It’s time for another look at Doom Patrol, as the fourth season has premiered on HBO Max. This superhero TV series follows a DC Comics team of heroes and the cast recently spoke about Doom Patrol Season 4 and what fans of the show can expect from it.
Michelle Gomez, who portrays Laura De Mille/Madame Rouge, said that her favorite part of playing the character this season was showing the multiple sides of the character.
“Getting to play multiple facets of myself that isn’t just about being kick-ass … she was struggling a lot this year with trying to do the next right thing, trying to find the goodness in her that she felt like she had,” revealed Gomez. “Last year at the end of the season, she was really wanting to be part of the team more as a family member than as a sort of peripheral. So this year’s more of that, more of trying to fit in and her struggling with always trying to tear the house down. That’s her instinct.”
April Bowlby, who portrays Rita Farr, spoke about how her character has changed since becoming the new leader of Doom Patrol at the end of Season 3. “It has made her more cocksure of herself. Rita gets a little carried away because she takes it very seriously, she gives everyone code names, she dresses in her fabulous crime-fighting outfit, [and] she goes all the way with her acting abilities to be leader, which, in turn, ostracizes the Doom Patrol because they don’t want to be told what to do and how to do it, so she kind of gets taken down a notch and there has to be a resolution that comes in mid-season.”
Bowlby states her favorite part of playing Rita this season was “the evolution of Rita. At the end of the season, she really becomes a full-functioning, beautiful, loving human being, so there are a lot of things that happen to her to make that happen, but it really is the best.”
Joivan Wade portrays Victor Stone/Cyborg, and he spoke about how his portrayal of the character has evolved over the years.
“I would say the character has evolved in just being more experimental with the character. I really tried to create a human first. We’ve seen different iterations of the character [that are] more cybernetic, but my favorite iteration of the character was always Teen Titans, Khary Payton’s animations,” explained Wade. “So what I loved about that is the opportunity we’ve got to really fill Vic as a human, so that’s something I’ve always tried to build into the character and really live with and I felt like that’s been able to develop over the years and just being more comfortable in that space, so we get to see even more of that to the point where it’s manifested into Vic actually being full human and full just Vic without the cybernetics, so it’s a great opportunity. It’s a great journey.”
Wade’s favorite part of playing Cyborg this season was, “Getting to really go back and connect with him just being a black man in Detroit and connect with his old school ways of being and living, and there are questions that he’s asking from himself, like what it means to be a superhero as Vic Stone without all the superpowers and I haven’t been able to live that journey yet. I haven’t been able to go on that journey as Vic Stone, and so this season, we get to live in that space, we get to really connect, and also take a backseat a little bit and figure out how he can navigate and how he can still keep his superhero status without superpowers, so that’s been a real challenge for me, even as an actor, this season, and I’m looking forward to you guys seeing it.”
The first three episodes of Doom Patrol Season 4 are now streaming on HBO Max.
