Superman & Lois: Jordan Elsass Explains How Heath Ledger’s Joker Influenced Bizarro Jon

Superman & Lois returned on Tuesday with “Bizarros in a Bizarro World”, an episode that gave viewers some insight on how Ally Allston rose to power in the Inverse World as well how Bizarro ended up in Superman’s world. The episode also saw the origin of Jon El, the Inverse World’s Jonathan (or Bizarro Jon, if you will) as well the reveal that despite his seemingly benign arrival on Earth in “30 Days and 30 Nights”, Jon El isn’t a hero at all. Turns out, Jon El is a full-on villain, aligned with Ally Allston, and even someone who has killed in furtherance of her agenda. Considering that series star Alex Garfin, who plays Jordan Kent on The CW series, previously spoke about how Jonathan actor Jordan Elsass is a huge fan of Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight, the idea that Jon El would be a villain isn’t a major surprise, but now Elsass explains how his own villain turn was inspired by Ledger.

“Absolutely. Honestly, that’s been my favorite part of the whole season,” Elsass told Entertainment Weekly. “It was just so much fun to get into that headspace. I mean, you really feel powerful. And that’s the thing about when you’re really into it and you’re doing the scene: It can drain the life out of you, or it can make you feel like a million bucks. Playing Jon El, because he’s confident and dark, much like the Joker, I think that is a big similarity there. Heath played it the whole time that he’s very, very confident in any situation and he just does not care.”

He continued, “But the difference is that Jon El at least wants to be very calculated and meticulous and very calm and cool, but internally he’s still young and obviously he’s still going through it in these high-pressure, high-stress situations. That was the difficult part, playing into the fact that he’s still the same age as other Jon. He’s still a kid, you know? I had to play into that where it’s not super, super dark. He still doesn’t fully understand how the world works and people’s motives because he’s still young and naive. That was an interesting dynamic to play because it’s not just full-out bad guy. There’s still some innocence in him and there’s still some good in him. But he’s a villain in the making, definitely.”

Elsass also spoke about how he was initially baffled by Jon El’s very different look, which included red leather pants.

“It’s not that I wasn’t a fan, it’s just that when I first saw the outfit, I don’t believe I’d actually read the script yet,” Elsass said. “I was like ‘What the hell is this?’ I was just baffled. And once I actually read the script, it started to click pretty quickly. And by the end of the episode, I was definitely into it. But it took me a little while to get used to that hair and that outfit and everything. That was funky.”

Superman & Lois airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, before episodes of Naomi.