Doom Patrol is a new superhero team on the DC Universe streaming service. Perhaps even lesser known than the Suicide Squad, Doom Patrol will introduce viewers to Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser), Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer), Rita Farr (April Bowlby), Victor Stone (Joivan Wade) and Crazy Jane (Dianne Guerrero) and their nemesis Eric Morden (Alan Tudyk). Each have superhero alter egos.
The cast of Doom Patrol were on a Television Critics Association panel last week, except for Bomer who was busy filming scenes for the show. Get to know your Doom Patrol before the show premieres on DC Universe Friday, February 15.
Brendan Fraser IS Robotman! Cliff Steele’s brain has been placed into a robot after a fatal automobile accident.
“I provide the voice of Robotman. He’s Cliff Steele. It’s a partnership of sorts that I share with Riley Shanahan, an actor who is about the same height, weight, size, except not as handsome. [Joking] Riley and I, surprisingly we went to the same college some 20 odd years ago. We have similar training and I feel like he’s doing the heavy lifting and I’m adding the voice when I’m not playing Cliff Steele, who is the race car driver in you see in the flesh. No, I don’t wear the suit that often, pieces of it in episodes, but stay tuned.”
Diane Guerrero IS Crazy Jane, with 64 different personalities.
“I was just hungry for a part like this. When I first saw the material I didn’t know anything about the comic book, and they didn’t give me much information but I just saw how complex and dynamic this role was, and I really wanted to challenge myself and believe me, this show has challenged me. My actual therapist is on hiatus, because I get to really express myself on this show, and it’s worked wonders. I’m actually my best self that I’ve ever been. So when a show, you know, when we complete our 15 episodes, talk to me about how crazy I am then.”
Joivan Wade IS Cyborg, who you may have seen before.
“What’s really exciting is the fact that you know, you’ve got the CW world, in its own universe, but this new DC universe is another opportunity for us to be able to cross over and essentially live in a world which hasn’t been seen. And I think when it comes to Cyborg specifically, we’re in a world in which it’s a different version in which we’ve seen in the past, where it be the Justice League or any other version. And it’s a great opportunity for me, personally, to be able to kind of have my own take on it, and really bring it to life in a way that hasn’t been seen yet. This is an earlier Cyborg. It’s a version of him in which is coming into his powers, and essentially he’s a long way off of the Justice League if you will. You can really see a clear distinction between this version of the character and other versions.”
April Bowlby IS Elasti-Girl, a former movie star now trying to hold her body together:
“I watched Star with Bette Davis and of course Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson. She just has a fun cadence to her, very ’50s, put together and so I just watched a bunch. There’s a great Twilight Zone about an actress who’s narcissistic and falls into her own stories. I think that’s very much Rita. She can’t quite get a grip on reality and so she creates this own story and she lives in the ’50s, which is why she’s so rigid and controlled. And, when things don’t go here way and she has to go outside of her comfort zone she blobs out. She doesn’t like that; she doesn’t like to look not so great. Most of [the blob effect] is CGI. There are some prosthetics that they put on. It’s only happened once with the prosthetics, most of it is CGI and we have a great stunt team. So, they teach me how to move as a blob and they take from that and create the CGI around it. I’m very supported in the effort. It’s mostly not me at all.”
Alan Tudyk IS Mr. Nobody, the villain and narrator.
“I really like the writing for the voiceover of the show. Since he is the villain and he has distain for a lot of these characters, he doesn’t hide it. He’s not this omniscient character who’s like, ‘And then this happened.’ He’s saying the team of superheroes, ‘Oh, God, another team of superheroes, shoot me!’ And it’s appropriate that he’s the narrator because he’s in here trying to narrate everyone’s life and doing a good job of it, coming in and puppeteering.”
