SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "The Eradicator," the latest episode of Superman & Lois.
Every good villain needs a henchman, and Leslie Larr really stepped up to the plate for Morgan Edge -- but she wasn't always so evil. In Superman & Lois Season 1, Lois and Clark discovered Edge was using Kryptonian technology to implant Kryptonian consciousnesses into innocent Smallville citizens. So, at one point her life, Larr was actually Irma Sayres, an ordinary human who joined Edge EnerCorp as Edge's assistant. Eventually, he used the Eradicator on her, overwriting her with the Kryptonian Larr and transforming her into the deadly superhuman she is today.
Speaking to CBR, Superman & Lois star Stacey Farber got to the core of who Larr really is and what makes her tick. She recalled her audition process, as well as her enthusiastic reaction when she learned she would have superpowers on the series. She commended Larr's commitment to her cause, even while condemning her deadly ambitions. She revealed what Edge saw in Larr and how she bonded with costar Adam Raynor over chess. She also broke down Larr's major fight scene with John Henry "Steel" Irons, teased a confrontation with Lois Lane in the season finale 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 learn the true nature of Leslie Larr's character?
Stacey Farber: So I auditioned via audition self tape, which is how actors audition for things. Actually, we've been doing it for so long, to be honest. But basically, when the pandemic hit, there could be no castings in person anymore. So casting directors were limited exclusively to receiving self tapes. So basically, it's the same material for an audition; they send you a character description, and they send you a few scenes that you hopefully memorize, and you read with somebody. But instead of going in to do that with a casting director, you do it yourself, at home, on your iPhone, or a different camera.
So yeah, for this one, last August, I got an audition for the new Superman show, and I did know it was Superman. They said she was in her 30s. Although with character breakdowns, the descriptions, they can change all the time, so these are always just brush strokes of what they may be looking for... I'm gonna pull it up. Here we go: "Superman and Lois. Leslie, the right hand to one of the most influential people on the planet, she's gone from a young, idealistic dreamer to a hardened world-worn dream killer. Athletic, drawn and oftentimes heartless." And then they used some other words: they said, "She can have an edge to her, but she can hide it. She's complicated. She's at the right hand of a very powerful and possibly dangerous person, and she's very good at what she does."
So usually, when I get a character description, I just pick a few things that they've described and think about how I can play those or how I relate to those, because I don't think it's wise to try and hit every single thing they listed. Sometimes they don't even know what they want.
Basically, based on that description, I think I assumed she was right hand to Lex Luthor, and that Lex Luthor would be the evil guy on the show, because they didn't say who Leslie was supporting. They didn't say, also, that she had any powers, but they said she's athletic and strong, and so I was hopeful. I was hopeful.
Then basically, once I had the role, I had a Zoom meeting with the showrunner Todd [Helbing], who's amazing. He broke it down for me and did say Leslie's actually a metahuman. She has Kryptonian consciousness put into her. She eventually will have powers. She will be able to fly; she will have heat vision. And of course, at that point, I was like, "Fuck yeah!" Sorry for swearing! [laughs] Yeah, "I am so glad I booked this role! This is awesome."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Leslie is a departure from a lot of the other characters you've played in the past. What were some of the challenges, and perhaps opportunities, you discovered while playing this role?
I mean, that's why I wanted it! That's the whole fun. That's the best part of acting, I think. You get to push yourself to try on different people and different stories. So yeah, this is very different from what I've done. I was loving playing someone who is threatening and hopefully a little scary.
I wouldn't say I worried, but I was conscious the whole time of my size. I'm 5' 3" and sort of small and fighting opposite Tyler [Hoechlin] in his suit as Superman. I was like, "Am I scary enough? Could I take this guy down?" Then I just had to lean in and think, "Yeah, Leslie's powerful. Leslie is on a mission. Leslie has superpowers, also. So yeah, she could take him down." But yeah, that was interesting.
Also not saying a lot throughout most of the season and just glaring at people to communicate, that was new. Then the physical stuff, like the flying, the combat, the going up on wires, being on a green screen -- I've never been on a green screen before! That was really interesting to learn how that works and how they film these things. It was really cool.
If you were bringing Leslie along on a night on the town with your friends, how would you describe her to them?
I would never bring her for a night on the town, first of all! [laughs] I'd probably be embarrassed. I'd be like, "Yeah, I know. She's cold. I know. She's tough to be around. But I swear, guys, if you just get to know her, she really opens up." I wouldn't bring her out.
But yeah, I would describe her as serious. She's a serious person. She's very impassioned, which I have to respect. She's very committed to her work. I'd probably call her a workaholic. She could afford to loosen up a bit. She could afford to let some light into her life, I think, because she's pretty cold and she has a one track mind. I respect her commitment to her work and to her cause, but I think she needs to relax a little. She needs a little self-care.
Which aspect of the character do you relate to the most and why?
I like to think I'm warmer than she is. I would probably relate to her commitment to her cause. I mean, I can't say that in terms of activism or anything super admirable like that. Not yet, anyway. But I feel like I've been on a long journey with the entertainment industry and with acting.
I've been doing this since I was -- I think I got an agent when I was 12, and I did a few things before Degrassi, but then I booked Degrassi. I think I was 14. So I feel like I've been on this path that feels not like a mission, but it just feels like this thing sometimes that's bigger than me. I don't have a lot of control over it. There have been times when I've wanted to quit and I've tried to quit but then I booked something and I get sucked back in, and then I love it again. It's just this thing that's bigger than me, and it's taken me to different cities, it's shaped relationships I have and don't have. It's been a huge, huge part of me.
