The casts and creators of The Flash and Arrow speak with The Advocate about the ways these shows are changing the face of television in this episode of Advocate Spotlight.
The cast and creators from The Flash and Arrow weigh in on their shows' inclusion of people of color, out actors, and LGBT characters.
Posted by Advocate Spotlight on Monday, March 30, 2015
By including LGBT characters and filling roles with people of color and out gay actors, the CW networksArrowandThe Flashhave set a new standard for the way superheroes are depicted on TV.
The casts and creators from each series spoke with The Advocate earlier this month at Paleyfest, the annual festival that salutes creative excellence in television, and shared why they're proud to be a part of shows that are models for greater diversity in the genre.
Its great, says Grant Gustin,the actor who brings DCs Scarlet Speedster to life on the small screen, adding, Thats just kind of how TV should be now in 2015, to be honest.
The Flashmade history earlier this year when it introduced views to Pied Piper, the first gay supervillain to ever appear in a TV series based on a mainstream comic book. I love when they brought Pied Piper along, says Danielle Panabacker, who plays Dr. Caitlin Snow onThe Flash. Its sad to me that it has to be a brave thing to bring a character like that on television, but I love that were doing it.
Panabackers sentiments are echoed byArrowactor Paul Blackthorne (Quentin Lance) when he is asked about an historic moment on his show just one year earlier, when Sara Lance/Black Canary was introduced as TVs first bisexual superhero. Its nice that they put that stuff in the show and if thats helping to sort of ground break in any way then thats great, he says. G*d bless the bisexuals of this world, I say, and everyone in between and beyond.
In addition to enriching each series with a diverse range of characters, these shows are also changing the genre from the inside by expanding the pool of actors who play them. Hearing from fans, especially blerds black nerds and fans of color, its really important for them to see themselves represented in comic books, says Candice Patton, who play Iris West on The Flash a character previously depicted onlyas a white female. Comic books are beloved by so many, and so I think were finally seeing more and more ethnicity in these shows, and for me to be a part of that, its not lost on me.
Its blind casting, and weve been waiting for it for a long, long time. And thank G*d its here, adds out actor John Barrowman, the man who has been making bad look oh-so-good as Oliver Queens nemesis Malcolm Merlyn/The Dark Archer since the first season ofArrow.
But while these strides are changing the way audiences see the never-ending battle between good and evil depicted on TV, Barrowman says hed like to see LGBT representation in a superhero series leap even taller obstacles in a single bound.
When asked if he thought American audiences were ready to see a gay superhero like Flash or Arrow in a series of their own, he replies, Personally, I dont care if they are, or not. Its time we had one.
Read More: Arrow and The Flash Creator Greg Berlanti Aims to Make TV Superheroes "Look Like America"
Source: http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2015/03/31/arrow-and-flash-stars-its-time-gay-superhero-tv-video
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