‘DC’s Stargirl’: Trae Romano Breaks Down Mikey’s Big Episode

On screen, DC’s Stargirl‘s Mikey (Trae Romano) is usually a bit of a goofball. He makes chocolate volcanos, he sasses his own father (Luke Wilson) like they’re mismatched roommates in a sitcom… But deep down, all Courtney Whitmore’s (Brec Bassinger) step-bro wants is to be liked, and accepted. And on this week’s episode, “Summer School: Chapter Three,” he finally got his chance thanks to Jim Gaffigan’s magical genie, the Thunderbolt.

“That was so fun to do that knowing that Jim’s voice would be [the Thunderbolt],” Romano told Decider. “I was holding myself to a higher standard.”

In the hour, Mikey unlocks the power of the Thunderbolt’s pink pen prison, and quickly realizes the imp is less of a power, and more of a responsibility. Ultimately, though Mikey wants to step up and be a part of the Justice Society of America (JSA) he finds that the Thunderbolt is too much for him. And as a result, he accidentally wishes the pen away, where it ends up with Mikey’s paper route buddy, Jakeem (Alkoya Brunson). More on that later, but in the meantime Mikey has a long journey towards figuring out what kind of hero he really is; and the answer isn’t an all-powerful genie.

To find out more about the episode, we talked to Romano — who isn’t anything like his on-screen character, by the way — about working with director Lea Thompson, with a CGI genie, and what’s coming down the road over the rest of Season 2.

Decider: I’ll admit, I’ve been a little worried about Mikey this season. He’s barely been eating any candy at all. Is he doing okay?

Trae Romano: [Laughs] No, actually, Mike is not doing okay. I think he needs a therapy session. Honestly, he’s just hanging in there.

Mikey’s big thing this season seems to be that he’s on the outside, he’s trying to fit in, he’s trying to figure out what his place is. What was it like playing that specific mode for the character?

It was terrific. I tell [showrunner] Geoff [Johns] this all the time, but every time I get a new episode, his character is constantly evolving. Like one thing that could be important to him, one episode, just either means nothing to him next, or he realizes that he wants something different. A constantly ever-changing character is really fun, because he went from this annoying stepbrother in season one, and he’s slowly kind of segueing out of that into being a little bit more introspective and deeper.

We can see in Episode 3, we finally get him out of the house, we finally get to see what his social standing is… Mike’s character is like pulling back the layers of an onion, you really fine out more about him all the time. What Mike wants is to be in the JSA and to be accepted. It’s really kind of depressing. But you know, as we go along, in Episode 3, once you finally get the opportunity to be a superhero, and he finally gets that power, then he screws up, and he realizes that maybe he’s not capable.

So it’s a real internal conflict for Mike this season. There’s not much outside going against him except Pat, I guess. But it’s really an internal cost that he’s debating with himself. Am I worthy of this? Or am I not? And it really tears him apart, honestly.

Yolanda is definitely struggling over having killed Brainwave. But Mikey, as far as we’ve seen, seems mostly okay, having run over Icicle and turning him into ice cubes. Does he regret killing him at all?

He definitely does regret killing him. But we also get to see that scene with Mike and Yolanda, when they’re on the porch. And I think that’s really the most that Mike has ever let on about feeling guilty. When he says it was an accident, I didn’t mean to, that’s his way of saying that, “I feel like crap. And I can’t believe I killed someone,” to Yolanda because that’s really the only person that he can open up to. Because he knows that she’s also dealing with something herself.

Mike, it’s gonna take some time for him to really reconcile with that. There’s episodes later, Episode 9, directed by Andi [Armaganian]. And it covers all of that. It’s an episode with Hunter Sansone.

But I don’t think Mike ever will explicitly admit that he didn’t want to kill Icicle because he feels that that’s the only good thing that he’s ever done. And he’s afraid to admit that it’s an accident, so it’s really kind of bittersweet for him because I’m sure that he feels important and  appreciated for that little bit. But even down to that, he doesn’t know if he is capable of handling a superhero position in his life.

Obviously the Thunderbolt is not there on set, so what was it actually like to film with the genie?

I was a little bit concerned going into it, because, right when I got Episode 3, [director] Lea Thompson hit me up and she was like, “you know what, let’s read over this script as much as you want to to make it as comfortable as it can be for you because this is Mike’s episode. This is the episode that sets up Mike for the rest of the series, and we just wanted to make it perfect.” So I was collaborating with Lea from the get go. It was very comfortable for me.

On the day when we were doing those scenes with the genie,  there was a prop, a little stick with a tennis ball on it, I was using him as my eyeline. And we did that for a little bit, and Lea being the hyperactive, amazing, very physical director that she is, she was acting out all the movements for me. It was amazing, because I could really get to visualize it. She was like, when the genie is over here, you do this. It was choreographed, but it wasn’t necessarily really choreographed, I still had some room to play around.

