The following contains spoilers for Titans Season 4, Episode 5, "Inside Man," now streaming on HBO Max.
Despite their heroism and extraordinary abilities, the Titans can't wage a war against evil on their own; they need allies. One such individual is Bernard, portrayed by actor James Scully. Introduced in the Season 4 premiere, "Lex Luthor," Bernard serves as the Director of Special Projects at S.T.A.R. Labs in Metropolis. In addition to supplying the Titans with hi-tech gizmos, he catches the eye of Tim Drake, and the two begin a flirty relationship. Tim even sends his S.T.A.R. Labs nerd pics of him posing with the Bo staff that Bernard set him up with. However, hanging with the Titans is a surefire way of landing in danger. Episode 5, "Inside Man," finds Bernard and Tim hunting down one of Mother Mayhem's supernatural snakes in the lab, but soon enough, the hunters become the prey.
Scully recently spoke with CBR about his love of the Titans. He dove into finding Bernard's voice for the HBO Max series, filming opposite a CGI snake, and his character's kiss with Tim Drake.
CBR: How aware were you of the Titans and its lore before joining the show?
James Scully: I was very, very, very aware. I was a huge fan of the cartoon growing up, and then, later in my life, I moved to New York City and had access to Midtown Comics and started collecting comic books. I loved it. I loved the characters. It was one of the first shows I watched as a young person, especially one of the first cartoons I watched where I felt [that] I, as a 13-year-old, as an adolescent, like the characters on the screen, was being taken seriously. They weren't just spoon-feeding me cyclical monster-of-the-week plots. These characters were really going through things and really changing and being challenged --not just as superheroes but as people. The very clear anime influences in the cartoon are what introduced me to anime as an art form, which is now my favorite thing in the world.
So, yeah, I was a really big fan. My team also represents Teagan Croft, who plays Raven, so I was hearing about it. My manager Charles was like, "Oh, Teagan is working on Titans. This is how it is going." I remember auditioning for [the] Episode 1 or 2 bad guy in the first or second season. I don't even remember the name of the character. It was so long ago. I was like, "Ohhh... to be on this show would be so cool." It didn't go my way, which in retrospect, I am hugely thrilled by because if it had, I obviously could never have been Bernard. When I saw the word "Titans" in my Email inbox, I was like, "I am definitely going to tape for it. I don't know if they are going to give me the job, but I would absolutely take it if they did." Then, finding out who the character was and what his arc through the season was going to be, it was a really easy yes. I am so glad I took it and ended up doing it.
Not much is known about Bernard besides his role as Director of Special Projects at S.T.A.R. Labs. What was your sense of him from the breakdown and the scripts?
They have to be a little coy in the breakdown. They can't send an appointment to a bunch of actors who are going to post, "Oh, they are giving Robin a boyfriend in Season 4." With the background information I have and talking to my manager and reading between the lines... and because in the audition packet, the name of the character was Bernard... I was able to piece together what was going on. It was interesting because I could tell right away that he was not going to be the character of Bernard as realized in the comic books. They were aiming older, and they were going in a different direction with it. That was kind of a relief because I am not a 17-year-old boy. I am not going to be able to realize that, but it also meant I didn't necessarily have a guideline to what he needed to be. So, it was sort of figuring it out.
I think a really clarifying experience was my final fitting when I saw the costumes that they were going to have me wearing. When I reflected on his styling and reflected on what I did in the tape, I was like, "I know who this guy is. I think I know who this person needs to be," especially in the context of the Titans. I was interested in bringing an energy to the team that was not already there. I can't be another Dick Grayson. I can't be another Superboy. I definitely could never be Starfire, even if I really wanted to be... and I do. That's how we arrived at a little persnickety, a little dry and anxious Bernard, but a very competent and focused Bernard that we got.
I got to talk to Rich Hatem, one of the writers, before I took the job, and between doing the tape and then accepting the job, they let me read the first script. Something I was really attracted to was the way that he manifests the obvious passion he has for the work that the Titans do, and also the warmth that he has for these people, the care that he has in talking to Conner about Kal-El ,and the care that he has for Tim, and the faith and the pride that he has in Dick Grayson... I really liked those humanizing characteristics. It was giving a little Mother Hen vibes to the Titans, which was something I tied to bring in. Again, not as effectively as Starfire -- she can't be touched -- but my version of that.
