WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for "Masquerade," the latest episode of The Flash Season 7.
The latest episode of The Flash put Cecile Horton through the wringer. In "Masquerade," she was forced to confront her own demons after the entity known as Psycho Pirate possessed her and took control of her body. While hunting for its mask, last seen in the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event, Psycho Pirate used Cecile's history against her. It taunted her with visions of her past, particularly of the time she spent in a psychiatric hospital following her mother's death. However, she eventually overcame her fears and anxieties, defeated Psycho Pirate and emerged even stronger than she had been before.
Speaking to CBR, The Flash star Danielle Nicolet shared what it was like to play three separate, distinct versions of Cecile. She revealed that this episode has been in the works since before the start of Season 7 and reveled in her chance to play a villain for an episode. She broke down the subtle ways her voice and wardrobe indicated which version of Cecile she was playing, as well as her hopes that Cecile's struggle will help viewers who are struggling with anxiety and depression. She also promised the return of baby Jenna, teased The Flash's episode with Arrowverse alum David Ramsey and more.
CBR: This is a massive episode for Cecile. How did the writers break it to you?
Danielle Nicolet: Oh my gosh, so I've known this was coming up since we were on hiatus between Season 6 and 7. So Eric has been telling me about this -- Eric Wallace, our showrunner and fearless leader -- he has been telling me about this for quite some time. When I finally got the script, wow, he did not kid around! This was so incredible. It was like shooting three episodes at the same time. To be my own character, to be the bad guy and mislead at the same time was just so cool. So cool!
What was it like to be a villain for an episode?
Ah-mazing! It was so great! I love Cecile and I love how sweet and kind and loving she is, and it was so fun to play a bad version of her. I enjoyed every single second of it. Sometimes it feels so good to be bad.
You have been for a few episodes now, but in this episode in particular, you played two distinct, separate characters. How did you change your approach to capture Psycho Pirate's personality?
Well, one way that was really helpful was Rachel Talalay, who directed this episode. She's directed several other Flash episodes in the past, and I felt so, so fortunate that she agreed to do mine. She has a strong film background and she also has a strong sci-fi background. She was a producer of Doctor Who for a long time; she directed some of their most classic episodes. She's also directed a lot of horror films.
So she and Brenton [Spencer], our director photography, decided to approach the episode as three separate styles as well as stories, because we had what was going on with Actual Cecile in the hospital with Barry, we had what was going on with Psycho Pirate/Psycho Cecile -- in essentially the heist movie aspect of it, the process of getting the mask and then attacking and being in Thinker's chair -- and then we had Faux Cecile, if you will: the Psycho Pirate pretending to be Cecile in order to facilitate getting the mask. So all three of those were shot with completely separate styles. That gave me, as an actor, a lot of freedom to make those adjustments as subtle as they sometimes needed to be.
Psycho Cecile walks differently than Real Cecile does. If you look at the episode carefully, I have different hair; I have different makeup in each iteration of character that I'm playing. So it's not only just physically I looked different; visually, the style is different. Then there are small aspects: Psycho Cecile, her voice is deeper, and she speaks with a particular cadence. So it was challenging and really enjoyable to have all of those little private moments, even, between myself and Rachel, the director. We just kept saying, "Okay, we can't wait to see, when the audience watches, if they'll notice all of these little different things. Faux Cecile dresses differently than Real Cecile would, but will the team notice?"
There are also some serious horror movie vibes in this episode, with that third version of Cecile that terrorizes her throughout the episode. How did you set out to distinguish her from the others? What was it like to essentially star opposite yourself?
Slightly confusing sometimes! [laughs] I did a lot of opposite-myself work in this episode. The horror movie aspect of it, being in the hospital, that part was kind of a two fold experience: one being I really wanted to honor the serious nature of dealing with mental health issues, and from that perspective, the honesty of the Real Cecile being there and sharing her feelings with Barry, who she trusts implicitly.
