WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "In Plain Sight," the latest episode of Supergirl, which aired Sunday on The CW.
New Supergirl cast member Staz Nair’s character, William Dey, was introduced in the Season 5 premiere as a brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. It quickly became clear, however, that something strange was going on. He was, well, a huge jerk -- especially to Kara -- with questionable morals. Then it became apparent he was hiding… something. And in the latest episode, “In Plain Sight” Kara discovers William has gone undercover to investigate the new owner of CatCo, Andrea Rojas, and her family. But is that all that’s going on?
CBR recently spoke with Nair about joining Supergirl, his mysterious character, and a potential Kara/William relationship.
CBR: What was it like to join the Supergirl cast?
Staz Nair: Just an honor. Really. I know everyone has to say that but really. Firstly, creatively speaking you have some fantastic actors. I mean, I’m not even going to name them because [it’s] every person in the cast. But for me, personally, I grew up watching David Harewood, so to work alongside him as a peer is a bucket-list tick for me. Melissa [Benoist] is absolutely the spearhead of the show, and she has a terrific, terrifyingly powerful work ethic coupled with an amazing ability to still be friendly and light and happy and lovely… I’m so in awe of her as an actor. She really is fantastic.
And I get to play a fun British guy with a complexity to him. The writing is fantastic. It’s just a real family. For me, it’s nice to be on a show playing a juicy role where I [have] a safe space to create because of the lovely people I’m working with.
Were you a fan before joining the cast?
I watched bits of all the [Arrowverse] shows... I went up for James Olson, Mehcad [Brooks’] role five and a half years ago… I was way too young for the role, it never would have worked. Never would have worked. Especially seeing… Mehcad play the role… But that’s the kind of genre I’ve been working around. So I’ve watched two or three episodes of every season and now I watch every episode, except my bits…
What’s it been like bringing this difficult-to-pin-down, shady character to life?
It’s so fun… Who doesn’t like playing the antagonist? It’s so fun even from a viewer’s sense. We all like to hate someone, we all like to dislike someone. It’s like schadenfreude. We actually use that word in the show. We get off on other people’s misery, and we also get off on disliking people. So it’s been really fun to play that kind of villain-esque kind of guy… And also I try to do it with a bit of charm because [there's] this other side to him [so] I wanted to play him in a way where, although he was an asshole, he kind of does it with a smile sometimes, and it kind of makes him more of an asshole. But he’s not integrally an asshole. He’s not actually… naturally an asshole. This is a façade, a mask he puts on to protect himself and, more importantly, everyone around him at CatCo from what he’s trying to uncover.
Did you know that your character would have this dual identity going in?
Yes, I was very, very fortunate that the lovely [showrunners] Robert [Rovner] and Jessica [Queller] gave me a call… and gave me a little low-down on what my trajectory is for the season and… I got a great idea and got to start playing with this kind of duality…. 'Cause also the transition to me was important. I wanted to make sure going from an asshole to a good guy -- for now, we’ll see what happens -- it would feel too disjointed if he was a super-asshole and then instantly became a nice guy, so I tried to find aspects to him [to] soften his asshole-ness.
How did you research the role?
Nair: Actually one of my favorite bits that I looked at, I actually was watching [the 2015 film] Spotlight [the story of how Boston Globe reporters uncovered the child molestation scandal in the Catholic Church]. An amazing, amazing film with Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams. It’s been one of my favorite movies for a while… [the journalists in the film] are putting everything above themselves. They’re taking risks because they’re going up against these massive, megalithic entities, people, corporations, whatever it is, at the cost of potentially their lives… No matter how high the stakes were these people were so focused on getting their work done. It was like there was so much bubbling underneath the water. But at the surface they’re too busy getting what they need to do. There’s a bigger picture always. I really respected that about that [story] and… that‘s what I wanted to identify with William. So that was part of the discovery process.
And also, I talk a lot if you haven’t noticed. And I move a lot if you’ve ever met me. I’m very over-gesticulative. So William is far more contained and controlled than me. He’s a lot more smooth. Not in a contrived way. He’s just calmer, just more together than I am. I’m more neurotic like a normal actor. So it was kind of fun getting to explore the stillness compared to my own natural physicalization.
In Episode 4 we learn a lot more about William and his endgame and what he’s really after. Should we trust him now or is there more to it than that?
I want every single person to make their own opinion on that one. That’s all I’ll say. That’s the beauty of art, it’s subjective. Trust [William], don’t trust [William], make a judgment call… And I think that’s more fun, isn’t it?
Some fans have speculated that there could be a Kara/William romance at some point.
Wow! That’s an interesting speculation.
Is that something you can tease? Is there anything coming?
All I will say on something like that is that, on this show, fans are very passionate, and they have a whole bunch of ideas of what may or may not happen with love interests… People make up a whole bunch of theories and we’ll see which ones are real.
All right. Then can you tease what is next for William’s relationship with Kara? You’ve been antagonists up until this episode, but now that she knows William’s a good guy will working conditions be a little easier for everyone?
What you have to remember is I don’t think Kara gives a real impression of whether she truly trusts me in that moment… What you need to also remember is even if she does end up trusting me in episode 5, I still have to put on this face for everyone else because I can’t let anyone else know this is the truth. It puts everyone at risk… So regardless it will actually make the dynamic somewhat harder in certain ways at CatCo because I now have to play the double-game constantly... I have to keep the antagonist mask on for everyone else and be the nice guy for Kara so that duality is going to be harder for him to play.
That must be fun for you to play.
So much fun! It’s so rich in things I can use and play around with and he’s so push and pull because he has to be. There’s so much on the line for him in terms of uncovering Andrea [Rojas] and the whole family that he’s willing to do almost anything almost, I think.
William has mostly stayed within the CatCo family with Nia and Kara. Can we expect him to work with the larger Supergirl family at some point?
I mean, that would be awesome. I would love that. We’ll just have to wait to see. I think it all depends on whether Kara trusts William, and whether she trusts him in any capacity. So I would love to think so. I don’t know what I’d be helping with at the DEO…. But it’d be a lovely idea. I’d love that to happen.
Will we see more scenes between William and Andrea Rojas where there’s more playing up of the subtext of those conversations?
I think you will. But I couldn’t tell you for certain.
Can you tease what’s next for William?
A lot of emotions, a lot of journalism, and a lot of confusion.
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, David Harewood as Martian Manhunter, Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen and Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers.