After Ruby Rose left ‘Batwoman’, Javicia Leslie got dressed

Javicia Leslie is a vegetable person.

It’s just one of the things she has in common with Ryan Wilder, the new main character she plays in CW’s “Batwoman”, who takes on the role of Gotham’s cover vigilante during the show’s second season, which opens on December 17. January.

And because she loves plants, she had an important question about Ryan’s story when she accepted the role of “Batwoman”: Who took care of Ryan’s plant while she was away?

“Ryan bought her plant when she was technically an older teenager, a young adult,” said Leslie during a video call in late December. “But then I go to prison for 18 months. Where was my plant? That was important to me. “

Even if it is never addressed in the program, “it is important because for a plant to be so important to me,” she says, “obviously, whoever I have to look after it is an important person to me”.

It’s a detail that not even showrunner Caroline Dries had considered – but Leslie, 33, explains this as an actor: “You want to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You don’t just want to do this. “

These are the kinds of details that Leslie focuses on while doing the job of inhabiting her character’s world. It is only in the moments when she leaves that she remembers the historical nature of her new role.

Leslie was announced as the new “Batwoman” in July, after the show’s original star, Ruby Rose, left the series after one season. The series had already proved to be the first superhero series with a lesbian title character when it debuted in 2019. Leslie’s cast makes her the first black actress to play Batwoman in any live-action production.

“I’m constantly reminded of what it means to so many people and how it really has nothing to do with me and everything to do with what wearing that suit means,” says Leslie. “The first time I put on the suit, I immediately felt an immense responsibility to save the world. Me, Javicia. Not even me like Ryan. “

And she understands that, when putting on the suit, “someone will be impacted and someone will feel represented and someone will feel more powerful”.

Like Kate Kane, the original Batwoman in the series, Leslie’s character is a lesbian, but that is where most of her similarities end. When Ryan is introduced, she lives in her van with her plant. She has a criminal record, which means that job prospects are minimal. In many ways, Ryan is the opposite of Kate.

For Dries, who had to create a story arc that would not alienate fans for the show’s second season, Leslie’s cast “looked like a kismet”.

“Javicia entered [to her audition] … and she played each note the way I had it in my head, “says Dries. “She reached the rhythm of the comedy, she reached the emotional scenes, she was arrogant, she was vulnerable, she was having fun. I wanted to infuse a lot of fun into this character, because I wanted to create someone who was a little bit more ambitious. “

It’s easy to see how Leslie caught the eye of Dries and casting director David Rapaport – even during a video call, she is engaging, caring and funny.

Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter of Berlanti Productions, executive producers of “Batwoman”, already knew Leslie because of their work on the CBS program “God Friended Me”. Leslie also had roles in “MacGyver” and “The Family Business” and in the 2019 romantic comedy “Always a Bridesmaid”.

Although she has always been interested in acting and the arts, these interests were considered a hobby and not a viable career. For her mother, who Leslie describes as very supportive and her heroine in real life, it was important for her daughter to look for something that could pay the bills more reliably. After graduating from Hampton University, Leslie got a job working for the government in Washington, DC

“All the time,” says Leslie, “all I could think about was, ‘It’s not me.’ … This is not what I wanted to do. I’m not the 9 to 5 type of person. I feel suffocated. I feel small. “

So, after her two-year contract ended, she packed up and left DC in January 2012. A few months later, she was in LA

Leslie cites Black characters in the Saturday morning cartoons as one of the first she could relate to on television. She also mentions Eartha Kitt as the Catwoman in the 1960s “Batman” series and Halle Berry as Storm in the “X-Men” film series as an inspiration.

“That’s when I knew we could be in that world and be beautiful, powerful and impactful”, says Leslie, “and also become the icon of that character”.

As she grew up watching Michael Keaton’s “Batman” films, Leslie says that the character’s incarnation by Christian Bale was more influential for her. She credits Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” as one of the reasons.

“With Christian Bale, I was older, so I was able to understand acting and what it meant to become these characters,” she says.

Leslie was attracted to Ryan, “Batwoman”, a character created for the series, because of her flaws, which made her “very human”.

“I think there is almost this idea that superheroes must be perfect,” says Leslie. “They all have something in their past that they fight against, but you see them as those bright lights. Ryan, she was more impacted by the things that happened in her life, so she carries that weight, and I think this is something that I connected to her. “

Dries says he considered options like reshaping Kate Kane or finding an existing DC character who could switch to the role of Batwoman before choosing to move on with an original character.

“I think that some TV shows can get away with [recasting], but to us it seemed a little unstable, ”says Dries. “So I decided, we will continue the story, but we will introduce this new character who takes on the Batwoman mantle and maintain Kate Kane’s legacy in the series and create a mystery around where she went and lean towards the challenge.”

It was after climbing Leslie that certain elements of the character’s backstory were changed. For example, the character’s early descriptions mentioned Ryan’s past as a drug dealer.

“After casting Javicia, I wanted to restructure some of the things from her past to make sure we’re telling a really authentic and positive story,” says Dries. “Putting something good that doesn’t look like a trope or something we’ve seen before.”

In addition, casting a new Batwoman meant opportunities to follow plots that didn’t work in a series about Kate Kane, as a critical look at Crows, the private security company run by Kate’s father to protect Gotham in his own way.

“The Crows are basically a growing fascist organization that has no responsibility in the city,” says Dries. “They were made for rich people and they don’t care about the poor. Although we know some of the Ravens who are good people, the institution as a whole is flawed. And I worked hard to get Kate to have a strong point of view on that, because it wasn’t really her drama. “

Ryan, on the other hand, has a history with the Crows, so she can take a critical stand. Dries even describes the Crows as one of Ryan’s enemies this season.

Leslie appreciates how the series tackles real-life issues with nuances, while being a fun superhero show.

“I love how our program is addressing what is happening in society,” says Leslie. “You don’t have to feel like you’re being pushed down your throat, but you know this is the reality we live in.”

According to Dries, Ryan’s journey this season will be about discovering that she is not just a girl who is lost in the system.

“Ryan Wilder, the person, the civilian, he is actually the hero,” says Dries. “She doesn’t have to wear a suit to be special.”

But the symbolic power of the suit is still significant, and Leslie recognizes it as the key to opening more doors for representation in the future.

“Now that Ryan is becoming Batwoman, I feel that it opens up the possibility of what it really means to be Batwoman and that it really doesn’t matter who is in the process,” says Leslie. “Anyone can wear this suit and be a hero.

“I just know that this is just the beginning,” she continues. “I can only imagine where entertainment will go when it comes to ensuring that superheroes represent everyone. I look forward to seeing what other types of superheroes we will have since the beginning of this and other shows like this. “