[WARNING: Spoilers for the DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 premiere are being discussed within.]
Adam Tsekhman joined DC’s Legends of Tomorrow way back in the Season 3 way back in Season 3, and his goofy character Gary Green has become a standout, finally being promoted to series regular for the current sixth season. With the new season came a surprise — Gary’s not human! He’s actually an alien, and he was involved with the abduction of the Waverider’s co-captain Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) at the end of last season.
We spoke with Adam about Gary’s “new normal” in advance of tonight’s new Legends of Tomorrow episode “Meat: The Legends.” (Photos from the episode can be found here.)
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: What was your reaction when you found out that Gary is an alien?
ADAM TSEKHMAN: “WHAAAAAT?”
That was my reaction.
I loved it. I thought it was hilarious, and I was totally game for the road we were going down. I knew based on what we had shot with Gary that his character doesn’t change. That’s kind of fun. In other [TV and movies], we’ve had nerdy aliens, but the idea that these aliens sort of have the ability to be quite vicious. But to look scary, but still have the heart of a Gary, I thought that was really fun.
What kind of aliens are Gary’s people?
Well, they’re they’re called Necrians. Clearly they’re far more advanced then homo sapiens, as we can see by their by their alien tech – those cool Gary glasses. As we saw by Kayla’s fight with Sara there, they’re a tough match. They’re strong, and have the ability to eat humans very comfortably.
If Gary can change his appearance so easily now, does that mean he can grow his nipple back?
That’s a great question. And the answer is no. No, he can’t grow his nipple back, sadly. The nipple is still is still something that hurts him.
Why did Gary hide his alien nature for so long?
It was the long game. It was like, if you think about undercover FBI guys, they go into the mafia, that kind of thing. They really have to earn the trust of everyone. It took Gary a while. He’s not very capable of getting people to believe him and trust him, so it took a few years. And then he threw it all down the drain, Craig!
So far you’ve most of your scenes have been with Caity Lotz and her character of Sara. Can you talk about their interactions so far? And what it’s been like to work with Caity so heavily?
It’s been amazing working with Caity. I love working with her. She’s fantastic. And as for the interactions between the characters. It’s been awesome. I mean, look. Gary really crossed the line there by abducting her. She didn’t have a choice. But he has a choice now to try to bring her back, and save her life, and keep her away from the impending doom, or I would say try to keep her away from the impending doom. But as we know, Gary has limits to his capabilities, so Sara will probably just end up doing it herself.
Gary and Sara meet a famous historical figure in this “Meat: The Legends.” Beyond that person, are there more major historical females that we might see throughout the season?
I don’t think so. But I mean, Sara and Ava, they will be historical. We get to see a lot of them, and their mythology continues to grow.
Do you personally have a favorite alien from pop culture?
I love the aliens from Men in Black. Just that vibe of alien’ not one particular one, but just the fact that they’re so much among us. It’s good question. I’ll have to think about that.
On a similar note, is there a DC Comics alien that you would like for Gary to meet?
Oh. I know the fans have a lot of alien theories, but I don’t know the DC aliens. I’m not as familiar with the canon. Do you know one that you think is great? I’ll tell you if that alien is coming.
Not necessarily coming. But like, you know, Superman, Martian Manhunter… they’re all aliens.
I guess that’s true. I don’t think about Superman. Of course. I mean… Superman. But Superman just has no flaws. I mean, I guess kryptonite, but like, he can do anything. No, I need a more flawed alien for my choice. I need someone that’s got more weaknesses than Superman.
Has Gary been an alien this whole time we’ve seen him or do you think this is something that changed after the Crisis?
Oh, juicy question. I don’t know. That’s a great question. Maybe? I mean, you know, the question I have is like, why does Gary look like he does in his human form? Is there a Gary sitting in a prison cell somewhere on a planet far away. Is there a Gary that was just, like, murdered by this alien, and then took the DNA? Or was it just some picture that the alien saw and they could just copy? These are questions that I wonder about.
Will we learn more things that Gary can do over the course of the season?
Yes, I think so. We will. But don’t suddenly assume that Gary’s this vicious, big-time scary, capable of getting bad guys, kind of alien. He’s still Gary. He’s still kind of incapable.
Several of your costars are directing episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow this season. What is it like working with them behind the camera?
Amazing. They’re all fantastic. It’s really fun being directed by actors because they’re focused on or at least have an extra eye on the on the performances and on the acting, and they know the issues that actors could face when doing scenes. When I was working with Jes [Macallan] in particular, we were also acting together, so that was really fun experience. Being directed by her and being in the scenes with her was amazing.
And is there anything else that you’d like to say to the fans about why they should be tuning in on Sunday?
Because it’s the best show on TV!
A new episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs at 8PM ET/PT tonight on The CW. See photos from the episode here, and a preview clip involving Adam Tsekhman can be found below!
