Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan Talk Supergirl

Mehcad Brooks (Jimmy Olsen) and  Jeremy Jordan (Winslow Schott) of Supergirl, spoke with Comic Book Resources on their characters, how they differ and are alike to their comic book counter parts, among other things that’ll be taking place with them on the CBS television series.

Jeremy Jordan on his character of Winslow Schott:

CBR News: Jeremy, you don’t look quite like the Winslow Schott we know from the comic books.

Jeremy Jordan: [Laughs] No? Well, it’s more inspired. And I think pretty soon in the series you’ll understand why. Can’t really say anything to that.

Is there a reason you have that particular name?

Jordan: Exactly. But yeah, no, it’s not like he’s the red-headed, jolly, weird-clothing-wearing Toyman. Certainly, that’s not how we meet him. And he certainly has a different backstory. But it’s equally as exciting. As we’re sort of getting into a few episodes, it’s becoming more and more clear. It’s one of those things like, “Oh, I see: My character shares the name of this thing… Oh, I wonder what that means?” But there’s literally no indication of it, so I’m learning along with the audience.

Mehcad Brooks on his character of Jimmy Olsen:

Mehcad, you get to reinvent a genuine comic book icon. What’s fun about figuring out how you want to be true to the spirit of Jimmy Olsen, and how you want to make him your own?

Brooks: I mean, it’s a fine line of walking between your own artistic take on it and also respecting 75 years of fandom. So at first, especially during the pilot, there was a lot of pressure and it was difficult for me, and I was sort of putting it on myself, actually, being a comic book fan/nerd myself, if I might say so. But with Greg Berlanti, Ali Adler, and Sarah Schechter and Andrew Kreisberg’s sort of stamp in saying “The decisions you’re making are right,” it was that support that really helped me.

So I think that a lot of people have opinions about characters that they’ve grown to love over the years, and they have the right to have these opinions. But it doesn’t mean that the inception of the character came along in a time when society was being fair to everybody. So just us embarking on the correction of some social and racial inequities in the past, I think, is a strong statement for our society.

To read the full interview head over to ComicBookResources.com