Superman & Lois is currently airing its final season Monday nights on The CW, and as we get to the final stretch of new episodes, tonight (November 18) brings us an installment titled “Sharp Dressed Man.” For those waiting to see Michael Cudlitz unleashed even more as Lex Luthor, with a look that resembles those from classic comics, they are in for a treat. The episode offers action, intrigue, drama, spectacle, and even a surprise guest appearance or two… and it’s directed by Cudlitz himself.
KSiteTV’s Craig Byrne was able to speak with Michael Cudlitz about playing this iconic role and what is currently going on with the current season of Superman & Lois. You can read the interview below.
MICHAEL CUDLITZ: You know, I don’t know. Hair?
I always feel like I try to bring myself as close as I can to the role, and then take an element of me that is in the role, and blow it up and expand it. I just feel like, interestingly enough, you take all the arch villain stuff out of it, and what everything boils down to is that this is a father who is in pain from the tremendous loss of his child, and I think that that is incredibly relatable.
So, I would flip the question. I would say that I don’t know if there are things that separate him from the other roles I played. I would say that there’s more in common with all the roles I’ve played, than there are differences. It’s just the circumstances that they are in, and the smaller personality traits that are expanded to represent those characters.
I think you can get into trouble if you go too far into the whole “oh my God, I’m playing Lex Luthor! He’s the original villain!” All of that stuff is not playable. But what you can do, is you can play pain that’s deeper than anyone has ever felt. You can play rage that is bigger than anyone has ever displayed. I think the wonderful thing, and I had this opportunity in when I was in The Walking Dead, was that you have this incredible permission slip when you are playing a comic book character, because they’re already in a world that is a heightened experience. It’s already not real. We have already suspended our disbelief. So in that world, what else can happen?
I feel like you’re able to take your emotions higher, and you’re able to be a little bit more animated, and it still feels grounded. I feel it’s the same way with Superman. You have somebody from another planet who has super powers, and it’s like, what are you going to say? “Nobody would do that?” You’ve already taken that off the table, because you’re already doing things that nobody can do. I think the audience comes to that world with those expectations that your bad guys are going to be very bad, because they have to be, because the only way to have an impact on someone who has superpowers and can fly is to be even worse of a person, trying to do worse things to them.
I feel like all or most bets are of the table, because you are in a world that is already not real, so the more you ground that, the more permission you have to be even more unreal.
How did it come about for you to be directing the “Sharp Dressed Man” episode of Superman & Lois?
I had [directed] six episodes of The Walking Dead, four on the original and two on a spin off, and then I directed a feature short with my wife two summers ago, so I’ve directed a little bit, and love it. When we were in the initial talks with Todd [Helbing, S&L co-showrunner] to do Lex, he had brought up the directing. He said, “I see here you’ve directed on Walking Dead. Did you like that?” and I go “I loved it.” He goes “do you have any interest in doing that over here?” and I said, “yeah!I thought that was going to be a conversation for later, yeah, absolutely”. And that’s the short answer to it, and it wound up really coming together. I was very flattered by that, because you’re entrusting a lot [to a director], especially in your final season, and I think it worked out.
He’s at a loss. His world has fallen apart a little bit, so he is definitely in regroup mode after he gets his ass handed to him by Clark. He was stronger than he thought. He did believe he was going to win that fight. So now, this is a total regroup. And not that Lex is out of ideas, but Amanda has an idea right away.
He’s smart enough to trust the people around him, at least to give him information. It sounds like a good idea. His cage has been rattled a little bit, so he’s willing to jump into this idea that Amanda has, and he’s also maybe a little bit blinded, there’s an attraction. For crying out loud, the guy’s been in prison for 17 years, and Yvonne [Chapman, who plays Amanda] is incredible. She’s incredibly smart and talented, and she also happens to be incredibly beautiful, and that is not lost on Lex. She has done all of those things, and the fact that she has kept his company together, the fact that she is incredibly intelligent…. all of these things are incredibly attractive to him, and she seems to be game. There are the laws of attraction that are working as well, and people don’t always make their best decisions when they’re when they’re wrapped in a relationship that is just starting out. They’re not sure what it is. So I feel like he’s sort done something that he wouldn’t have necessarily done prior, but at the moment, he’s out of ideas, and this seems like a good one.
We’ve not officially talked about the Lex connection. I did reach out to him afterwards and said “you know, there’s been so much chatter about the two of us and Lex Luthor, and as the season is moving on, people are being more excited and more excited about what I’m doing, and there have been a lot of comparisons.” I think the fans would really love to know that we have talked in the past, and I thought it was a episode on the podcast, so [I asked him to send] me a link to that.
He wrote me right back, saying “hey buddy, what’s going on? Congratulations on everything. And absolutely, here’s the link!” I told him to put the link out on the on the social media stuff, and that’s all we’ve talked about that.
I’m sure we will talk at some point, or do a panel at some point. I’ve joked to James Gunn that we need to do a panel with all the Lexes, a legion of Lexes – at a Comic-Con. Everybody who’s available could be there. Clancy, Cryer, Spacey, Eisenberg… I think probably more realistically before then, would be me and Rosenbaum bumping into each other at a convention and doing a local panel somewhere. That’ll probably happen first.
See “Sharp Dressed Man” TONIGHT on The CW! A gallery of preview images can be found here, and below, you can see an exclusive preview clip:
