Tonight on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Hollywood staple Billy Zane (Back to the Future, Titanic, Twin Peaks) steps into the shoes of iconic showman P.T. Barnum, and the actor tells ComicBook.com that he was pleased to get an opportunity to join the DC Universe, and even more pleased to do so in a role that offered him a lot of creative leeway.
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Zane, who says that is “always open” to superhero roles, which he believes are “great mythology,” did not come to Legends as a result of his existing relationship with his Titanic co-star Victor Garber — Garber told us at Comic Con that he didn’t even know Zane had been cast until they were ready to start filming. Instead, Zane told us, he is a fan of DC in general and of Legends of Tomorrow in particular.
“My time doesn’t allow the most loyalty to programming on the whole, but I had seen the show and was a fan of the tone, I have to say,” Zane told ComicBook.com. “It’s remarkably light and fun in an era where I think a lot of heroics in the comic book vein at times suffer from a lingering kind of post-modern, antihero, sociopathic behavior. I kind of like white-hat hero antics and wholesome, good fun….And I felt that this show does a great job of keeping it light, exciting, funny, and a great show about personalities and friendships that happen to time-travel and do some amazing things.”
All that said, of course, Zane told us he was happy to be working with Garber again, even if the pair do not share much in the way of screen time in tonight’s episode.
“He’s ageless, timeless, and one of the nicest people on the planet, I have to say,” Zane said. “One of the highlights of my experience in making Titanic and that was immediately revisited while working on Legends. A fantastic human being.”
The role of Barnum — which is being tackled by Hugh Jackman in the upcoming biopic The Greatest Showman — is one that Zane relished not only because Barnum himself was a complicated and iconic character, but because he found it interesting to adapt the man’s larger-than-life persona into something more human and believable.
“I think every performer owes something to PT Barnum,” Zane said. “His methods, while at times questionable, produced entertainment as we know it and continue to, certainly in the live space….It seemed an honor to take a swing, and I discovered through performing that it was just immensely fun.”
That does not mean that his take on Barnum — who here kidnaps people at gunpoint to join his traveling freakshow and at one point targets several of the Legends — is wholly realistic; it’s the liberties that make it fun, and the honesty that makes it accessible.
“The nice thing about taking these kinds of liberties is that you always have to ground it,” Zane said. “You can create a false sense of security with an audience and then pull a fast one, especially if he is a nemesis-like character, as was crafted. Forgivable to some degree, gray certainly, not too dark, but it was a great opportunity to play with creative liberties and push the envelope a bit, but that never works unless it’s rooted in some sincerity. You can have all the theatrics, but it has to reverberate back to something grounded, or its just pantomime.”
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, immediately following episodes of The Flash.