We were shooting a horror movie with some really cool classic horror movie visual tropes, like the expanding hallway, the spinning camera, and also really using Cecile's superpowers in a way that Cecile didn't really realize she could do before. The power of Cecile being able to -- in the mindscape, Institutionalized Cecile attacking Real Cecile and using her powers to push her up to the ceiling the way that she did and push Barry around. Those are Cecile's actual powers! We learned that in this episode. Cecile had no idea she could do all of that.
So we really tried to play that as horror movie and the emotional stuff with Barry as we're really attacking this relevant and current issue [that] one would be well served to not stuff their feelings away and actually base their mental health challenges and face their anxieties, face their depression, really deal with it, accept it and know that it's okay. You don't have to not share your feelings with people that love you.
This episode really delves into recent conversations about mental health and the stigmas surrounding it. What do you hope Cecile's story brings to that?
My greatest hope on this episode, as much as I love shooting cool stuff, as much as I loved playing the bad guy, as much fun as I had in all of these different aspects, ultimately, The Flash is a show about family, about loving one another and about taking care of people. That's, in its very essence, who we are. Some of the characters on it, we happen to have superpowers, but our greatest superpower is that we love each other and we take care of each other.
So what my hope is, is that everyone watching this will take away from it that the power of caring for the people in your life, the power of caring for yourself, self care, understanding that anxiety and depression are very real and they deserve attention, and that it's safe to share your struggles with the people that love you -- that's the biggest message to me that I hope everyone comes away from the episode with. That we needn't be ashamed when we have anxiety and depression and mental health challenges, and if we don't deal with them, if we shove our feelings down, bad things happen. It manifests itself!
In Cecile's case, that happens to manifest itself in a metahuman kind of way. But in real life, those same anxiety and depression issues, if you don't face them, they manifest themselves in other ways that hurt you and that damage your life and that damage your relationships. I hope we're creating a safer space to talk about that.
How will the events of this episode affect Cecile and her mission to help other metahumans moving forward?
I think that Cecile came out of this journey on this episode like anyone, when we face that which we have been denying and suppressing and we really deal with it, we come out the other side much more powerful and with much greater clarity about who we are and the purpose that we serve. I can say the same for Cecile. She will exit this journey more powerful and with much greater clarity about who she is and the purpose that she serves as part of Team Flash and as part of the metahumans. There's no more denying or half-stepping for her. She has completely embraced who she is.
Will we ever see baby Jenna again?
We are! We are! We love baby Jenna! Everyone loves baby Jenna and I don't think I'm spoiling anything or getting on my boss' bad side to share that. The only reason we didn't see baby Jenna thus far this season is because COVID. Our show was so, so careful about keeping everyone safe and healthy, that Eric Wallace, our showrunner, he just didn't feel safe or comfortable bringing a baby or toddler into an environment in a pandemic, where there's even the slightest possibility that anyone could get sick. He's just not that guy.
We all joke about it. We all miss her. I promise you: we will be seeing plenty of baby Jenna in future Flash. It's just pandemic didn't allow for that. We have pictures of her all over Cecile's office set. There's pictures of her on her desk. There's pictures in the West house. All of us, whenever we're shooting, we always look at the pictures and be like, "We miss the baby!"
I feel like this is the first time we really see Cecile and Barry interact one-on-one for such a prolonged period of time. What was that experience like for you?
Oh my gosh, it was so good! Grant and I had such a good time. We had such a good time! He's a wonderful actor. He just is so lovely, as an actor, to work with. It was just so great to be doing cool stuff and to have this director that we both adore and to have these emotional scenes. It felt like we were shooting a little movie together and we loved it. He's one of my favorite people on earth. I was more than happy to be locked in a padded room with him for a week. [laughs]
What is one moment or scene from an upcoming episode that you just can't wait for fans to see?
David Ramsey in Episode 16, and that's all say. Quality time with David Ramsey. We all know that he's coming on the show, so that's not a spoiler. I will just say it's one hell of an episode.
The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh. New episodes air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.