we’re learning about them?

Carver: Well, I mean, first, as the writing crew, we’re going through for several weeks and we’re figuring out character arcs and such, and then, I sat down with each of these folks and sort of walked them through what their arc was looking like for the season, just so they have an idea, because nutty stuff, I guess you could say, happens during the course of this season, and you want them to see the grounded arc that’s actually coursing through all of the craziness, and just to give them a strong basis to start the season and get an understanding of beginning, middle and end to the extent that we know it. That’s what we try and do every season with the cast, to the extent that we know the answers. Just so they can have a little bit of a roadmap for themselves.

Well, of one of the big things carrying us from the end of Season 1 into the new season, is that at the end of Season 1, we learned that Niles, the Chief, who all the characters saw as some kind of parental or father figure, that he was, in fact, responsible for a lot of the stuff that’s happened to them. The one-two-punch of that is that we also have met Dorothy, who is kind of his justification for all those things he’s done as ways to protect her. That kind of carries through this season, I think, the team is kind of processing that. And I’m curious, Timothy, did that change your performance at all, that this character is really in a position now where he has to be asking for forgiveness and leniency, maybe a little more than he’s used to?

Dalton: Well, depends what you mean. I think that performance changes all the time. It’s an organic thing. In one situation you’ll behave one way, and in another situation you’ll behave in a completely different way. Which is good. It brings texture and depth. The new is excellent. Surprise is excellent. And we get plenty of surprises on this show.

Definitely, yeah. I’ll throw to Diane, because Jane is a character who seems to have relied on the Chief a little bit for being a grounded presence in her life, despite the horrible history she has with parenting. Not being able to rely on the Chief, how has that changed Jane’s decision-making this season? 

Guerrero: She’s relied on the Chief a lot, and I think that we see that starts to change even in first season, so, she decides to rely on other methods to cope, and you see where that gets her and then eventually, she sees that she needs this family. I mean, as she starts to empathize with everyone else’s trauma as well. And she seems that it’s not just her who’s having all of these, or going through this emotional roller coaster on her own. She sees that maybe the Chief is not her primary source of protection. I think she starts relying on the team.

And, of course, the Chief is far from the only parental figure in a lot of these characters’ lives. They’ve kind of inherited some messed up things from their parents, which we see this season. And so I’m curious, April, Joivan, Abigail, can you guys speak at all to kind of how your characters are reckoning with their parental relationships and what they’ve been left by their parents?

Bowbly: I think Rita suffers from imposter syndrome. And I think her whole life, being informed that her mother got her these jobs by doing lewd acts, she doesn’t know where she stands, she doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. And so, it’s informed her decisions and that’s why in Season 1, she’s such a narcissistic person, because she’s protecting that idea that she has of herself that she’s not worth anything. And so in Season 2, she starts to let her guard down. She starts to actually look at her past and see the damage that the parental figure in her life has caused, and she claims it. And so, she starts to see these powers as not a weakness, but an ability that she can use. And instead of getting stressed out, now she starts using it to stretch and to grow, and the only way she can do that is to look at her damage and to acknowledge it and grow past it.

Wade: I think Vic Stone is helping her to control that… work out that element. Not to take any credit for it, guys. He’s helping her maintain her gloop. And I think for Vic, the biggest thing is, for him, is that Niles was essentially a father figure to him. And I really look at Silas as more of a parental guardian than a father or than a dad. The relationship between Vic and Silas is very much a relationship that warrants progress, as opposed to actually looking at the emotional wellbeing of Vic. And that’s a constant back and forth, hence why Vic decides to stay with the Doom Patrol. He’s now got a family, you know, he doesn’t… He hasn’t felt, especially since the accident, that he has a family, you know. And that’s why he’s seeking for that and goes off, and is against it at first, but once he does come around to come in and meet the Doom Patrol, he starts to fill and see that void, which is starting to be filled from a family, which he doesn’t essentially feel like he has, which allows him to be more open and to see what all of the other gang are doing and how they’re dealing with what they’ve gone through, which encourages him to start to take on his PTSD. Hence, him now leaving the Doom Patrol in Season 2 to grow up, essentially.

Shapiro: Niles is the only person who’s really taken care of her for all these decades, so she loves him so much. But throughout this season, she realizes that he’s not necessarily the person she thought he was. And he’s locked her away for so long, so she’s missed out on the world. She realizes that her father isn’t perfect and nobody really is. And her father just doesn’t want to see her grow up.

I’m so glad to have Matthew and Riley on this call, because I want to shine a spotlight on what you guys do on the show, as the on-set performers for Negative Man and Robotman. Could you guys just talk a little bit about how, in general, you physically perform these characters and kind of imbue these personalities and themes of the show, even to their movements. Matthew and Matt, if you guys wanna talk about your collaboration off of that.

