Supergirl’s Peter Facinelli: Maxwell Lord Has a Problem With Anyone in Power, Superheroes OR Government

Peter Facinelli just can’t seem to escape Comic-Con culture.

The actor, best known for his work in the Twilight Saga, recently joined CBS’s Supergirl as Maxwell Lord, an entrepreneur who doesn’t like superheroes and believes the Girl of Steel will be a trouble magnet bringing supervillains to National City, just like her cousin did in Metropolis years ago.

So far, of course, she’s squared off against two supervillains in two weeks — and this week she’ll meet Reactron, who has a history with Superman already.

So…what does the actor have to say about this turn of events? Facinelli joined ComicBook.com for a short interview about the show.

You can check out our previous interview with Facinelli, taken on video at the Supergirl red carpet at New York Comic Con, below.

How did they approach you for this part? Obviously these things are usually pretty secretive and Max isa big character.

Yeah. Well, Greg Berlanti asked me to come in and meet with him and Sarah Schechter and the showrunners. I wasn’t even sure what it was for, but when Greg Berlanti calls, you go in. They told me about this character, and I thought it would be a lot of fun.

Obviously the comic book universes are big on TV and film. When you take a part like this do you ever hesitate because if you do TV, it’s harder to get a movie later?

No. I think there’s such a crossover nowadays. I go where the good scripts are, and I think there’s not such a line between television and film anymore. Film actors are doing TV, TV actors are doing film. If you look at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they have film actors from their franchises in the show. So the way I look at it is, if the script is good, whether people are watching it on a big screen or a little screen isn’t important to me.

In the comics, Max had a lot of hidden faces. In your head, are you playing him as somebody who’s very up-front with everything, or as somebody with something to hide?

Well, everybody’s got their secrets, and I think Max does, too. What I like about this character is he shows different personae to different people; he’s got his public image and his public persona, and then he’s got his private persona, and it’s interesting to play those different levels of him. He’s not the same person in private that he has to always be in public.

We’ve seen that you have some screentime with Cat and her son. Are there any relationships that you can tease? Who do you like bouncing off of in the show?

Everybody’s so good. I love working with Calista and Melissa’s great. I have stuff with Chyler. Everybody I’ve worked with so far, I’ve enjoyed it, so that’s a hard question, I’m sorry.

You come with some baggage in terms of fan expectations. Are we seeing the more self-made, independent version of Max, or will he come with his own backstory and supporting cast that we will see down the line?

I think he’s a green tech billionaire and his ideology is that humanity should save themselves with any interference from superheroes or supervillains. I think he stands by that and everything he does is based on that ideology.

After your character said in last week’s episode that Superman was not an example to follow because of the villains who followed him to Metropolis, this week we get Reactron, who’s a Superman villain. Will the reality of Superman’s villains crossing over into National City increase Max’s sense of urgency?

Yeah, for sure. I think anything you can use to speak that ideology, he’ll use it. And whether Reactron’s there to fight Superman or Supergirl, it’s an outside interference that we don’t need. The threat to him with Supergirl is that it’s bringing it into his home city. With Superman, at least it’s kind of “over there,” but with Supergirl it’s in Max’s back yard.

There are obviously some comparisons people have drawn to Lex. Is it fun to play a similar character to that archetype, but to have a bit more flexibility to build Max up as your own character?

I think the main difference is that Lex Luthor is an evil genius in the sense that he’s doing everything for his own self-interest. He wants to be rich, he wants to be powerful, he wants to take over the world. Max Lord is already rich, he’s already powerful, he doesn’t need those things. What he wants is to save the world and he wants humanity to save themselves. It creates animosity toward the superheroes because in the same way Lex Luthor’s against them, he’s against them.

I think there’s a similarity in terms of philosophy to almost Libertarian politics of “you think you’re helping me, but get out of my way.” Do you think that kind of philosophy will put him at odds with other authority figures down the line, particularly a government ortanization like the DEO?

Yeah. I don’t think he likes the government at all, or any people who have power over the people. Aliens or DEO, I think he struggles with that. With government. And there’s a backstory as to why, too.