Caity Lotz is one of the longest-tenured veterans of the “Arrowverse,” first appearing in Arrow Season 2 before ultimately starring in seven seasons of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Her time on Legends led to some opportunities to direct for the show, and she was even entrusted with helming the show’s 100th episode which aired late last year.
Caity has shown herself to be a powerful force both in front of and behind the camera, and tonight, she brings her talents to The Flash where she directs the episode titled “The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen.” Something is causing Barry Allen to age rapidly, and while a standalone, this episode may be one of the best of The Flash Season 8 so far. KSiteTV was able to speak with Caity Lotz about directing for The Flash and what may be coming next.
KSITETV’S CRAIG BYRNE: What surprised you the most about the experience of directing The Flash?
CAITY LOTZ: I think at first it was almost more refreshing; something that felt a little bit more manageable because Legends has so many characters. It’s a lot of practical and special effects. [On Legends] if you’re doing a fight on the roof, you have a vignette with 8 different characters that you’re shooting 8 little things and then everyone has to come together. With this, it’s so nice, you have two characters up there to shoot.
Were there any particular directors that you’ve worked with before that you feel you learned a lot from that might have given you some inspiration?
I would say Glen Winter, who directed our [Legends of Tomorrow] pilot. He does these beautiful shots of sweeping waters, with a lot of camera movement. I really like his stuff.
Having known Grant Gustin for a while, was it fun to be able to film him in ridiculous situations?
Yes, for sure! He had so much fun with it. He really just leaned into the comedy, which was awesome. I love Grant. He’s such a sweetheart. It was nice to work with him in this capacity.
They’ve got that science down to a tee, with the green screen. Grant knows exactly what he’s doing. You try to figure out ways to make it look different or unique, since you’ve seen it so many times. He doesn’t move his legs at all. It’s just the arms! [laughs] But he makes it makes it look like he’s running like The Flash!
Is it different to direct a group of people that you haven’t worked with much as compared to a cast that you worked with every week?
For sure, but at the same time, I knew some people and they kind of knew me from this world. I think that made it easier. Everybody was just super down to help me have a good experience over there on their show, which was really lovely.
Is there a comfort for actors to be directed by another actor?
For sure, definitely! Because as a director, there are so many elements that you have to pay attention to ,and I think a lot of times what happens on TV is these actors know their character way better than the director because they’ve been playing it for so long. The director’s got a billion other things [to do] with the special effects [and more.] Sometimes, the directors assume ‘You got this, you know what you’re doing,’ so they don’t need to use as much focus on performance sometimes. At least that’s how I would feel occasionally, that directors have got so much so [else to do], I’m not getting a lot of acting notes. But I think when you have an actor-director, that’s one of their main focuses. They’re paying attention to your performance and they’re watching it. They know how to speak to other actors in a language that they can understand, in terms of what is a helpful way to get a note, or what’s not helpful. I definitely appreciate it.
This episode had some exteriors that were shot in the city. Was that a new thing for you?
On the 100th episode [of Legends] it was, but when I did the Genghis Khan episode [“Mortal Khanbat”] we had a lot of exteriors. Actually, the parking garage where we shot when Orloff appears for the second time [in this Flash episode]; that parking garage is the same parking garage from Act 5 [of “Mortal Khanbat.”]
Did your familiarity with Vancouver help in finding locations?
Yeah, actually! The locations manager will give you a deck of photos with ‘This, this, this,’ and I would go, ‘OK, no, I know that spot. I don’t want to see it. I don’t need to see that. That’s not going to work!’ It does help.
What are you allowed to tease about this episode, plot wise?
It’s more of a standalone episode with throwback notes to Season 1. It’s very playful, and it’s more about having fun, but there’s also some drama in there too, for sure.
Are there any Arrowverse shows that you’d like to direct next?
Superman & Lois would be cool. I’m quite intrigued [that] they got a Terrence Malick-type thing. It’s less about the big flashy camera movements, and more about spending the time to make every frame look like a painting, with all the details and not needing the camera to move, but making what’s inside of the frame look beautiful, and you don’t need all that extra stuff.
What projects do you have coming up next?
I think I’m going to go shoot an action movie in Thailand. We’ll see, we’re working on the deal right now, but I think that’ll be probably my next project. And then I’m working on developing a comedy film and then I have a Canadian drama that I’m not ready to talk about yet. But hopefully, that is the next movie that I direct.
For the fans who will be reading this, what advice would you give them why they should tune in tonight?
We get to see everybody show their comedic side. Especially with everything that’s going on in the world and really these sad events that have been occurring, I think some lightheartedness is something we all could use a little bit of.
The Flash “The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen” airs TONIGHT (May 25) at 8PM ET/PT on The CW. See some photos from the episode here!
1 Comment
I know caitys intentions are pure but honestly with only 5 episodes left this season we dont have time really to be wasting them on fillerish episodes, same for next weeks show. I really would like to pick up on the iris/still force storyline right now