DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: David Ramsey Talks Directing “Stressed Western”

Tonight's episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow sees Arrow alum David Ramsey not only guest star, one of the actor's several appearances this television series across The CW's shared Arrowverse of DC Comics inspired series, but he's directing as well. The episode, "Stressed Western" is his first behind the camera on Legends and as one might expect, directing an episode of the series is just as different as Legends is itself. Ramsey previously described Legends as being a bit like a Coen Brothers project, and speaking with ComicBook.com, he explained a bit more about how directing tonight's "Stressed Western" was different than his directing work on other Arrowverse shows, like his recent work on Superman & Lois. The big thing, according to Ramsey, that differs between all of the series, is tone,.

"Tone, I think. And obviously execution on all the shows are probably different, but the Arrowverse, I would say, to your point again, Superman & Lois is, obviously, is the shiny new penny," Ramsey said. "But there are new shows that maybe don't stand out the same way Superman & Lois does. Superman & Lois is different for a lot of reasons. But Legends. It has its own niche audience. I think the reason why it does is that unlike Superman & Lois, and Supergirl, it doesn't have a particular palette that it sticks to. Hey, I want to do these transitions, I say to the show runner. I want to put the camera here. I want to do this kind of Coen Brothers. The answer is yes. All the time. The answer is yes, all the time."

He continued, "And I think that's part of what makes it great. I've said this before, it's kind of Deadpool every week. And you can kind of do what you want. And I think the brilliance of the show runners is that they're, 'Does what you're doing, does your vision enhance the story?' And that's very subjective as well. But again, that's the kind of border that you're up against as opposed to borders being, we don't use these kind of lenses. Or we don't put the camera there. Or we don't want that big feeling. We don't want that kind of sculpt. All the things you kind of ... Or we do want that kind of ... All the things you normally would hear from showrunners as in terms of the tone or look of the show, you don't hear. At least not in the same way. It's just, 'Hey, whatever you want to do, does that help tell the story of these relationships?'

Ramsey explained that, for him, relationships are the cornerstone of Legends and everything the show does each episode is in furtherance of it. He also said that, in his opinion, with the kind of creativity and risks Legends takes, it's right up there with bigger budget prestige network shows like Watchmen or Game of Thrones and that it's part of why people come back each and every week.

"And I think that's really the big difference in Legends. And I think that's why it's still going. It's found this niche audience because the people who watch that, see it," Ramsey said. "They buy it. They get it. They see that. And they flip every week when they watch it. I'm talking about Watchmen. If this was on HBO, this would be nominated for Art Direction. 100%. 100%. Every week. I mean, the saloon that they created. Every week. They're creating the Roman Empire or whatever they're recreating. If there was $15 million, 20, whatever per episode, Roman is, it would be a game changer. So Legends just kind of has that. And the people who have bought into it, they know it. That's why they come back every week."

You can check out the synopsis for "Stressed Western" below.

KEEPING CALM – With everyone finally back together, the Legends find themselves looking to Nate (Nick Zano) to keep everything calm while in the old West on a mission to find an alien. After trying to keep things normal, Sara (Caity Lotz) reveals her secret to Ava (Jes Macallan) and the team, leaving them all shocked. Constantine (Matt Ryan) looks to Gary (Adam Tsekham) who might have answers the answer help to his problem. Spooner (Lisseth Chavez) and Astra (Olivia Swann) are forced to work together despite their clashing personalities which ultimately helps push them to hone their powers. Meanwhile, Zari (Tala Ashe) takes an unusual interest in Behrad's (Shayan Sobhian) personal life. Dominic Purcell also stars. David Ramsey directed the episode written by Matthew Maala.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. "Stressed Western" is set to premiere on June 27.