Zuk: Collaborating with Matt has been really cool because he’s just been so open and like… We have conversations about what the character’s feeling and what the relationship is to this person, like John in the first season. And just how we think overall things are affecting Larry with the spirit in the relationship. So, it’s very open and communicative thing where we get to really get into the nitty-gritty of what we’re feeling. And then, you know, the way I like to come at it is, you know, your body holds your emotion. And so, it’s just kind of like you try to think about how you would witness your emotions every day and how you witness an emotion in another person, and then you just find where that lives in your body and that becomes kind of like the posture, the speed, the rhythm. All of that goes into portraying that. I have had a lot of help, too, because I have neutral mask. So, the facial expression kind of assumed, almost, from the posture I give it, from the rhythm, from the speed. And all of that is so easily informed by what the writing says and what these relationships are and you can… It really is just like you’re just acting, right? But then you’re thinking about it in terms of… Instead of, “How do I say this line?” it’s like, “How do I make sure that this physicality aligns with the way that the line I think would be said?” And then it’s just like,
“Okay, now I take it to Matt and trust that he knows exactly what he’s doing,” and of course he does, because it’s magic when it comes together in the way that the synergy hits, it’s just like… It’s great.

Bomer: Yeah, what I love about this job is it is a true collaboration with another artist on the role. It’s not a one-sided mandate. We’ll have a discussion, sometimes I’ll lay down an initial track, but Matthew’s so brilliant. What he finds on set physically is oftentimes so inspiring to me, that I’ll go in and kind of vibe off of what he does, so it really is a back and forth. And I’m just so lucky that I get to work with him on the role.

Shanahan: Like, when you put on the suits that LJ Shannon and Creative Character Engineering built, they’re just so beautiful and they have this kind of enigmatic thing where Matt and I’s job is to breathe life into this beautiful… In my example of Robotman, he’s just a husk of a thing. You see him on the side and you’re like, “Whoa! That’s amazing,” but all of a sudden, you know, when you’re in it, it’s like, how to, yeah, organize your body, you know? And then, similarly, to the Matts, the Matt squared situation. With Brendan and I, I always try to think about it, where I’m like, “Okay, I’m not necessarily making choices Riley would make, right? I’m acting through a Brendan Fraser filter.” So something I started doing accidentally early in my process was, I don’t know, I started rewatching Brendan Fraser movies, man. And, you know, watching The Mummy, like, “Beni! What the…hey!” you know? And I started doing a mimic of him, and it just feels like it comes together. And we also, on top of that, Brendan and I, I feel like I have to… I’d be remiss if I didn’t share it here. We went to the same 900-person arts college, had the same mentor while we were there,and we both have the same birthday. Wow. If I wrote this in a book or a play or a show or something, you’d be like, “That’s hackney, that’s fake.” But it’s just like… This is life. It’s wild.

Zuk: I want to piggy-back off to what Riley said about the costumes, too, because, like… I mean, for every actor, I’m sure they’ll all agree, your costume informs a performance so much. The way that you move and all of that type of stuff is always a factor in the character, but I think even more so with these things. It’s like, Riley, you have to move a certain way in some situations because of the bulk and the size and the weight of that. And the same thing with me, it’s like some things… And Joivan as well, with his sight and things like that, it’s like some things you… You’re kind of like, “Well, this is how I would have to be in this situation.” And then it informs and becomes almost a character, an emotional choice, well, “How does this work and now, how can I make this work for this scene in the moment?” And it really is like the costumes are such a helpful, incredible part of what we do.

Bomer: I realized early on, though, that Matthew and I were gonna need separate costumes because the first… At first, we only had one. We had to share it. And the first time I wore it, it was a stunt scene and I had to duck and it tore from the ass down to the ankle. And I realized I may have a little bit more kadonkadonk than Matthew has down there. So they’re gonna need a second suit for sure.

Awesome. Well, we mentioned a little bit earlier Cyborg and Roni kind of having some alone time this season. Even more than their personal stuff, I’ve been very interested by the conversations they’re having with each other about what justice looks like and how much of justice is about punishment. You know, punishing criminals, punishing people in a relationship who lie to you, versus forgiveness and giving people a second chance. So there’s a lot going on in their interactions. What do you guys like about exploring?

Obilom: I think it’s beautiful that we get to have these nice, intimate moments in the middle of the world about to end. I’m really in love with Cyborg and Roni, because they’re so different in the way they think about things, but at the same time, they’re so similar, like their trauma is very similar. I mean, they met at a trauma group for crying out loud. So I just love that they’re kind of like opposites attract. And she’s teaching Cyborg a different way to go through things. And they both have a genuine heart, but they may have, you know, done things in the past that obviously are different. But I think it’s what… It’s the genuineness of their heart is what brings them together, because they’re both good people. It’s just Roni has done some things,
and she knows it. So I just think that it’s a beautiful act of Black love. You don’t see that a lot. And I just think it’s a nice surprise
to see in the Doom Patrol. Like, you wouldn’t expect it. Like, these two Black, beautiful people are just loving on each other, and that’s really important to me. And I just… I mean, I love
that he producers decided to do that, and I’m always grateful for that, so I just think their story is incredible.

