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Flaws bring out heroism: Cavanagh
Actor Tom Cavanagh, from the show The Flash, talks about his idea of what makes for a great superhero
Actor Tom Cavanagh says that as far as superhero characters are concerned, one of the things that he is drawn to are flawed people doing extraordinary things.
Cavanagh plays Harry Wells in the American superhero TV series The Flash. He says, “When it comes to superhero characters, one of the things that I’m drawn to are flawed people doing extraordinary things. When I watch (actors) Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow do their exchanges (in the Iron Man films), it elevates the genre,” Cavanagh says.
“They took Oscar-winning people and they put them in a superhero project — and the way they acted elevated the genre. That’s something that I’ve always tried to do. I try to take something that’s populist and inject it into our show,” says Cavanagh.
He has been able to play lots of different extremes with Wells. What is he looking forward to showing audiences with Sherloque Wells, a new character, in season five of the show? The actor says, “I really like Harry. Harry is a bit of a bad**s. He is gruff and mean. I like that a lot. There’s always going to be room for Harry in the show. With H.R., it was nice to play the guy who was flat-out with enthusiasm, ‘I just love everybody’.
“He was the antithesis of a hero who ended up emotionally doing the right thing in the end. With Sherloque, I think there’s room for a bit of both. Harry was an exceptionally smart guy, but I think this guy is even smarter. He has to be. However, there’s also a sense of ‘Wait, can this guy be trusted?’ What’s his agenda? I think that will be fun to do, too.”