SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Summer School: Chapter Six," the latest episode of DC's Stargirl.
Eclipso has arrived, and he's here to stay. In "Summer School: Chapter Six," the latest episode of DC's Stargirl, a conflict between the Justice Society of America and Cindy Burman's new Injustice Society led Eclipso to break free from the Black Diamond. In mere moments, Eclipso managed to defeat both teams and struck some devastating blows, one of which neutralized the Cosmic Staff. Now, he's on the loose in Blue Valley -- and there's no telling what he might do next.
Speaking to CBR, Stargirl star Nick Tarabay offered some insight into Eclipso's next moves. He warned that Eclipso "is not easy to get rid of" and pinpointed the kind of person Eclipso finds "delicious." He broke down Eclipso's "animalistic" qualities, as well as how his theater background helped him find the character. He also explained how the prosthetics process got him into character, shared his audition story and more.
CBR: Some superhero roles are secretive to the point that actors don't find out who they're really playing until they show up on set. At what point did you find out you'd be playing Eclipso?
Nick Tarabay: Oh, yeah! [laughs] Yeah, I didn't find out that I'm going to be playing Eclipso until I had a Zoom call with Geoff Johns about the role. I had already auditioned for it, not knowing what it is, not knowing what the character was, not knowing it was a DC character. Then, you know, Geoff wanted to talk to me, and we had a Zoom call. I was in Greece, so we had a Zoom call, and we spoke. Then he told me -- he's like, "This is Eclipso. It's based on a character, and it's a DC character. It's a comic book; pretty big deal." And I was like, "Oh, shit! I did not know that."
So I had to go and look him up. I had to ask some of my friends, who are into comic books and stuff like that, and he was like, "Oh, shit! Yeah, man, I know exactly who Eclipso is!" I found out that it wasn't played before; it was only on paper. So I'm glad that I was the first one to bring it to life.
Before we met Eclipso in the flesh, we knew him only as this disembodied voice, so that was clearly an extremely important element of this character. How did you find his creepy, sinister voice?
Well, the first thing I did, is I didn't think of him as creepy or sinister at all. Like I always say about any character that I play, I do not judge them whatsoever, because once I do, I put them in a box, and I try not to do that. So it's an interesting thing.
It's an interesting thing, because when I had my research done on him, and then when I went and put the costume and the prosthetics on, I realized that I have to throw most of the stuff that I'd worked on away, because now, once I was in his body, something natural came up. I was like, "Oh, there's this animalistic thing about him!" Because my main goal with Eclipso is to make him as real as possible, as grounded as possible. I don't want people to watch the show and think, "Oh, this will never happen. This suspends reality. It will never happen. It's a different universe." My goal was, "No, I want people to think this guy could be here right now as we speak."
So I had a talk, me and Geoff. We talked about the animal work, making him more of an animal, and then the voice -- yes, I started moving in the costume. Luckily, I'm theater trained, and I've done animal work before, so I let my body take over. I shut my brain off, and I let my body take over.
So once I was in this costume, I looked in the mirror and moving and just allowing myself to be absolutely free, the voice just came. I didn't judge it. I went with it. I did a lot of that. Obviously, I filmed first and then did the voices after, so I knew where his voice was coming from. It just came naturally for me once I was in that costume.
This season really delves into the difference between bad and evil, which is particularly important to Eclipso as a character. How would you define those terms?
This is a very good question, because what is good without bad? How can we know that we're good if there's no bad? How can we know what the light is if there's no darkness, right? So to think of bad as something that is not needed is ridiculous in my mind. It's all scooped into the same; you need this to know what good is. You need the dark so that you know how bright is your light, right?
I think darkness is what shapes us to become whatever we're going to become: our fears, our insecurities, etc, etc. I truly believe that -- this is just my opinion, as Nick the actor -- when we deny that we have bad in us... because once you've denied this, you're denying your true identity. Because you're denying it, that means you are in a delusion of being somebody else, and that eventually will make you do horrible things, and that could be evil, where if we all just accept the fact that there is no such thing as perfect -- I said this in an interview earlier today, if you look at a crazy person, in the mind of the crazy person, we're the crazy ones!
So everything is subjective. So for us to say, "I am good" -- and a lot of people do say that! I'm a very big candidate about this, by the way, so I'm very grateful that you asked me that question. You know, a lot of people talk about their great attributes: "I'm smart; I'm good looking. I'm brave; I'm courageous." But nobody talks about the other attributes that we have, which is, for example, the fear, the jealousy, the envy and all the stuff. These things are just as important for us to behold, because if you take these elements out, you break something in that chain, and no matter what you do, something's going to be missing and you're never being true to yourself.
So I think Eclipso, in a way, not to get too philosophical, but to go back to Eclipso, the difference between good and bad and evil, I think, in my perspective, is that. This is how he feeds off, because the people that say, "Oh, no, I'm good! I'm not bad. I'm a good person. There's no bad in me," that makes you more delicious to him.
You know I have to ask: what did that prosthetic process look like for you? How long did it take?
Look, I'll tell you honestly, I'm the actor that usually goes to set and tells the makeup people, "Don't put anything on me! I don't want makeup. I don't want nothing!" I don't like anything on my face. I am the opposite of that, so usually the makeup people's like, "Okay, let me look. Yeah, you're fine. You can go."
So you can imagine, coming over and having to put all the stuff on me, I had to zen myself to go through it. [laughs] So that was a challenge on its own. But to give them credit, they did an amazing job, and obviously, it was needed.
So when we first started, it was a little bit over four hours to put the whole prosthetics on, but then by the end, they were so awesome. They brought it down under an hour, which I was very, very happy about. It looked amazing, but do I like any makeup or something? No, absolutely not. I hate it! Absolutely hate it, which also works for the character, which is great.
Up to this point, we've heard all about how dangerous Eclipso is and that he was one of the greatest threats the JSA ever faced. How does he live up to this reputation moving forward?
Well, you know, it's funny, because I've seen some comic books where Eclipso actually goes up against the Justice League as well. It's based on the comic books. He gives them a hard time as well. So yeah, I mean, he's a dangerous fellow. He's definitely someone that you can't take for granted.
The best way I tell you -- I tell all the audience -- is you'll be mistaken if you try to get ahead of it. I would say the best way to enjoy Eclipso and to enjoy the show is take it episode by episode, scene by scene, because you'll lose something important, because everything is connected. But no matter what you think, Eclipso is not easy to get rid of. That's the only thing I can say.
Stargirl airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.