Legends of Tomorrow: Caity Lotz Talks Her Directorial Debut in “Mortal Khanbat’

Tuesday night’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, “Mortal Khanbat” didn’t just see the heroes take on Genghis Khan as the latest Encore mucking up the timeline. It also saw series star Caity Lotz step behind the camera to direct the episode and, for the Sara Lance actor, it was something that she said allowed her to dig into the more practical side of who she is as opposed to the creative side she usually uses when it comes to acting.

Speaking with reporters about her work on the episode recently Lotz explained that directing required her to use all of her brain in what she described as “an amazing experience.”

“It was such an amazing experience,” Lotz said. “I feel like I’m a left brain, right brain type person, like I am not just the creative side. I do like logistics and practical things, and then directing really requires all of your brain.”

She also explained that, for her, it was a lot of fun to be able to make the decisions about how the present the story told in the episode.

“It was fun working with the other actors,” Lotz said. “Sand here, say this, do this, wear this. When you’re a director, you get to be the one calling the shots, and making the decisions, especially creatively. When I get really passionate about the story, and then I see it and I want it done the way I want it done, where it’s like, ‘the table shouldn’t be like this. The table should be this kind of table, and this and this, and this.’ To be able to make all of those things happen.”

Lotz also said that the differences in shooting a television show and a short film, as she had done previously, wasn’t just fun to experience but something that taught her more about acting as well.

“It’s so cool on a TV show,” Lotz said. “When I shot a short, [I had] to produce everything and put everything together and the team, and on a show, you come in and it’s like you have a production designer, the art designer, the people, casting the extras, an entire team of people where I’m like ‘I need birdcages and I need live birds!’ and there’s somebody there to make it happen. It was so much fun and being able to work with the actors in that space was really, really fun. You learn so much. I learned a lot about acting, and that’s just really cool.”

Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.