‘Doom Patrol’: Diane Guerrero Is Exploring a Brand New Side of Jane in Season 4

Jane (Diane Guerrero) is going through some big changes on this season of HBO Max’s Doom Patrol. Mostly cut off from the personalities she ostensibly leads as part of the collective mindscape known as The Underground, and told by her host body Kay that she needs to figure out who she is on her own, Jane has been on a journey of self-discovery in Season 4.

“There’s so much to explore with Kay, I was excited to explore Jane, as well,” Guerrero told Decider. “It finally happened in such a way that was so personal, self-expression, self-actualization, and finding your identity. One of those was a very intimate, was Jane sort of discovering her sexuality and what that meant in context with being one of the personalities of Kay, especially one that came to protect her at a time that was so sensitive, like at a time when Kay’s body was experiencing sexual abuse.”

Spoilers for today’s episode “Youth Patrol” past this point, but things get even deeper and more introspective, as an accidental spell causes the team to mentally and semi-physically return to their teen years. Thanks to some party drugs and a conversation with friends, Jane starts to realize that the feelings that sparked with (sort of) villain The Fog (Wynn Everett) in Season 3, and are haunting her thanks to some mysterious puzzle pieces in Season 4, may be something deeper.

To find out more from Guerrero about Jane’s arc this season, the romance with The Fog, and what — if anything — the cast knows about Season 5 given everything going on in DC movies and TV, read on:

Decider: I’m really enjoying your arc this season, with Jane figuring out her identity separate from Kay. What was it like digging into this?

Diane Guerrero: I was so excited to finally get to this place. I always felt like it was going to happen. I just didn’t know… After three seasons you’re like, “okay, I guess…” Because there’s so much to explore with Kay, I was excited to explore Jane, as well. It finally happened in such a way that was so personal, self-expression, self-actualization, and finding your identity. One of those was a very intimate, was Jane sort of discovering her sexuality and what that meant in context with being one of the personalities of Kay, especially one that came to protect her at a time that was so sensitive, like at a time when Kay’s body was experiencing sexual abuse.

I started this character understanding that a very big part of Jane’s mission was to be closed off from any of those feelings, and any self-discovery. To see her live it, when they turn into teenagers, when they are experiencing that moment in their lives, which Jane never got to experience, and then to figure out what your purpose is, it was really exciting to play that side of the character.

There’s a really great moment in today’s episode where she talks about she’s essentially a new person. You say you’ve been playing that from the beginning, or at least aware of that. How much has that played in, and how much does that change the character going forward for you?

It’s changed so much. I think that her allowing herself to feel her own feelings and not restrict them adds so much color and life to the character. That has actually been a lot of fun for me because I came in, like I said, very like, “Okay, what she was experiencing was being very closed off, having this huge wall in front of her, even though she had such a vivid emotional life.” Underneath all of that was a person who had all of this stuff inside of her but didn’t allow herself to feel those things. I think that the season is a lot like… Jane’s a lot more fun. I think she’s less predictable, I don’t think about where the character is going so much. Sure, she’s going to say fuck a bunch, but I think that you see a different side of her, which is really delightful.

The Underground has been mostly absent this season, at least in the first six episodes. What’s it been like working without that support system; both for Jane, and for you, Diane?

We know it’s there. We know that right now we don’t have any answers. For me, it’s interesting trying to find like “What the hell am I doing up here?” When we’re in these group scenes and everybody just has such a huge stake on the world ending, Jane is kind of like, “Well, I don’t give a shit if the world ends. I just care about Kay and Kay’s world not ending, so I’m going to take care of that. Fine, I’ll go along for the mission.” That always felt interesting to me until this season, when I didn’t have access to the Underground. I actually did have to be a part of what was going on, and not be solely about Kay, but actually have some interest in what was going on with the others. That has always been it. It’s just expressed, and this season you get to see that expression.

You mentioned about Jane exploring her sexuality… A few episodes back there was that scene where The Fog surrounds her, she has a fog induced orgasm. And then this week she seems to be exploring this possibility with Shelley again… What was it like playing that storyline, and how much of a hand did you have in crafting it?

I didn’t have a hand. I had a hand in crafting some of it, but I had no idea that it was going there. We saw a little bit of Jane being interested by The Fog, or her and The Fog having a connection in the third season. That was the groundwork for what was to come. But I didn’t have anything to do with that. I was just happy that Jane was getting to paint some new colors.

There was palpable chemistry between the two of you in the last season. I imagine that’s what they were playing off of. What was it like developing this further?

Well, I think that many people come into your life that you have a connection with. We saw in third season that Jane allowed herself to be moved by someone like The Fog in a way that she had never experienced before. I liked that that’s introduced again. Jane now takes it one step further to see… But she only takes it one step further because Kay told her, or says that that’s what she wants. In a way it’s part of her mission to, I guess, discover herself in new ways, so that she can figure out how she could best be useful to Kay. I don’t think she fully… I don’t think Jane fully understands this is that this is solely for her, but she goes along with it and then the body does the rest. You can’t help what your body wants. That’s interesting storytelling right there.

