'Supergirl's Jeremy Jordan Talks "Schott Through the Heart," and Why His Father's Death Might Be a Good Thing For Winn

After being largely relegated to the background this season, Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan) steps to [...]

After being largely relegated to the background this season, Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan) steps to the forefront in tonight's episode of Supergirl, something that marks the show's return to the air after nine weeks away.

The episode, titled "Schott Through the Heart," sees Winn dealing with the death of his father (Winslow "Toyman" Schott), and meeting his mother face to face for the first time since she abandoned him as a child.

It gave Jordan, whose character is often used for comic relief, the opportunity to really dig deep into Winn and start to examine him in ways he rarely has been able to do.

Jordan joined ComicBook.com to discuss tonight's return and tease what's next for the rest of the season.

Tonight's episode felt like your plot could have gone the full 40 minutes. Was it exhausting to kind of be in that emotional space for the whole time you're shooting this?

I wouldn't say exhausting. There were moments where it sort of leaves its toll on you. But there are also a lot of fun, quirky moments as well.

The great thing about doing something like this on a show where you're usually the fun, goofy, silly person on set and on screen, is that everybody kinda gives you the space to do that. Because they all know that you've been itching to do it. And so, it was a really kind of cool vibe around the set, you know?

I was sort of allowed to be, I guess you could say, un-Winn-like. You know, getting to do a more emotional and heavier moments.

The audience is obviously going to learn a lot about Winn and his mom and it's not all happy stuff but it's always, it's a super chill set, like we have a great time and you know, I don't really subscribe too much to quote unquote method acting, so I can sort of turn it off pretty quickly. I mean, there's a bit of a hangover I suppose on occasion, but nothing too painful.

Obviously the audience is going to see kind of a lot of new information about Winn in this episode. Have you kind of had that backstory sussed out from the beginning, or were you learning new things about your character as you were making this one too?

I had no idea what had happened with my mom. I knew that I had a mom, and I knew that I was in foster care, growing up, but I don't know why or what happened. So yeah, no this was all new information to me.

She reveals a lot of new information to Winn as well, whether it's the threat that his father laid upon her, or how she told him they were going to Disney World, and they were really trying to get away from his father. Those kinds of things are all revelations to Winn as well.

Even the things that he did know, I think he sort of shoved down so deep, you know. That he has either forgot or just neglected to really confront in any sort of way for years and years and years.

Besides Laurie Metcalf, the other actor you got to bounce off of a lot this week, was Mehcad. You guys obviously have a really comfortable chemistry on screen, but we got to see a very different side of that friendship this week. Was it exciting to kind of explore that?

Yeah, there's some really great stuff coming up with Mehcad and I over the next few episodes. Which is great, because you know for the past season one and season two, we worked together all the time; we had so many great scenes together. I haven't seen him much this year.

So it's always great to work with him, and we have a great time on set. But I think it's very indicative of their friendship. You know Winn has kind of always been the one, the voice of reason for James. Because James is constantly trying to figure out who he is, and you know what his journey is. And this is a good chance for the table to be turned and for James to kind of give that sort of no BS, unfiltered friendship back to Winn.

Unfortunately we only have Laurie for one episode, but that story continues over the course of a few episodes, and I think culminates in some really great stuff that's coming up. So you've only kinda seen the beginning of that aspect of their friendship building.

Even though you guys have not been on hiatus while the show has, do you think this is a good place for people to get re-acclimated to the show?

Yeah. I think it's a good, it's like the ultimate filler episode, right?

So we have these episodes that kind of jump off the main storyline for a bit, until like a side story that becomes a new story. But it's a very heartfelt and in-depth story in that, but also has like the goofy, fun silly whimsy that Supergirl often has.

I think it really just has all of the elements of like what we've created as like a classic Supergirl episode. It's fun, it's silly, but it's also really heartfelt, really emotional, and at the end of the day, you know, good wins over evil, and you know all that stuff. But we have a crazy karaoke scene, and we have flying monkeys, and it's like tears and amidst like you know deep revelations, while also still threading the main storyline of the Worldkillers, and all that with this in it.

It's a great sort of "welcome back to the show" episode. One, because it doesn't throw you straight back into the fire of where we left off, it kind of gives you a little bit of wiggle room but at the same time gives you that feeling of a heartfelt Supergirl episode. It wasn't intentional, it was just an episode, and then the whole hiatus thing got of got imposed, outside of everything else. I don't think it was intended to be a nine-week hiatus.

Because Winn tends to bring so much of the humor, there is kind of an earnestness that underwrites a lot of Supergirl that Winn sometimes doesn't get to take part in. For you as an actor, was it fun to kind of flex those muscles, and get to be the guy who broods for a few minutes, and does the CW thing?

What's so funny when you say that, is that before I got Supergirl, I've always been the broody, dark kind of character. And so it's kind of going back to my roots in a way.

But at the same time, it's what I love so much about Winn, is that he is the guy that is always delivering all the jokes and all the one-liners, trying to keep things light. But it's not because he's just a happy-go-lucky guy, it's because he doesn't want to deal with real emotions and like deep things. So he buries himself in his work, and in you know, and his alien conspiracy theories, and his fandoms, and his sort of goofy, silly one liners. He hides behind all of that. And it's not until he's forced to sort of confront multiple things coming at him at once from his past that he has to let down that veneer and actually deal with stuff.

We see him, especially last season, and a little bit this season, we've seen him be a little bit of a voice of reason, kind of take on a little bit of a Cat grant role in terms of like, you know being the shoulder to cry on, and being like the person that will give sage advice. But at the same time, that has nothing to do with him.

Any time that there's any sort of, any time that there's something that you know, that sort of, is gonna affect him in a personal way, he's gonna close off and he's not going to allow that to get to him. Or he's gonna just bury it, and so when these moments come that he's not allowed to do that anymore, you know, it comes rushing to the surface.

It's not a slow burn, it's like, I can't handle this sort of thing. Like what am I gonna do? And I think because he has to handle that in this episode, in such a big way, and because it actually turns out okay in the end, I think that he's gonna start allowing himself to be a little bit more open in the future. It's a positive step for him, regardless of how sort of painful that step was.

Supergirl airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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