Constantine: Ryan & Celaya Talk About Jim Corrigan’s Arrival

Fans of comics’ Spectre will be excited to see that the character Jim Corrigan makes his first appearance on NBC’s Constantine with tonight’s episode, which is called “Danse Vaudou.” Emmett Scanlan plays the role of the detective who may or not become a ghostly DC Comics icon at some point.

What can we expect from his arrival? We spoke with actors Matt Ryan (John Constantine) and Angelica Celaya (Zed) about the coming of Corrigan while visiting the set of the series earlier this week.

“John and Jim kind of cross paths on a case, and I think that what’s interesting is [that] Jim is introduced to this world which he doesn’t believe,” Matt Ryan told us. “He thinks ‘what the f— is all this supernatural kind of stuff? How is it real?’ There’s a great line, I think, where he goes ‘How do you know that this is real?’ And Emmett’s awesome as well. What’s interesting about their relationship is they both want the same thing, ultimately, but they come at it from different angles, and they’re willing to sacrifice different parts of themselves, and I think that ultimately, Corrigan wants justice, but that comes from a form of rage, and a form of anger.”

“With John, it’s complicated,” Matt Ryan continued. “There’s those things as well, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on as well, and I think that Jim’s world is very much based in the real world, and John obviously knows about the world beyond ours, so there are other levels to what’s going on with John. And, John uses his humor as a defense mechanism. He’s become really good at just hiding it, whereas Corrigan is someone where you can kind of see more on the surface that he’s a little bit more scarred. I think that John’s problems are probably more deeper rooted, if that makes sense, but he hides them all.”

Could we see Jim Corrigan on the show as a fully-formed Spectre? “I don’t know. That’s a question for Daniel and David. It’d be great,” Ryan deflected.

Jim Corrigan also has an interesting interaction with Angelica Celaya’s character Zed. “I think that’s when we start seeing Zed really stand-offish,” Celaya explained. “Like, ‘I’ve got this under control. I got this.’ We’re working as a team now. John’s over there, doing something; I’m over here, getting information, and I’m dealing with this spirit here… it’s a little bit of, like, ‘yeah, it’s ghosts, huh’?” Something that she sees within the episode about Corrigan throws Zed for a loop. “Jim’s past, and the way that he grew up, in a way, that’s what Zed wants to do herself, but she never had the courage, as she ran away. They both come up from this troubled childhood, and they both understand each other in a way that Constantine and Zed don’t. So, there’s a different connection with them, and a different understanding at a different level between them, too.”

Tonight’s Constantine also forces John to work with Papa Midnite (Michael James Shaw), and Ryan commented about their interaction from “Danse Vaudou” as well.

“I’d say they’re like ‘frienemies.’ They’re kind of uneasy allies. They need each other, even though they don’t like working together. The one thing I always say is that Papa works within a very narrow framework of just voodoo, and John’s a street magician. He’s someone who’ll use whatever he needs, and Papa doesn’t like that. There’s an interesting conflict between of them, but they need each other as well, and they have a fundamental respect for each other’s magic,” Ryan explained.

A new Constantine airs tonight at 10PM on NBC. Photos from the episode can be found here, and you should stay tuned here for more Constantine interviews in the coming weeks!

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