For me, it was great to play. It was a little embarrassing, because I have never done anything like that in front of the camera. I actually haven’t really done any sexual scenes or anything like that in my career, really. To get to do it with Jane was super surprising, because initially when I learned about the character, I go, “Okay, so this is off limits completely and I don’t have to worry about that.” But it was really great. It was great for me as the actor to explore different sides of myself, too.

On the other hand, Jane and Cliff are always such a delightful duo to watch, and it feels like they’re at a much more settled place this season, given that a lot of the issues they were putting on the other person… Haven’t totally been dealt with, but at least been confronted in certain ways. What was it like playing this more chill mode between the two?

I loved it. I thought that it gave for more genuine moments between Cliff and Jane, and I think that it just made it more fun to watch, because there’s not this resistance from one of the parties, which was always Jane like, “Oh, you’re getting too close. It’s like, it’s too much. Get the fuck away from me.” For me actually, I wanted to explore the relationship further, but the character just wouldn’t allow it. Now that we see them, they’ve gone through hell and back and they’ve been through so much that there’s no way that they’re going to be the same Cliff and Jane that they were in first season. There has to be some evolution. You see that this season. It’s really rewarding for anybody who likes this relationship and who was rooting for these two from the beginning.

Another really interesting relationship this season has been Jane seems to be bonding with Vic quite a bit. They’re such like a mismatched pair… What do you think it works about the two of them together, and what’s it been like bouncing off of Joivan?

There’s a stability about Cyborg that Jane enjoys. She didn’t appreciate it in the beginning, because she just saw him as this superhero who’s super-self serious and that doesn’t play well with Jane. She doesn’t trust that. But seeing the leaps that Cyborg took this year, that Vic took, that he has taken throughout the show, I think gave way for Jane to feel more comfortable. But there’s always that stability there that Cyborg offers, that Jane can appreciate. Certainly, Kay appreciated it because she had that interview with Cyborg and she opened up to him. She asked him to interview her. There’s definitely something within Kay that trusts Vic. Also, Vic, Cyborg was Baby Doll’s favorite superhero. We saw that first season. There’s always been personalities in Jane that absolutely adore and have a wonderful connection with Cyborg and we just get to see Jane follow suit this season.

Similarly, how does having Michelle Gomez — and Madame Rouge — full-time change the dynamic of the show for you?

When The Chief was around, that was a different relationship because it was more of a father/daughter dynamic, or father/kids dynamic. This is completely different. I think that it’s an interesting shift. It’s not this motherly figure at all. This is the time that we all get to be adult, adults and take care of ourselves without having someone really to tell us what to do, even though we rely on Madame Rouge because she’s both evil and good. That’s the only kind of person we can actually trust in our wacky world, because at least we know that if she does something off-color, we were sort of expecting that, and that’s on us. That’s actually a little better than anybody who comes to us who’s fully, seemingly transparent. We dig her secretive side, and we dig that she keeps trying. I think that no matter what, she can be anywhere and she still chooses to be in that grimy Doom Manor with all of us hooligans. I think we like the danger of it all.

I know this is probably a little above your pay grade, but with all the changes going on at the DC movie and TV universe, how at all does that filter down to you, the actors? Or is it just texting the showrunners and being like, “What’s going on? What’s happening?” and that’s pretty much it.

How it affects us is that we don’t know whether show is going to be canceled. As an actor, you have to submit to whatever decisions these studios make, which is very scary because as we’ve seen now, it seems a little fear-based in my opinion. We’ve seen it, just last week, so many shows were canceled and/or not given another season even though it was going well. I think that we’re all really confused. It’s like, “Well, is it our show’s being cut because people are not watching? Or people are not liking the shows?” But it doesn’t seem like that’s the sole reason, anyway. I think, to answer your question… I have no idea, but I know that our show is super beloved, but we’re still sort of beholden to anybody telling us if we’re coming back or not. We are constantly calling the showrunner and bothering Jeremy [Carver] and saying, “Hey, are we coming back or not?” Honestly, he didn’t know either. We don’t know who’s holding the baton, really.

I guess we just all have to tweet at James Gunn until he picks it up for Season 5.

Right, exactly. Or Elon, he’ll invest.

There you go. Yeah, he’ll take care of it.

The next season will be in Mars and it’ll be totally appropriate.

Robotman will be a Tesla in Season 5. Real quick before you go, that pile of puzzle pieces is driving me insane every time I see it. I assume it’s not a real puzzle, right? There’s no way of actually getting it together.

You have to wait and see. You’ll see more puzzle stuff. Definitely. But yeah, her kryptonite is that damn puzzle that she can’t solve. But you’ll… It’ll all make sense towards the end of the season.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Doom Patrol streams Thursdays on HBO Max.