Interview: Elizabeth Tulloch Talks Lois, Superman, and Crisis on Infinite Earths
Also that Super baby
Lois Lane and her husband (you might have heard of him too, reporter by the name of Clark Kent with a side job) are back this Sunday for The CW’s massive Crisis on Infinite Earths Arroverse crossover. Elizabeth “Bitsie” Tulloch, who plays Lois, took some time to talk to The Mary Sue about the Crisis, sharing Lois’s parenting journey, and all things Super.
Last we saw Lois and Clark (Tyler Hoechlin), they were engaged and off to Argo – the floating Kryptonian colony in space where the sun is red and things are pretty chill – so Lois could safely give birth to their child. Coincidentally, Tulloch was pregnant herself during the filming of last year’s Elseworlds. “So absolutely I’ve had a lot of parallel stuff going on with Lois,” Tulloch told us.
Hoechlin, Superbaby and Tulloch.
“It’s funny,” said Tulloch. “Tyler and I had some scenes being new parents and I was telling him ‘oh no, this is how you do that; this is how crazy this feels.”As for the new dad? “Tyler was really cute with the baby,” Tulloch said. “I think the fans are really going to love seeing superman as a new dad.” So how are things for the new parents on Argo? “I would say they’ve been leading a pretty peaceful existence.”
But that changes when the Crisis hits. As we see in the latest and final trailer for the crossover … Argo may be destroyed.
That’s not good at all, but it’s just one of many planets in danger as The Anti-Monitor attempts to eradicate all of existence. “Everything is sort of in danger of getting destroyed at this point,” Tulloch pointed out. “So it’s this massive crisis and that’s why they end up getting involved in the fray.”
Of course, Lois and her Superman aren’t the only heroes joining the party. The Flash, The Green Arrow, White Canary, The Atom, Batwoman and more are all in the fight, and some of these heroes are new to Lois and to Tulloch. “I didn’t get to work with Ruby last time and she’s wonderful; she’s really lovely. She’s a great girl,” Tulloch shared. “There was a lot of new stuff going on. Not only did it feel like one big party on set, but there were a lot of characters.”
The gang is not even remotely all here
Those characters include a few extra supermen, including Smallville’s Tom Welling and Brandon Routh as a darker version of Superman who lost Lois years before. Tulloch had nothing but praise for both these super guys. Welling, she shared was a cut up on set: “I had never met him before and I was just dying laughing.”
As for Routh and Lois meeting that version of Superman/Clark, it sounds like the scene will have some humor. “That will be a very cute scene I think,” Tulloch shared. “Part of what makes Lois lane such a charming character is when she gets flustered and discombobulated, and meeting a new superman would lead to that result.” But there’s another reporter who doesn’t work at the Daily Planet who fans have been dying to see Lois meet.
Iris and Lois with what looks a lot like the Book of Destiny
“When I was shooting Elseworlds last year I notice a lot of comments from fans on Social media, saying they were disappointed Iris and Lois didn’t get to team up,” Tulloch said and we definitely agree that we’ve been hoping to see these amazing women together since Lois was cast. “I think they’re going to be really happy this time around, we actually had quite a bit to do together. I loved working with Candice,” Tulloch added. “They end up sort of teaming up to help this crisis in their own way. And they absolutely do even though, for example, they can’t fly or run really fast.”
In our own corner of reality, it takes real-life superheroes behind the scenes to make these massive crossovers happen. “I honestly just have to give major props to the crews and the assistant directors and the unit production managers; everybody who’s involved in the scheduling of these crossovers, I tip my hat to them,” Tulloch said. It’s a huge task, especially when actors are moving from one set to another, often on the same day. “All the actors were incredibly generous with their time.”
Even with all the time pressure and chaos, the actors really enjoyed shooting these episodes. “It was like summer camp on some level,” according to Tulloch. “It’s very telling how much fun the actors were having – the fact that we were not going back to our trailers in between scenes … everyone was just hanging out in the cast chairs, chitchatting and catching up.”
These guys should for a league of some kind
This crossover is certainly much darker than last year’s Elseworlds, but there’s still lightness and levity and some of that comes from Lois. “You definitely have a lot of light-hearted moments,” Tulloch said, “because part of Lois Lane is that she inadvertently is sort of clumsy or funny or a little bit sarcastic or a little bit sassy.” Also having a baby around brings some joy. “You have a scene where Mick Rory is babysitting,” Tulloch shared and we now can’t wait to see that. “So you definitely have moments of humor that punctuate the gravity of the situation,”
“Overall though, the stakes are much higher,” Tulloch explained, because it is a different kind of situation. “There were scenes that I was involved with that I felt even on set – wow this is going to go down in the Arrowverse history as being a really important scene, and even the end of an era on some level.” Nothing is ever going to be the same on any of these shows going forward, but that’s more exciting than scary. “It’s going to be awesome, but I love where they’re taking next.”
One place we may be going next? A spin-off centered on Superman and Lois. Tulloch couldn’t talk much about it so early but did share: “We’re really excited though. Tyler and I are so excited. We’ve met with the show runner…the story is awesome.” Tulloch added that the pitch was so good “I literally got chills.”
We’re excited to see where that show may go and where the Crisis will take us before then.
Crisis on Infinite Earths begins Sunday, December 8 at 8:00 pm with a special episode of Supergirl on the CW.
(images: Katie Yu/The CW)
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