‘Superman & Lois’: Alex Garfin Is Ready to Put on That Super-Suit

On last week’s episode of The CW’s Superman & Lois, we got a big tease that felt inevitable pretty much since the premiere of the series. After exploring his powers and training, Jordan Kent (Alex Garfin) was gifted a super-suit by his grandfather, Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh). And it turns out, this is a moment Garfin has been preparing for since the show began.

“We did costume fittings for, really since day one, for that suit. It takes a lot to build that kind of suit,” Garfin told Decider. I remember the first time I saw the artist rendering, that was like a ‘woah,’ and they CGI-ed my face on it as well which was very creepy. Since then they slowly build this thing around you. At first it’s like a black sheet, then it turns into a black shirt, then it turns into the more bedazzled kind of thing, and they’re adjusting it every which way.”

Though it may be a while until we get to see Garfin in the suit proper — tonight’s new episode is only the fifth out of 13 in Season 3 — there are still a lot of other issues to tackle for the young actor, and character. One of the biggest was a change-up in who plays his brother, Jonathan Kent, on the show. After actor Jordan Elsass left before the new season, the production quickly cast Michael Bishop to take over the role, something that it seems Garfin took in stride and aimed to make the new Jonathan as comfortable as possible.

Add in a cancer plotline for Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch), a new villain in gangster Bruno Manheim (Chad L. Coleman), and in the real world a lot of uncertainty about the future of DC Comics based properties as well as shows airing on The CW, and there are a lot more balls in the air for Garfin than fitting into his Superboy suit. To find out more about this, as well as what’s coming next for Jordan, read on.

Decider: This has been an emotionally charged season, but I think the tensest moment so far was when they threatened to cut your hair.

Alex Garfin: [Laughs]

Was there any talk of actually doing that at any point?

Yes, and that’s what scared me. You know I actually requested to do it earlier, like I want to say either Season 1 or 2, I was getting sick of coming out of the shower and waiting for it to dry. But I knew they weren’t going to just because we did costume fittings for, really since day one, for that suit. It takes a lot to build that kind of suit. One of the cooler tidbits though is when I saw the goggles that they were using, they look like plane goggles, like that old school kind of thing, and I had the idea that they could be General Lane’s father’s and that would be some context as to why he joined the military in the first place, and they so graciously let that idea in. I think it added a little bit of depth to how crazy they look on him, which I really enjoyed as well. They kind of subsidized the crazy look, which is something that you always need in [this] genre stuff.

We’ve only seen the suit at this point in a box… What was it like for you putting on that super-suit for the first time?

It was an interesting experience. I mean look, the weird thing about it is that it’s so gradual, they’re building this suit around you. I remember the first time I saw the artist rendering, that was like a “woah,” and they CGI-ed my face on it as well which was very creepy. Since then they slowly build this thing around you. At first it’s like a black sheet, then it turns into a black shirt, then it turns into the more bedazzled kind of thing, and they’re adjusting it every which way. And because it happened so gradually, you kind of have to wait until you’re on set one day, and it’s cold out, the cameras are rolling, it’s on a dirty street and you’re in a super-suit, and you’re saying “oh my god”, my dreams came true.  And that completely unique feeling, I hope everyone gets that experience in one form or another in their life

Do you have any hints at when we are going to see you on screen in the super-suit?

It might come up here. I think it would be reasonable to assume. It’s a lot like a prop gun in the beginning of the play, I think if it’s gonna come on stage it has to be used by the end of the play. 

Now a little more seriously, you’ve switched Jonathans this season… What has it been like for you working with Michael Bishop, considering — and I’m not fishing for any gossip or anything — I know you and Jordan Elsass were very close. So I was curious how the transition worked for you.

