From Broadway musicals like Newsies, to movie musicals like The Last Five Years and singing on the small screen in Smash, Jeremy Jordan is no stranger to heighten realities. There is no more heightened reality than the super hero universe, which is where he finds himself now.
Jordan plays Winslow Schott, the best friend to Kara Danvers, aka Supergirl. The show is an action-adventure drama based on the cousin of everyone’s favorite Man of Steel. Based on the DC Comics character Kara Zor-El, after 12 years of hiding her powers, decides to finally embrace her superhuman abilities and be the hero she was always meant to be.
So what brought Jeremy into this world of superheroes?
“I am a Broadway theatre guy, I do a lot of music and singing, so it was kind of my goal this year to come out to LA for pilot season and expand my horizons. This is what hit and it’s a perfect fit for me. I’m pumped! People always asked me before I got this ‘What do you want to do?” I really wanted to be a super hero, so we are half way there!” he says with a laugh.
Jordan plays the title characters best friend, but the character also shares a name with a well-known villain in the DC Universe. Is this a hint to the characters future?
“No, as of now, he shares the same name as an infamous villain from the DC universe, but that’s all he shares at the moment. We are creating new and interesting origin stories for all of these characters, including mine. So he is being re-imagined and how far he goes towards that I think it yet to be seen. It would be really fun to explore how much he can change over throughout the course of the series. Right now he is this youthful, really fun, excited, and a kid who’s best friend just told him she is a superhero. And there is a bit of unrequited love there, so maybe that takes us somewhere. I’m just guessing I really have no idea.”
Jeremy is not the only Broadway baby in this show, as Laura Benanti plays Alura Zor-El, the birth mother of Kara (Glee actress Melissa Benoist). Is there a parallel to performing in the theatre that makes the transition into a comic based television show a bit easier?
“Sure, especially for my character. He is very excitable and he sort of lives in this strange hyper reality. Especially once he finds out whom his best friend Kara really is, it becomes a hyperbolic world all around him. You also have to find the grounded quality and the camera is right there, so if you’re making too big of a face it can seem like much. For me I am still learning and growing and finding the nuances that make film different than theatre. I think it’s an underestimated world of actors that people can sometimes brush aside saying ‘that’s not real’ or that it’s something that doesn’t translate to other things. Hopefully we can prove them all wrong.”
Check out Jeremy as Winslow in Supergirl premiering Monday, October 26th at 8:30pm on CBS!
