Something strange is happening in Marais, Louisiana, and Matt Cable keeps finding himself right in the middle of it. In Swamp Thing, Henderson Wade plays a local police office who finds himself torn between his duty to his mother, Sheriff Lucilia Cable, and his affections for CDC doctor Abby Arcane, his old flame. However, the consequences of this conflict may be even bigger -- and swampier -- than he ever imagined.
Speaking to CBR, Wade explained why Swamp Thing isn't just any other comic book show. He broke down his character for new fans, describing Matt as "a really good guy who happens to do a bad thing," among other things. He shared why the show was so important to the cast and crew, as well as what it was like to work with Lucilia actor Jennifer Beals. He also teased where Season 2 would have taken Matt, how his season-ending twist informed his portrayal of the character, what he hopes fans take away from the series and more.
CBR: One of the reasons we're even speaking here today is due to The CW's re-airing of Swamp Thing Season 1. What would you want new viewers to know about the series before they sit down to watch it for the first time?
Henderson Wade: I think right now, there's this very specific window, genre-wise, where things are kind of transitioning away from -- not away, obviously, there's still going to be nothing but comic book movies at Marvel and DC. [laughs] I'm speaking about a comic book adaptation as a show, as it is, but I think there is a progression that's taking place where people are interested in horror again. You can tell, as a result of The Haunting of Bly Manor, or the popularity of Haunting of Hill House, or movies like The New Mutants having horror woven into it.
So that's probably what I would mention to a new viewer, is, "Hey, you're going to get all of the same melodramatic beats that you're used to seeing in other CW shows, but you're going to get it wrapped in a genuine horror production, and there's going to be jump scares. There's going to be parts that are really creepy. And interwoven in that is this really beautifully told, character-driven story, because ultimately, without the town of Marais, what good is Swamp Thing?"
It's also a lot of fun! More than anything else, I hope that when new viewers check out the show, the one thing that comes across more than anything else is just how much fun we as a cast and we as a crew had making it, and how much of ourselves we were trying to put into all of our characters to really make it the best show that it possibly could be.
If you were introducing Matt Cable to your friends, what would you tell them about him?
I'd tell them, first of all, he'll leave the uniform at home. That was a joke that we had with the wardrobe department. Everyone got these cool outfit changes, and every time I go in my trailer, here's the uniform, you know? And I'd joke! I'd say, "You know what's funny? The one time I'm going to be out of the uniform, it's going to be when Matt gets it in some way, shape or form." I just know how that goes, having played authority figures.
But if I were to go out on the town with Matt Cable, the first thing I'd probably say is, "He's just a genuinely good guy." He's very big-hearted. You saw on last [week]'s episode -- Lucilia mentions it -- he would give his arm to save somebody that he cared about. I think that sometimes that can be a detriment, and that can cloud his better judgment, as foreshadowed with his relationship with Abby, but the guy leads with his heart being on his sleeve.
As the season progresses, you see that he's not incapable of making a wrong decision, but if he does, he's going to do everything he possibly can to make it right. So I'd say he's a guy who loves Marais. He loves the place that he's from. He loves the people that live there. He's a man about town. Everybody knows who he is, and he knows everybody, and that's just the way he likes it. He's also a beer guy, too, so prepare to kick a few back. That's what I'd tell them.
Tell me a little about working with Jennifer Beals and developing Lucilia and Matt's relationship with her.
I've been really lucky to have amazing on-screen parents -- in particular, moms. I went from Halle [Berry] to Jennifer Beals. I mean, come on! So the cool thing about Jen is she's just somebody who loves the craft of acting, and it doesn't matter what she does. I kind of envision myself as being a nerd of the game, as well, and so working with her was like this dream come true.
I remember the first day I showed up, I had my moleskin with all my notes and things like that, because I didn't want to drop the ball sitting across from Jennifer Beals, you know? As we're sitting there, she just started chuckling to herself, and I get all self conscious, so I go, "What's funny?" She's like, "I can't wait to tell Will" -- Will Patton -- "that there are still actors out there who keep journals and keep notebooks." And again, I'm like, "Oh, well, um, I'll just put this behind me." And she's like, "Oh, no, no! That's the great thing about it! We're gonna get along swimmingly because of that!" And she couldn't have been more right.
Every scene that we had together, every time a script would come out, I'd be at her house in Wilmington and we'd break it down together and really just try to get to the bare bones of Matt and Lucilia's relationship. More than anything else in the show, that was the element of my role that I really, really am proud of, is the relationship between Lucilia and Matt, how that plays about in the city itself, in the town of Marais, and then how, obviously, everything is thrown topsy-turvy once Swamp Thing shows up.
Hypothetically speaking, if renewed interest in the show somehow resulted in a surprise Season 2 pickup, would you return to the role?
Yeah! Hell yeah! It's funny. I've talked to everybody involved. I don't know if you saw my Instagram takeover for the Swamp Thing account, but I stay in touch with everybody in the cast and a lot of the crew, like a lot of the local crew down in Wilmington, and we all had this common theme, whenever we talked about our experience shooting Swamp Thing. You get a chance, as an actor, if you're around long enough, you work on a lot of really good projects, and you can kind of pick and choose, like, "This cast was great," or "This crew was great," or "This location was great," or "This project itself was great." But you never get to say that about all of those elements combined in one, and Swamp Thing was that.
