DC's Stargirl: Hunter Sansone Talks Cameron's Darkness, Icicle's Legacy
This season on DC's Stargirl has seen some big shifts for Cameron Mahkent. After the death of his father Jordan — aka the Injustice Society villain Icicle — at the end of Season 1, Cameron has been dealing with that loss and now, in Season 3, the manifestation of his own cryokinetic powers. While there has definitely been some good things in his life as of late — particularly his blossoming relationship with Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl (Brec Bassinger) — it hasn't exactly been an easy time and this week's "Frenemies – Chapter Five: The Thief" teased that there could be real darkness inside Cameron. Now, Hunter Sansone is talking about that aspect of Cameron as well as how his father's legacy impacts him.
Warning: spoilers for this week's episode of DC's Stargirl below.
This week, Courtney confides in Cindy Burman/Shiv (Meg DeLacy) that she's embarking on a relationship with Cameron, a revelation that prompts Cindy to confront Cameron. She brings up a secret from his past — time spent at some sort of institution after the death of his mother — and in the process provokes his powers to reveal themselves. It's a tense moment that reveals a bit more to Cameron and Sansone says that the character definitely has darkness to him, but that it may not define him.
"Cameron has lost both of his parents and he's an orphan and he's been going through a lot of hardship and that's going to form some callouses on who you are when you go through an experience like that," Sansone said. "But Cameron definitely has a darkness in him. I don't believe the darkness defines who Cameron is as a whole. He's multifaceted, he's got a lot to him. I think he's a good person to his core. But I think there's two sides of him that constantly battle each other. He's got that one end of the family, with his grandparents and who they are in the legacy that he's supposed to follow. And then he's got this other end, which is very much this light, kind young man who wants to create art and that stems from his mother, So, he's a conflicted young dude discovering who he is. I think that's the cool part. I feel like the audience discovers who he is at the same time that he is discovering who he is."
He also said that for Cameron, his perception of his father and that legacy looms large — and things will be threatened once he finds out the truth.
"Parents, for the majority of people, will hold the highest kind of influence on their kids. And so that's very true to who Cameron is and Cameron and Jordan had a very, very close relationship," Sansone said. "He very much looks at his dad as this amazing man who did these great things for the community and the world, and he has no reason to think otherwise, especially now that his grandparents are feeding him the lies that his father died trying to save everyone. And it's revealed that he has this supernatural gift of cryokinesis that was passed down from his father. So, right now, Cameron is still very much in fairytale land as far as who is father is and was and that will be threatened as he learns more about the truth because as viewers know, that is not the truth of who that man was."
DC's Stargirl airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.