After the first few takes of having the tennis ball on the stick, I was like, “I think I got it memorized,” and we absolutely banged through that scene. I actually surprised myself on how much I remembered, because it was, you know, move here, Genie goes over here to the right level. Every time I would do it, I was like, I can’t believe I got through it. There’s a lot to remember and I’m just talking to this imaginary being, at the same time, dancing around… it’s just a really weird feeling. And I know that a lot of other people like Anjelika [Washington], who plays that. They have to deal with that, because, and she is speaking to the [Dr. Mid-Nite] goggles, and she’s always having to look at things that aren’t there. I’m not the first to do it, but it was definitely a lot more physical than 90% of the other stuff. But we got through it, honestly, could not have gone through without Lea.

I imagine this came later, but have you heard or did you get to hear Jim Gaffigan, his take on the character, and how potentially, will that inform how you’ll approach interacting with the Thunderbolt going forward?

I’ve always loved Jim Gaffigan. My father, since I was very young, always made me watch every Sunday Morning with him on. And you know, he always has his bits on Sunday Morning. I’ve also watched all of his comedy specials, like on Netflix and stuff like that. So I could perfectly envision how it would sound, and I was trying to match that energy. But actually, one of the ADRs a couple weeks ago, I heard Jim’s voice, and I was like, “that’s just so amazing, it’s such a perfect fit.”

But yeah, that was so fun to do that knowing that Jim’s voice would be [the Thunderbolt], I was holding myself to a higher standard because I’m not the most energetic person on the planet, and it takes a while for me to really be energized. It was a tiring few days because, like I said, I was just trying to match Jim’s energy for the Thunderbolt in addition to doing all this choreography, but eventually it did come out pretty well.

The fight scene with The Shade that happens later on, what was it like filming that scene in particular? And what does Jonathan Cake add to the dynamic of a cast?

Jonathan Cake is one of the most talented actors that I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. When he had that full monologue before I came barging in, I remember myself listening so intently because that’s how captivating it was. I forgot my cue, once or twice, I was just listening word for word what he was saying because I was so interested in it, because it was such a captivating performance. And then I would come in a beat late.

But Jonathan Cake adds so much to it because there’s this overwhelming presence of seniority that Luke [Wilson] has as well, but it’s completely different. Every scene that Luke and Jonathan are in, is absolutely magic. They’re so fun to watch, two veterans that know exactly how to play off each other and come at completely different roles.

Luke always adds in those little sarcastic little bits, and then Jonathan always counteracts them with his snarky comments, it works perfectly. We’re so lucky to have Jonathan, and it was fun working with them because like I said, my addition to that scene where we’re all sitting and having tea is so fun to me. I really just barged in with a notepad, and we all had a great time.

Geoff Johns was telling me that you have some great stuff coming up with Alkoya Brunson, who we finally met briefly this episode. What can we expect when Mikey and Jakeem get together?

It’s a really funny perspective that Geoff has added. Jakeem really gets introduced to see Episode 10 or 11, or something like that. And, we probably have two or three full episodes together. I share all my scenes with Jakeem in the season later on, just with him. The way Geoff describes it, which I thought was hysterical, he was like, in Season 1, Mike was just pissing everyone off the whole season, and now Jakeem comes into play and she keeps pissing Mike off. So it’s really like Mike took on the role of Pat, and Jakeem is Mike. It’s really funny, because you get to see a lot of Pat’s mannerisms and things that Pat says, channeling through Mike. It almost is like this weird way of Mike understanding what Pat was going through. When Mike is saying “Jakeem don’t touch this, don’t do this. Like, look, you got a lot of responsibility, you have to do this.” He’s walking him through how to use Thunderbolt and how much responsibility that he has in the JSA. And it is also reminiscent of what Pat always used to tell Mike.

And yeah, Alkoya and I had a great time on set, because both of our characters are completely opposite. So it’s really filled in that levity that Mike and Pat had in the first season. … Though it’s mostly comedic, there’s a few really great dramatic parts in some of their scenes, because they’re both very lonely people, is the bottom line, and that’s kind of why they become such good friends.

We got to see Ethan Embry as Johnny Thunder in the episode. Are we going to see you interacting with him?

Not directly, unfortunately. But you know, he does do a terrific job and I did actually get to watch one of his scenes with Luke, which was amazing. Maybe later on like in Season 3 or something like that, but I didn’t have any scenes with him.

We know Cindy Burman is gunning for Mikey, and Meg Delacy said that she’s going use Mikey as a pivot point to get at Courtney. What can you tease about that?

Meg and I share a hysterical episode actually, episode 2×06, where Meg’s character really does corner Mike. He reads the situation completely wrong, he thinks that she’s trying to recruit him, but really, she’s just using him for bait. Her character is so innately funny. And Mike’s character is so innately a comedic character. So these two characters that seem like they should not interact, they do, and it’s just hysterical because the stakes are high. Michael is really anxious and antsy and afraid and paranoid. I had a great time on Episode 206. That’s a fun little dynamic that was overlooked for the last season, but now finally they’re using it. So yeah, we had a really great time and it turned out really well.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

DC’s Stargirl airs Tuesdays at 8/9c on The CW.

Where to watch DC's Stargirl