Wade: The reputation was a huge thing for me and seeing that Black love on screen. And also, an access point for Vic seeing Roni as a… What is the closest reflection for Vic in terms of seeing someone else, you know? I can look at robotman all day long, but it’s not exactly a direct reflection. But when it comes to Roni, and seeing someone in which, has experienced very similar things or, you know, has an outward appearance of something which is so similar to Vic, he relates on another level. And I feel like even being amongst Doom Patrol and seeing what these characters have been through, that was one level of entry. But then meeting and being able to come into a relationship with Roni allowed Vic to really start to see a mirror reflection of himself and start to learn to love himself more. I think that that’s one of the biggest things that I feel like Vic gets from that relationship. And then, you know, we all know that only when we love ourselves do we get to love others, and so it allows him to express outwardly for that connection with Roni. And it’s just so beautiful to, yeah, you know, play alongside Karen, who is phenomenal as you all can see. And, yeah, we had a great conversation about how this was gonna physically work when it came to knowing that Cyborg was gonna get down. But we cracked it.

So I wanted to throw to some of the absolute craziest most colorful characters, which I would say are probably Jane and Dorothy who are a little similar in terms of… Their power both gives them access to different allies, whether it’s personalities inside themselves or these imaginary friends. Recently, we’ve seen them kind of bump up against each other a little bit in the show. So, I’m just curious for Diane and Abigail, you know, how do you guys think that Jane and Dorothy see each other? Do they see each other as possible sisters, friends or rivals?

Guerrero: I think that there’s a lot of similarities there. Jane was very, very attached to the Chief. And you see some of the different personas have different relationships with Chief as well, especially Baby Doll. Where we saw Dorothy and Baby Doll have that connection, and then saw some life-changing things for the both of them, that caused them to make some major decisions. I love that relationship there, because we both… I care about Dorothy. I care about the fact that she is a little girl. And I think that Jane understands what it is to feel trapped. And what it feels like to be deceived, and locked away, or traumatized. And so, I think that she is empathetic towards Dorothy. And, of course, they have that connection to the Chief. And I think looking at it from a family aspect, they’re very much like sisters. Because when you look at a sister relationship, there’s that fighting, and you get that fight between Dorothy and Baby Doll. And these are two little girls with these powerful destructive powers they have really no control over. So when you put them two together, of course sisters fight. I fight with my sister all the time. When we’re home, we pull at
each other’s hair and stuff like that. So, when you put two girls together with these powers, it’s not gonna necessarily always end up well. I was like, “What?” Baby Doll was like,
“Yeah, that’s why everyone hates him.” I’m like, “Jesus!” That scene turned out so creepy.

Next up, the cast and crew answer fan questions!

Was the writers’ room a no-bad-idea sort of a space? Because there seem to be no limits on the Doom Patrol show and I absolutely love it.

Becher-Wilkinson: I feel like it’s an only-bad-ideas space. And just case in point, I wrote an episode where the villain descends on a crowd in a giant butt balloon. And that made it to film, so…

Would the Doom Patrol ever acknowledge themselves as the Doom Patrol?

Dingess: Just from my perspective in the writers’ room, I try to never think of this show necessarily as a superhero show. But I would think if you had superpowers, it would be impossible for that not to cross your mind. Whether it’s “Steele & Stone” or Rita trying to master her powers, I think that might be in the back of everyone’s minds, but I think they’re a long way off from being able to get their own…together, to worry about other people’s problems.

Carver: Chris, way to plug your own episodes there, that was very good.

Dingess: I don’t know any of the other episodes. I just focus on me.

I love Doom Patrol for being so bizarre with the wild adventures they go on, but to me, the show hits the highest points with the theme of mental health, being the characters have such traumatic origins. What have you learned from your characters and what does mental health mean to you as actors?

Guerrero: Well, just destigmatizing mental health is so important, I think. And it’s something that is super underrated. I love that our show does that. And I love that it’s not just… At first, I kind of went into thinking it was just gonna be Crazy Jane, because she has all these personalities and she has DID, but then, you see that it’s all of us. And I really think that speaks to a lot of people, because we all really do, as human beings, need mental health. It’s important for us in our day-to-day. It’s important for our survival. Jane has certainly taught me a lot about the self-care that I need and not to just blow something off like, “Oh, well, whatever, I’m sad, it’s not important.” It is important. And it’s important to take care of yourself and it’s important to make sure that we give that value for everyone. Nothing is too little or too big. And we never stop growing. We’re all like… On the show, we’re like, a hundred years old or something or plus. Dorothy. So, we see that we just never stop growing, and it’s never too late to heal. In fact, it’s imperative. Wow!