Summary
- Collider’s Perri Nemiroff chats with Skyler Gisondo, Wendell Pierce, Mikaela Hoover, and Beck Bennett for Superman.
- The Daily Planet crew discusses how the changing journalism industry impacts the comic book characters they portray in James Gunn’s DCU kick-off.
- They also highlight how Rachel Brosnahan inspired them on set, and tease Easter eggs at their characters’ desks.
On July 11th, Superman kicks off the new DC Universe. Spearheaded by writer-director and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn, Superman is the first major release in the new era of heroes at the studio, and will arrive in theaters with sky-high expectations. The new film’s Man of Steel is David Corenswet, while Rachel Brosnahan portrays his whip-smart journalist love interest, Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult steps into the shoes of his arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor.
Joining Brosnahan at the Daily Planet is a supporting cast that chronicles the beating heart of Metropolis, including Skyler Gisondo as “Superman’s Pal,” Jimmy Olsen, and Wendell Pierce as the commanding editor-in-chief, Perry White. Rounding out the Daily Planet team are Mikaela Hoover as gossip columnist Cat Grant, and Saturday Night Live alumni Beck Bennett as the smug and cocky sports reporter Steve Lombard.
In an interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Bennett, Gisondo, Hoover, and Pierce discuss how modern journalism influenced their classic Superman characters. They also share production design Easter eggs, hinting that their desk decorations may reveal insights into their characters’ personalities. You can check out the full conversation in the video above or the transcript below.
The Daily Planet Embraces Modern-Day Journalism in ‘Superman’
“We’ll get the story and maybe survive.”
PERRI NEMIROFF: One of the things that fascinates me most about the Daily Planet in this movie is that journalism and the state of it has changed quite a bit since we last saw a Superman story on the big screen. Can you each tell me how you opted to embrace that in your character, how them being a modern-day journalist in this movie sets them apart from any other iteration of the character we’ve seen?
WENDELL PIERCE: I think it’s a sense of desperation for Perry to make sure to keep the Daily Planet afloat. That’s the real threat for him. He’s suspicious of this Clark Kent. He has his eye on him, and he thinks that he knows that something’s up. He likes the idea that we’ll get the story and maybe survive because newspapers are on the way out.
I like a leader that’s looking out like that.
PIERCE: That’s right.
SKYLER GISONDO: Thank god Rachel [Brosnahan] spent so much time with actual reporters. She’s such a pro. It didn’t occur to me to think to do that. It probably should have, but I showed up, and Rachel was like the person on a group project who kind of does, like, 90% of the work. So I was like, basically, as a general rule, whatever she’s doing, I’ll follow suit. That, I think, worked well for our characters. Thank god that she’s a professional and did that.
BECK BENNETT: That is awesome. You’re like, “I kind of just let Rachel take the lead, and I kind of did whatever she did. She’s really good.” [Laughs]
GISONDO: She’s great.
BENNETT: I feel like for Steve, he wants attention. Back in the day, it’d be like, you’re a journalist — it’s not about you, it’s about the story. And I think Steve is really like, “It’s actually about me. I want a front-page story. Why are sports not taken more seriously?” So, I think he’s trying to make things a little bit more about him. It’s more about opinions, I feel like, these days than it used to be. So I think he’s, like, vying for that more.
I very much saw that quality leaping off the screen in your performance.
I’m very curious about Cat as a gossip columnist …
MIKAELA HOOVER: I think social media has helped Kat, and she works with it, because she wants to know, like, “Is this celebrity dating this person?” So she looks at their follower list and, like, “Do they like this photo?” That’s how she can really get in the weeds of it. So, I think it’s only helped her. She’s very locked in with the social media, knowing who’s dating who, who’s in a fight, who’s breaking up, anything. She’s locked in.
7:12
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“These are two people who have met their match.”
Look Out for Easter Eggs on the Daily Planet Desks
“I wish I could have taken it home.”
I want to lean into the production design now because it’s incredible across the board in this movie, but I just love how little details can say so much about a character, particularly when it comes to what is on someone’s desk. For your desks and your office, is there any little detail in the production design that you appreciated and maybe said something about who they are?
BENNETT: Steve kind of shows that he’s a little bit of a kid. Like, he has a little golf ball globe game where he tries to get it on the tee. He’s got his baseball mitt and a ball that’s important to him. He’s got his little tchotchkes. So he’s like a little kid, you know? That’s kind of what it said. I like that they had that in his workspace for me when I was on set.
GISONDO: There’s a photo of Jimmy with two girls on my desk. I don’t think there’s ever even a close-up of it. I don’t think it’s a plot point, but we shot it. It was the first thing I did as Jimmy, is we did this little photo shoot so we could have it on my desk, and it always made me laugh looking at it. I’m sure if you screen grab at a certain point, you’d see it. But yeah, the set, especially the Daily Planet set, was filled with details like that.
Do I dare ask if you have a backstory for that photo? Who are they?
GISONDO: It’s unclear. I think friends. I don’t know. We’d have to ask James.
HOOVER: Women who were in love with him.
BENNETT: Maybe he thought they were friends. They probably thought they were a lot more.
HOOVER: One of the many women who are in love with him.
PIERCE: For me, it was the Daily Planet globe in the middle of the newsroom. It keyed into the whole world for me. It really means everything to Perry, and it was so central to the whole design of the newsroom that I wish I could have taken it home, but I don’t have a couple of acres where it would sit perfectly. That really defined it for me.
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Get your news straight from Jimmy Olsen himself.
Maybe not that, but I hope you got to keep something from that set!
PIERCE: I actually did not. I was thinking about that. I did not take anything because it’s a hot set. You don’t want to mess it up because, the sequel is… Never mind! [Laughs]
HOOVER: Yeah. You never know.
How about for Cat’s desk? Anything fun there?
HOOVER: She had little Cat things that Cat would have, like a free pen, but I really wanted to take the globe, too. I mean, that is what really felt, when we stepped in there, like we are in the Daily Planet.
PIERCE: I wish we had a little one. Now those would have gone! If we had a little Daily Planet globe on each desk, that would have been in my office like that.
Superman releases in theaters and IMAX on July 11.