I think it's also fun because the Titans are a new experience for Bernard. He's a seasoned professional in working with superheroes, but the Titans exist in this weird little pocket of the DC Universe where all of this crazy, kooky stuff is happening. It was fun to find Bernard at this moment in his life, where he was like, "You know, I thought I had seen everything, and then a giant black snake came out of Superboy's mouth and chased me across the lab. Now I have seen everything."
Simply being in the proximity of the Titans puts Bernard in jeopardy. How much were you anticipating that moment? Were you dreading it a little bit, or were you eager to leap into action mode?
At some level, I think Bernard wishes he had super-strength or super-speed or laser-vision. On one hand, it's really exciting. He now feels he isn't just support staff, not just handing somebody a Batarang and being like, "Godspeed." He feels in the trenches with them, doing the work and wading through the goo. On the other hand, it's really scary. He is not a superhero. He is not super-durable. If that snake bites him, it's going to pierce the skin. He's very conflicted, and that very much mirrors how he feels about Tim's involvement in the team.
While he respects Tim's convictions and believes in the mission that Tim has for himself and the work that he wants to do in making the world a safer and better place, he's also like, "Tim doesn't have super-strength or heat vision or super-invulnerability. He's just a guy with gadgets that I have provided, but ultimately just a guy." It's very back-and-forth. Bernard wants to be a part of it, and he wants to be helpful, but he also doesn't want to be chased down a hallway by a giant snake again. He didn't like that part. I was like, "I can't wait to get to the scenes with the giant snake. No more talking about technology. Let's bring on the giant snake, please."
Indeed, Bernard and Tim go on this hunt to find this gigantic snake and eventually must evade the snake. They are on the run through the labs. What was it like filming that sequence? It's not like there was a real-life reptile slithering after you.
No, what we had was a pool noodle on a stick. The first hurdle was not giggling every time it came on camera. We often joked that Tim and Bernard need their own comedy spinoff series, where it's just them traveling along the countryside and solving crimes, solving mysteries. Jay Lycurgo is a silly, silly guy. We had a lot of laughs on set. Sometimes within those scenes where we had to take things very seriously, we would run, run, run, and get to the end of the hall, and then a pool noodle would slide across the floor. It was just, "Keep it together. Come on. You have to imagine that's a giant, giant snake." We are also shooting all of that out of order. Seeing the snake, running from the snake, and getting back into the lab -- those were all different days and different places. It was a lot of checking in before we would start shooting and being like, "Sorry. Where in the timeline of finding the snake are we? Where are we in space?" Those were fun days.
As silly as Jay is, he is always ready to go there, all the way there. He is fully committed as an actor. In that scene where we had to run down the hallway, I fall, and he comes back to get me. The first time we shot it, when I fell, I was taken aback. He was like, "BERNARD!" He grabbed me. I'm a little bit bigger than he is, but he fully lifted me off the floor and had me down the hallway in a couple of seconds. It was ultimately a lot of fun.
Bernard and Tim share a kiss that episode. What have you enjoyed about how that relationship has blossomed over the season?
Something I think is really cool about the way they have decided to tell this story is that none of the tension or conflict or drama is really rooted in the fact that either of these characters are queer. It's a given. Tim tells the team, "Oh yeah, I kissed Bernard," and they are like "Oh, okay. Cool." Bernard is gay, and we don't have a conversation about that. It never has to be spoon-fed to the audience. It just happens very naturally. Of course, there will inevitably be tension and conflict about other things later in the relationship, but right now, we are at a turning point telling stories about the LGBTQ community where it's no longer how sad and painful it is to be a part of that community.
Those stories still need to be told. We still need to honor those experiences, and we still need to reflect on and challenge homophobia, transphobia, and queerphobia in the world, but that doesn't have to be the summation of who we are as storytellers. That doesn't have to be every story that we tell about queer love. It's like so many other love stories that have been told between heterosexual couples on television since the dawn of time. It unfolds really sweetly, earnestly, and simply. That day, on set, director Jen McGowan knew it was going to be really special. As a fan of the series, as a fan of the characters, and an out gay actor, it was really important to me.
Developed for television by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and Greg Berlanti, Titans releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.