There were only four days between him getting cast and him starting, and the first thing we did was on the porch in the [season premiere], just the two of us, to try and get us warmed up to the whole thing. Tom Cavanagh was directing, but to me, I was very intentionally trying to spend as much time with him as possible so that way we built up that chemistry, and then we really just enjoyed each other’s company on a genuine level as well. But those four days I tried to make it so that we spent a lot of time together. It’s hard to substitute time with anything else, but I think he just did such a great job. The other thing, just from my end, and again most of him fitting in was on him, I cannot even begin to take credit for any of that, but in terms of showing him around it was a big goal of mine to make sure that he felt like he was on set as long as anyone else, that he did not feel like we had any seniority over him, that he felt free to have his own ideas about the character and about how scenes should go. So the very first thing when he came on to set for, like, I wanna say a haircut, I showed him around every department, which is something I do twice a year, once at the beginning and once at the end. And I’m not talking just like props or hair and makeup, like we went to accounting, we went over to HR. I make sure everyone that works on my show knows how appreciative I am of them, and I really wanted to pass that on to him as well so that everyone knew who he was and so he knew everyone and he really felt like he could walk around and be comfortable. But again it was all him, he had to get adjusted there and he did quite well with it.

One of the other big things this season is the Lois cancer storyline, which is a pretty intense storyline for any actress or actor to deal with. Elizabeth Tulloch has been doing a fantastic job with it, but from your perspective I was curious to hear what is it like supporting her storyline, as your character is also supporting her at the same time.

Yeah, that’s a great question. In terms of supporting Bitsie as an actor, a lot of it is just making sure that she has space to do what she can, not being very loud in the green room, giving her a wide berth on that, making sure that she has all the tools necessary to really sink into what she has to do, because it is very difficult to do. In terms of, as a character, [Jordan] has a supportive role, but he is also weakened by it, as well. And that’s what happens when a family member is gravely sick as Lois is, you’re trying to do what’s best for them, at the same time you’re feeling yourself not doing what’s best for you, and trying to strike that balance is very difficult. It was one of the more tender moments when she told us that, we just had to hug her. And I was saying previously that there are a lot of different kinds of hugs, but I think possibly the most meaningful is the hug that you do when you know someone is there and they may not be there. And just trying to feel them and just hold them. I think we all have those moments because we all deal with loss, and we have a bunch of those coming up on Superman & Lois. So plenty of stuff to, I guess not look forward to, but to keep y’all interested coming forward.

Another aspect of the characters that people are always interested in is the romance stuff. Is Jordan actually just friends with Sarah now? Is he ok with their relationship, or will he always hold a torch for her?

Sarah was the first person that Jordan felt understood by and it came very late in life for Jordan, 14 years in. No one understood him. Maybe his mom, but he never truly fit in. He meets this girl on day one and connects, and it’s an experience he’s never had before and it changes him very deeply because he feels understood. He feels like he doesn’t always have to be advocating for himself in one way or another. Now that romantic feelings have subsided on Sarah’s part, I think it’s going to be a lot for him to deal with… The fact that he feels like he may never be understood again. He feels like there is a lot more at stake than just a girlfriend, as we all do at that age. It feels like there’s a whole livelihood at stake and himself is at stake. So, you know, looking back at it now, I’m only 19, I started this show when I was 16, I had a long time girlfriend at the time, I very much remember these emotions. It was not that long ago. I’m laughing about them now as I’m a more mature person, but we’ve all had that moment, it’s part of growing up, feeling like they’re the only person for you and that if you don’t have them, who are you? 

Another relationship that’s been really fun to watch this season is between Jordan and Sam Lane, they’re almost a little more like buddies than grandfather and grandson.

Yes!

What’s it been like working with Dylan Walsh in this new mode?

Let me tell you, working with Dylan Walsh, not to try and pick favorites or anything, is always an extreme pleasure. He is so experiential, but also he’s funny, he’s a great guy, and I also just learn so much from him when I work with him, and a great scene partner as well, by the way. So when I saw that we were working together I was so happy about that, I think we both were. And he had the same observation as you, he was like “I’m happy that were not just doing grandfather/grandson stuff, it’s almost like we’re just two guys hanging out.” That will always be one of the highlights I think of Superman & Lois, some of this stuff that we got to do around this era of Season 3. And I really hope that next year we have more of that. 