I guess I can relate to that feeling of having this thing that you're committed to that takes up a lot of your energy. Except hers is trying to kill people and ruin the world. [laughs] Mine isn't that; mine's just a career.
Leslie has been loyal to almost a fault to Tal-Rho. What do you think it is she sees in him, and vice versa?
I think the writers had different ideas for it. I only say that because one of the scenes I auditioned with, which was never filmed -- so it could have been dummy sides, which is basically like, sometimes for an audition, they just give you random stuff that's in line with what they want to see, but isn't actually from the script -- so it could have been that, but I think there was a backstory that they had for this character to explain how she became who she is.
From what I gathered from that, originally, before she met Morgan Edge, she was a really ambitious and smart and successful scientist and researcher and just a brilliant person, but ordinary and very sweet. What he saw in her, in that case, would be the potential to help him accomplish what he wants to accomplish. I don't know if he looked at her physically and thought she'd be good, but but certainly in terms of what she brought to the table psychologically and mentally, and probably her ambitions appealed to him. He probably thought she was naive and he could corrupt her, as terrible people often do.
Of all the other characters on the series, it looks like you worked most closely with Adam Raynor. Tell me a little more about that experience. I'd like to imagine he isn't very much like Morgan Egde, or so I'd hope.
Imagine! [laughs] I'm like, "Actually, he's very much like that." No, he was wonderful. We were filming in the pandemic, and it added this whole other layer of craziness to filming. Normally, when you film a show, you you get close to the actors and the crew, but mostly the actors, because you have long days on set together, and then you're off and you're in a city where you sometimes know nobody. So it's kind of like summer camp. You're in a bubble together.
But add a pandemic onto that, and borders being closed, and half the cast being American and Adam living in the UK, where his family is, it was intense. So we really had to rely on each other and figure out ways to spend our downtime. It was also scary, with COVID.
So yeah, it was definitely a bonding experience, and what he and I would do is we would play chess a lot. I'm terrible at chess! But we don't have friends in common! He has a wife and two little kids; I'm single and child-free. We just have different backgrounds. So I guess we were sort of thinking, "Well, what can we connect on and what can we share?" And one thing we found was chess, and so we would get together a lot outside because that was COVID-safe and we would play chess.
He was good and would play online most days, and then he would teach me and we'd have coffee and play chess. It was great, and he became a good friend. Isn't that funny? And actually, I would play with fewer pieces so that I could have a fighting chance. One time, I won, and he was so mad at himself because he's more competitive than I am. I don't really care who wins, but I did really enjoy winning that day.
In the latest episode, Leslie gets to really throw down with Steel, which I imagine required quite a bit of stunt and VFX work. What did that process look like for you?
It's amazing. It's really fascinating to see how it comes together, and it's shocking to see how quick it cuts together based on how much time we spend doing it. Yeah, it's really cool. I was intimidated when I first started. It's hard to explain! I wish we were in person and I could show you this, but little things like when one of the characters flies up into the sky. The way we film that is that you're literally standing across from each other in the scene, and then whoever's flying basically bends their knees and looks up and then jumps and then lands back on the ground. Then the other actor has to follow them up as if they've gone into the sky, and then basically CGI will take care of that.
But I thought it was so silly, watching Tyler, for instance -- like, Superman -- jump up and then just land a second later. It's kind of dorky, it's kind of awkward, but that's how you get the shot so that it works in the big fancy cut. So there's things like that.
Then, yeah, there's wire work; you have to wear a harness under your super suit, which is pretty uncomfortable. They hoist you up on this machine in the studio and there's green screens all around you, and they tell you what you're looking at so that you can react to things, which is difficult to do, and they blow wind on you. I had to have a rehearsal where I learned -- they wanted to put me in the harness and put me on the machine so that I was comfortable before we actually did it on set. On that day, I got to choose how I fly. Like, "Do I put both arms up? Do I fly with my arms down? Do I have one hand up?" That was so neat.
Then actually, I saw [Season] 1 [Episode] 14 and part of the sequence that was cut, because they cut so much stuff -- it's crazy -- in all of the episodes, we just filmed so much and then they shape it later. But one of the things I had to do was Leslie runs up to Steel's hammer and gets electrocuted and then falls back. They took that out of the sequence, probably because I did it badly.
We were on set on the day and the director was like, "Okay" -- we film it in pieces -- and so the director was like, "Okay, so now you're going to run up, you're going to touch the hammer, you get electrocuted, you fall down, and then we'll cut." And I was like, "Okay, but what? What do you mean? How do I get electrocuted?" And she's like, "You just walk up. You get electrocuted." I'm like, "But is the -- the hammer is made of foam? What do you mean, I get electrocuted?" And she's like, "You just act electrocuted." And I was like, "How do you act electrocuted? I'm not a dancer! I didn't go to school and train for moving my body in a way that's getting electrocuted!"
So I just had to go for it. I was like, "Okay, this was one of those moments. Just figure it out! You've got to figure it out and do your best and that's all you can do." So I had to do a bunch of takes where I walk up to this hammer with purpose and rage and grab it and pretend to get electrocuted and fall down and just have faith that the CGI geniuses would make it look incredible. I'm sure they did, or tried to. It's things like that are really silly and really embarrassing sometimes, but once it goes through the editing process, it looks really cool.
What is one moment or scene from the season finale that you just can't wait for fans to see?
Well, I haven't seen the finale, so I can't say what it looks like, but one thing that I loved filming was, finally, Leslie and Lois got to exchange words and have a confrontation. I thought it was a really interesting scene to film, and I really enjoyed acting opposite Bitsie [Tulloch] for that.
New episodes of Superman and Lois air Tuesdays on The CW.