The Flash’s Danielle Panabaker Talks Killer Frost, Snowbarry, The Spinoff and More

Leading the crusade to discover the truth and bring him to justice is Barry, while Caitlin in particular is resistant, wanting to be totally sure they have it right.

Actress Danielle Panabaker, who plays Caitlin Snow on the series, joined us to talk about this week’s game-changing episode, her feelings about Killer Frost and what she’s heard about the upcoming Arrow/The Flash spinoff series

It’s funny. This is my first experience with the shipping community, and they’re very vocal. So far, so good.

Your character is interesting not just for being a strong, female character but particularly because you are smart and serious and businesslike, but you’re not a bitch or an “ice queen,” pardon the pun. Was that a really attractive aspect of the role when you read the pilot?

Yes, absolutely. I’m not sure we saw so much of it in the pilot, but I’m really grateful to our writers that they’ve given me the opportunity to open up and warm up over the course of the season.

Obviously, she’s a little bit colder in the pilot, and we do have some flashbacks coming up I believe in Episode 20, where you do get to see a little chillier side to Caitlin again. So I feel lucky that they’ve given me so many places to go this season. You really get to see her heartbreak over Ronnie, and then Ronnie’s back and that’s so exciting, and then Ronnie’s gone again.

Because of the nature of your character in the comics, are you super-aware of the “chilly/icy/cool” puns that inadvertently come up as you’re having these conversations?

A little bit. I’m certainly aware of Caitlin Snow’s future in the comic books, that she becomes Killer Frost, and it’s definitely something that I’d love to see. I think I bug Andrew Kreisberg on a regular basis just with questions about that. 

Obviously, Caitlin Snow, her name lends itself to it. But it’s exciting!

At WonderCon, I think Andrew said we’d be seeing her sooner than later.

Mm-hmm…!

There’s absolutely no wincing at all on my part. After my experience with this first season and how many different places we got to take Caitlin, I am completely confident that it’s not going to be all of a sudden she just flipped a lightswitch and became evil. I have complete confidence in them that they’re going to do justice to the characters and it will be a very interesting journey to see.

What’s Caitlin got coming up in tonight’s episode?

Episode 19 is one of my favorites this season for Caitlin. Obviously the audience knows more than the characters do, and you start to see these characters catch up to what the audience knows about Harrison Wells. And Caitlin is confronted with this idea that Harrison Wells might actually be the Reverse Flash and she doesn’t want to believe it. She really digs her heels in because she really believes in Dr. Wells. It rocks her world, completely, and she has a tough time believing it. So tonight, you’re going to really get to see that.

When you’re playing a part like that, do you have the balancing act of dealing with your not believing it but also having to play it that — just in case — you can’t say anything to Wells?

Totally. The question becomes how good of a liar is Caitlin Snow? And I think she’s trying her best but she’s not always really good at it.

It’s fun to play stuff like that. It’s a different challenge, rather than something that we’ve seen her do before in terms of her medical expertise and things. It’s nice to play different emotions and different beats.

I definitely deferred to Andrew on that one. There is a wedding upcoming, but as you know, things don’t always go off without a hitch in Central City. Take from that what you will.

It’s a bit different for you and Carlos than it is for Grant, right? Yes, Barry has a relationship with Wells, but you guys kind of gave up your whole livelihood for this guy. How do you get that angst across without getting whiny, which doesn’t seem like your wheelhouse?

No, you’re right. It’s definitely not mine, and it’s definitely not Caitlin’s.

You’re right; it is a very different journey for Caitlin than it is for Barry. Barry has respected him for a long time but Caitlin has known him and trusted him and from her perspective, he’s done so much to change her life in a positive way that it is a much more difficult journey for her. That’s what great about tonight’s episode, is that we really get to see her struggle with it and ask all of the questions that I think one would naturally ask.

I mean, we’re talking about a man who’s paralyzed. You really think that he can run faster than the speed of light? She gets to ask all of those questions. It’s certainly not whiny; what I love is that she’s always been the heart of the group at times, in that she takes care of them, and it’s nice to see her still invested and caring about Dr. Wells. Unfortuantely, it’s a little misplaced but she doesn’t know that yet.

As a scientist on the show, you get to deliver a fair amount of exposition. Is it fun to get to be the one asking those, and being a little more emotionally raw?

Absolutely. I mean, yes, there is some exposition that inevitably has to happen but I think the writers do a really great job of dividing it up between all of us. Especially in our earlier episodes, it seemed to fall pretty heavily on Tom, which I didn’t complain about!

So it is really nice to get to play those more emotional beats with Grant as Barry. It’s a fun change of pace and I feel grateful that I’m given the opportunity to do all those different things and play all of those different emotions.

You and Carlos are great together; do you spend a lot of 1-on-1 time honing that chemistry?

I think that’s something that comes naturally to the two of us. His energy is different than mine and I think we really play off each other well. It’s not really something we practice. I have to practice keeping a straight face around him sometimes, but it’s really fun to play the comedy between the two of them.

Truthfully, it actually hasn’t been discussed, the opportunity to cross over to their potentially new spinoff show, but I would love it if I had the opportunity to.

Several of those characters, I know from having Wentworth’s character originate on The Flash or from having Brandon’s character come over on last week’s episode of The Flash. I adore all of those actors and would love the opportunity to go and sort of play with them, but again, it hasn’t been discussed yet.

I think we’re very lucky to be able to play in this world and that Greg and Andrew and Marc have been such great captains of this ship and sort of keeping these universes different and unique, but still offering the opportunity for people to visit.

And it’s so fun! It’s nice to change it up, have some different energy on set, it’s really great. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed that that’s in my future, too.