‘Black Lightning’s James Remar Compares the Dangers of Being a Superhero to High School Football

Perhaps the biggest disagreement within Jefferson Pierce’s (Cress Williams) family is the one between his ex-wife, Lynne (Christine Adams), and his father figure, Peter Gambi (James Remar).

The relationship was laid out pretty clearly in the pilot: Lynne does not approve of Jefferson’s costumed antics as Black Lightning, and has used their love to attempt to force him to retire. Meanwhile, Gambi sees Black Lightning as an inspiration to the community and a means to keep things in Freeland from sliding into chaos. Trapped in between, is Jefferson.

“I’m not forcing him to do anything,” Remar told ComicBook.com. “You know, he’s a person with superpowers. I mean, how do you put your kid in a football game? He could break his neck at any time, but they gotta live their lives. What am I gonna do? Not let him do what he wants to do and try to get him not to do it? No, [I’m going to] be there to support them and help them. People gotta live their lives. I mean, who else knows anybody that has superpowers, right? So, how do you reconcile that? But we all have our gifts and our powers and, you know, if your kid wants to be an athlete, they’re going to endanger themselves. How do you let your 11-year-old daughter go on the balance beam? You know, you could break your neck.”

This seems especially like a relevant discussion to be had as Jefferson and Lynne’s daughter Anissa seems to be coming into her own powers, and embracing their use with some enthusiasm. Still, Remar does not believe Lynne and Gambi are that far apart in terms of their intentions.

“[Lynne]’s got her point of view and I’ve got mine, and in some ways they work at cross purposes, but we both have Jefferson Pierce’s best interests at heart,” Remar said. “Once again, it could be a wife or a mother saying, ‘I don’t want my kid to play tackle football,’ and yet the coach is saying, ‘But he loves it. It makes him happy.’ He’s not going to do anything that would make him do. So they do have different points of view, but they are bonded by the fact that they both love the guy.”

Black Lightning airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following episodes of The Flash on The CW.