Caity Lotzis stepping into the director’s chair once again onDC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your reaction when you read the script for the first time?
CAITY LOTZ:I was like, “How the hell are we going to do this?”
Olivia Swann and Caity Lotz in ‘Legends of Tomorrow’.The CW; Inset: Jordan Nuttall/The CW
[Laughs] I had no experience in animation whatsoever.
How do I even prep for this?"
I couldn’t find one person who was like, “Yeah, this is how it goes.”
The CW
It was such a fun process.
And we started [prepping the episode] pretty early because animation takes a lot of time.
How much directing on your end goes into an animation sequence like this?
But Tony’s got years and years of experience and they know what they were doing.
“Can we make the coloring more saturated?
Like crush the blacks?”
Tony would be like, “We’re going to make him giant and bust through the house!”
And it’s like, “Yes!”
The episode starts out in live-action.
How does the animation come into play in the story?
There’s this whole theme of Astra [being] a bit helpless in the beginning.
She’s a boss lady, but in Hell, where things are very different.
Now she’s like, “Wifi?
I have to buy food from a farmers' market?”
She doesn’t have any life skills.
Basically, she needs to learn how to adult.
Constantine is not helping her at all.
There’s this bit of her being a helpless princess.
She’s wanting John to save her, but no one is coming to save her.
She’s having to do everything [on her own].
She’s trying to learn magic and do it on her own.
Is there a moment that stands out to you?
Olivia, we put her through the wringer, and she was so down.
Montage bits take forever to shoot.
Then I’m like [while shooting], “Give meFlashdancefeet movements!”
and I’m trying to teach her exercise workout things, and she’s just on it.
She’s such a team player.
Even that scene where she gets splashed [by a car].
That wasn’t in the original script.
It was just supposed to be raining.
But then I was like, “Oh, I really just want to splash and drench her.”
We get there on the day and it’s just a street.
We’re filling it up [with water] and it’s freezing outside.
I’m like, “Okay, how do you feel about this?
Are you okay?”
She’s like, “Fill it up with more water.
I want a bigger splash.”
She was just so down.
How did you handle that challenge?
That was actually quite challenging.
[Laughs] I think I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be.
The first day was really difficult, too.
Because we just don’t have time to do any of that stuff.
We just don’t have time to watch playback every time.
What conversations did you have with Raffi Barsoumian about his performance?
We hada lotof fun.
I really enjoyed working with Raffi.
He had to walk a really fine line; Bishop is over the top.
Raffi even came in on days off to rehearse in the space so we could line it up.
It took a lot of testing to figure out the right brightness for the camera.
He really just brings so much life to that character.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrowairs Sundays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