I’ve interviewed Chad Coleman a couple of times back when he was on The Walking Dead, and he, in real life, is the nicest warmest, man. What’s it like watching him be absolutely terrifying on set as Bruno Mannheim?

Oh, him and I are actually really close friends. We just actually two days ago did an interview on local news in New York. We see theater together, we see a lot of each other, actually. He’s another person I feel like I always learn something from, so seeing him first as Bruno and then as Chad, because I really only saw him originally as the character, and then later on, actually after the season even… Seeing that absolutely has been a pleasure as well. He’s so intense in real life and as Bruno, but the actual flavor of the intensity is so wildly different. You know it’s almost the question of what’s more opposite, really bright red and bright blue or a pale red and a bright blue, you gotta get the pale red and something that’s blue, they’re opposites in different ways, and for him it’s very much a bright red, bright blue kind of thing. 

Every season so far we’ve gotten this villain you thought we were fighting isn’t actually the real villain, there’s always this twist there. Should we be expecting a similar twist with the Mannheim plot?

I’m not saying there is a similar twist with the Mannheim plot. If I was a viewer of the show I would be expecting that, but if I was thinking about it maybe that expectation is something they’re trying to draw out of you? You know, there’s a lot of levels to it. I do have to say Burno is a very three-dimensional villain, which is really nice to play off of. So yeah, that’s actually a really nice touch this year. This year we also, we did a very different kind of vibe than last year. Last year we got very into the mythology of it, we went very “super” with it, now we’re a lot more “man.” Now we’re a lot more “Man and Lois.” It could be reasonable to expect a different plot line as well, with the different plot line that we’re trying to give.

You’ve already wrapped filming on Season 3. What was the feeling like the last day on set given so much is in flux with the DC universe, with The CW, etc.? 

Right, it was really a goodbye… Maybe? The insecurity is obviously kind of excruciating here, especially given just how great this group of people is. I grew up with these people, I was filming this from 15 to 19, so yeah the instability is definitely a little scary. But that’s TV for you. I’ve said this to a lot of my actor friends, not to get too far off topic, but you learn about the history of acting, the European history of acting, and actors were in troupes, you know they traveled Europe, they were nomads, and they were kind of the hooligans of the time, they were the scallywags for the past 100 or so years. That changed from theater troupes coming to you because you obviously couldn’t go see them unless you were in a big city, to the actual film coming to you, things were recorded and all centralized, you had your Hollywood, your Bollywood, your Kollywood, your Nollywood. Now, it’s getting more cheap and inexpensive to film on location and all of a sudden we’re reverting back to that nomadic lifestyle. Albeit not in troupes, as actual individuals. And a part of all of that, that it’s in your blood, I believe, because that’s how it was for thousands of years. There’s something about wanting to take on other people’s lives, you want to take on many different forms in many different places, so you travel, and there’s a lot of instability in that. You could really get into the nitty gritty of the company and this and that David Zaslav, but at the end of the day, I firmly believe that we’re nomads and even though I don’t want to say goodbye to this I know I’ll have to one day, and I know I’ll end up in a different part of the world besides Vancouver, Canada, which I never thought I’d be in in the first place. I’ll be in a different part of the world, with different people, becoming a different person, and I personally take a lot of comfort in that in my place in history. 

Before I let you go, just to get back to the show proper, is there anything you can tease about where Jordan is going as the season continues? 

I think he’s going up. He’s going up up and away. There will be lasers, there will be super-suits that we saw in the box. Who knows, maybe he puts it on. I think it would be reasonable to assume that he puts it on. I think we can also assume that Clark will be Clark-ing, Lois will be Lois-ing, Jordan will be Jordan-ing, Jonathan will be Jonathan-ing. The only person, Sam will not be Sam-ing, they’ll be Samuel-ing.

Well, whatever happens with Season 4 you definitely learned how to play the spoiler game, so I appreciate that.

[Laughs] Very, very much so. Tyler said this to me once, he said if they ever try to dig for spoilers say, “I love my job so much, I want to keep it.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Superman & Lois airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.