SHAUN SIPOS

The actor talks playing adam strange in superman prequel Krypton

Turn and face the Strange. That’s Adam Strange, to be precise, as we meet the star of Krypton.

Shaun Sipos’ track record reeks of death. In fact, death first claimed the actor in Final Destination 2. Those untimely and violent demises continued in Texas Chainsaw 3D, The Vampire Diaries and Dark Matter. So far – touch wood – the Canadian native has managed to avoid any fatality on his current gig, Krypton. Not that he’s been playing it safe.

The TV series finds Sipos portraying Adam Strange, a time traveller who journeys to Krypton’s past to thwart a plot to wipe Superman from existence. Last year, Adam survived dangers like the monstrous Doomsday, the power-hungry Zod, rioting rebels and, worst of all, the Collector of Worlds, Brainiac. But given how the stakes keep escalating in season two, bodily harm again appears inevitable for Sipos. And he wouldn’t have it any other way…

How much of Krypton is Adam’s journey to discovering his inner hero as much as it is for Seg?

I think they parallel one another. The story serves both, and that’s just good writing. A lot of the season is Adam’s journey to finding his true purpose and becoming the hero he’s known to be. In season two’s altered timeline, Adam realises he’s the Last Man of Earth. How hard does that affect him?

It hits him pretty hard. It’s one of those things that puts him on a very similar path to Superman, in the sense that he’s the last of his kind. And he’s now adopted a planet as his own. So, there’s an interesting parallel with him and the actual lineage of the Els. That, and Seg is his partner-incrime, and, for all intents and purposes, his best friend. It hits Adam really hard and it motivates him a lot to be a shining example of humanity. Adam and Seg are the Butch and Sundance of Krypton. In what ways do they bounce off each other?

They fill in the gaps for one another. If one is using his head, the other is using his brawn, and vice versa. Adam does bail Seg out a lot. If Adam wasn’t there, Seg could have had a terrible end. There’s times this season that if Seg wasn’t there, Adam would’ve been done for. They constantly seem to be there for one another, and push one another to be bolder, to strengthen one another. As with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there’s the humour between the two of them. Cam (Cuffe) and I have good chemistry, similar to (Robert) Redford and (Paul) Newman. Adam takes a beating and keeps on quipping. Is that part of what makes him so charming and fun to play?

Humour is such an essential part of being a person. It helps us get through hard times. If you lose that humour, life is too hard. If Adam were to lose his levity with things, it would just be too difficult. His humour is a way of managing the difficulty of the situations. And he passes that on to Seg. Seg is able to look at things with a little bit of levity. It helps him to be creative among great pressure. Which one-liner stands out for you?

There are a few in there that are pretty risqué that I think they kept. But, with his Zeta beaming, Adam is just terrible at landing. He seems to always fall and smash into something, injure himself in some way. Cam Welsh and I came up with this thing that every time Adam lands, he hurts something. At the very beginning, I smash off-screen and you hear me go, “Ahh, my johnson.” Then I come out rubbing my shoulder. Throughout the season, we’ve done this thing where I slip and fall and go, “Argh, my back,” and I’m holding my neck. His awareness of his anatomy is just off. Later, I land in this strange new land. I’ve smashed myself in the groin. I’m saying, “Oh, my shoulder. Walk it off.” It’s clear that I’ve hit myself in the nuts. That sequence of things would be my favourite of this season. Adam and Seg encounter intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo early on. How do they fare against the Main Man?

Lobo is a massive wild card. In the comic books, he’s toxic masculinity. They created Lobo to go with all the stereotypes and then multiply them by 100. Then, you bring in an actor like Emmett Scanlan, whose very being is an act of rebellion and wildness. You put that there and you throw in Adam and Seg’s levity and mischief and you have a recipe for comedy, tension and entertainment. Lobo is a lunatic. Comic books fans associate Adam Strange with a jetpack, a ray gun and being married to Alanna. Which part of those roots do you hope the series incorporates?

I’m hoping they incorporate all of those, and I think that they will. But, if you go right into that, then you become a show without substance. Nothing is earned, and you really need to earn that. It would be like watching Batman Begins and giving him his suit right away. You want to see how he became Batman. For this, and throughout Krypton, it’s really the beginnings of Adam Strange and what’s made him Adam Strange and the hero of Rann.

Krypton airs on Syfy in the US and is on E4 in the UK soon.

“iT’s abouT adam’s journey To finding his purpose”