I mean, there's a reason why we're also up front, and we're all so present, and we're all being so public about how much we love the show, how much we're ecstatic that the show's back out there. It's because this was a passion project for all of us. When it started, we had no idea where it was going to go and obviously, the cancellation that came down, but this was a great show to be on, with incredible people top to bottom, in an incredible city in Wilmington, North Carolina. If the opportunity presented itself in any way, shape, or form to keep that party going, I would jump at the opportunity.
As I understand it, the show was cut from 13 episodes to 10 very late in the process. Did you ever get a glimpse of what would have happened in those cut episodes, and could you offer a tease about what we could have seen on the show?
I don't want to ruin anything for The CW, like the first-time CW viewers. I did have a hint as to where the three episodes that ultimately got cut were heading, because when we got the news. I was [going to see Verheiden] about episode 11 in a matter of hours to discuss what Matt was doing, and I will say episode 11 was very Matt-centric, in the sense that how the series ends, there was a little more of a slow build up to that cliffhanger.
Let me see how I can say this without giving too much away... Matt's ride was just starting when the season ended. We'll put it that way. So I know that things ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, but somehow, someway, us Cables are resilient, and Matt would have been around in some capacity for Season 2 and things would have only gotten crazier for him. I think I can say that.
Judging by how things go for him in the comics, I can only imagine!
Right! Exactly! So, if you're familiar with Matt, especially in the Alan Moore run, you know where his arc goes, and you know he becomes a little more involved in this whole Swamp Thing appearance than maybe he originally anticipated and maybe he's not as able to stay on the fringes of it as much. Put it this way: we were going to go there. [laughs]
So that's why it stung that much more when we got the news, because it was so sudden! I had just finished shooting that scene in the hospital with Jen when I got the news. I came off of set, went to the trailer, got my phone call from one of the producers and I was just like, "Are you kidding me? We were just in there rocking and rolling, man! We were creating magic in there!"
And nobody knew! It was one of those things where typically, something like that goes down, and it kind of has a trickle-down effect. It took everybody by surprise. So that's why this experience of The CW getting ahold of it again has been this amazing silver lining of an otherwise very crazy year.
There's a bit of a twist with Matt's character by the end of the season. Did the writers fill you in on that and, if so, how did that inform your portrayal in earlier episodes of the series?
I can tell you exactly when I found it out, and I'll give you a really funny anecdote. So when you get on a show, if you have creative people that are available, which we did, Mark -- showrunner and creator, if you ever have the opportunity to interview him, work with him, run, run as fast as you possibly can. I mean, this guy was available, forthcoming. He was just brimming with ideas, wanting to collaborate at every turn.
So when I got into town, I said, "Hey, is there any way I can sit down and discuss where I'm coming from with Matt and how you envisioned him?" And he said, "Yeah, sure." So I went into his office. As a good actor, you try to spout off a bunch of Alan Moore quotes and things like that. He's like, "Okay, okay, great, great, great. Let me just give you one heads up before we dive in here." And I said, "Sure, what's that?" And he's like, "There's one thing you need to know about Matt." And I said, "Okay! Yeah, hit me!" And he goes and he references the twist that you're talking about. He says, "Hey, I just need you to know that he's responsible for that." And my jaw hit the floor! I had no idea that that was coming.
The great note that Mark gave me over the course of the discussion was, "Matt is a really good guy who happens to do a bad thing, and he spends the remainder of the season" -- and obviously, at that point, it would have been the remainder of the series -- "trying to make up for it."
So I approached Matt, always keeping that in the back of my head: "Here's a guy who made a mistake, but ultimately is good. How do you bounce back from that?" I thought that was really reflective of what was taking place in the world, where there's a lot of people we perceive as being good, and they make a mistake, and it's not a matter of judging them on that misstep, but rather how they bounce back from it. So I went into playing Matt with that mentality.
What do you hope people take away from Swamp Thing?
Wow. I think less than a message, I just want -- you know, when we were creating the show, I had an opportunity to, obviously, talk to the cast, and we had some heart-to-hearts. You fall into this kind of comic book genre and you don't want to be written off as such, so we were always trying to make the best show possible, not the best comic book show possible.
Ultimately, in the back of my head, I always just wanted people to enjoy the show, have fun, be scared, and I don't know, maybe just be a little more honest with each other, because that's the one thing that gets everyone in Marais in a little bit of trouble is the secrets that we all hide. The more that they come out in the open and the more that you actually deal with them, the more you can move past them.
It's probably not the answer you expected coming from Swamp Thing. I probably could have given you a tagline like "Go green" or something like that, but that's really it. The more honest we can be with each other in our interactions, the less we'll have to deal with creatures of the night popping up and wreaking havoc, so keep it real, I guess!
Swamp Thing stars Crystal Reed, Andy Bean, Derek Mears, Jennifer Beals, Henderson Wade, Will Patton, Virginia Madsen, Jeryl Prescott and Kevin Durand. The entire series is currently available to stream on the DC Universe service and airs Tuesdays at 8 pm ET/PT on The CW.