Jordan Elsass Breaks Down His Bizarro Turn on ‘Superman & Lois’
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 2 Episode 10 of Superman & Lois, “Bizarros in a Bizarro World” If you don’t want to be spoiled, turn yourself around and try to find a portal to another dimension where you are caught up.]
After almost a month-long hiatus, the Kents are back but also, they aren’t. In the last original episode, we were left with an alternate version of Jon (Jordan Elsass) approaching twin Jordan (Alex Garfin) and mom Lois (Bitsie Tulloch) as they wondered how the MIA Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) was surviving in the Inverse Universe.
Well, we just found out and it was EPIC. Having entered the portal to chase down Anderson (Ian Bohen) and supernatural NXIVM cult lady Ally Alston (Rya Kihlstedt), Clark slowly began to piece together what was up in this literally backward iteration of Earth-Prime. His Bizarro family was a mess (as was their home), Lana (Emmanuelle Chriqui) was married to Tal-Rho (Adam Rayner) and basically, the entire world was under Ally’s sway. Including Bizarro’s son Jon, a punk-rock rebel type upstart who decided being super wasn’t enough and wound up joining Ally’s plan to merge with her other-self.
Here, the young actor shares the fun of breaking bad, the pain of flight, and what two Jons could mean for everyone back home.
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Jordan, this episode is awesome. What a blast this must have been for you.
Jordan Elsass: It was a blast, dude. It was also really long. Like really long. I’ll be real with you, shooting 210 honestly felt like all of the other episodes combined.
It feels like a season finale. And you get to do everything that Alex Garfin and Tyler have been doing. I know it’s not easy up there. This is not just hanging on a wire.
No, no. It takes some doing. You know, you go in a week before and you do some training on the wire to get a good feel for it. It’s all about how many pads you put under the harnesses, as well. They have these gel pads that make a huge difference. I tried wearing the harness alone the first day and, there was this one shot we were doing where I had to [save] the window-washer and carry him down after I catch him…and it was brutal. [Laughs] I just remember we did that shot probably a good three or four times and every time it was just agony.
I was like, “Crap, I need to go change. I need to go put on pads.” Because of course, they offered them and I said no. It was my fault and it was just brutally uncomfortable. Like just digging into my hips, I had these gigantic bruises.
And on top of the stunt work, there’s so much emotional depth behind what is happening. Even though you’re playing Bizarro Jon, we know that this is all mirroring what he has been going through in real life, back in Smallville.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
This role gave you a chance to work with some cast members you rarely engage with.
Oh, it was a totally different dynamic in every way. I almost felt like I was even working directly with Tyler and Bitsie [Tulloch, Lois] more because there were several scenes with just the Bizarro Jon, Lois, and Clark. That was interesting because usually when you see the Kents, it’s the whole family or it’s one of the parents and both of the boys. And so I was seeing much less of Bizarro Jordan since he’s more off doing stuff with Bizarro Lois and Bizarro General Lane (Dylan Walsh). But it was definitely interesting working with the other actors. Doing more with Emmanuelle was really fun.
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You hit Grandpa!
That was great. That was a good scene. That was a really fun scene. [Laughs]
So what was it like getting to play a villain?
Yeah. I mean, he is the complete and utter opposite of Jon and it’s funny because, like you said, there are some parallels, as well. Instead of being a fully inverted take on Jonathan on Earth-Prime, it’s more like a twisted version. It’s like a fun-house version.
There’s part of him that really does exist, but it’s fully manifested and he acts on it on the other Earth, you know what I mean? There is this part of Jon that does kind of just wanna say, “Screw you guys, I’m sick of this.” And it makes you kind of wonder, too, what Jonathan on our earth would be like if he had powers. What would he be?
Like, if he kept doing the X-K, what would he have become?
Right. Exactly.
Now, you leave us with this cliffhanger, which ticked me off because there was so much happening and so much that needed to be resolved and then it ends with the two Jons coming together. Does this mean you get an episode of possibly playing opposite yourself?
I can neither confirm nor deny too much, but I will say the next episode’s a big one as well, for sure. There’s a lot going on there.
What does our Jon think of Bizarro Jon when he finally gets a load of him?
I think right off the bat, it’s gonna freak him out a little bit. There’s no question that that would be freaky. And also…you know how they say the eyes are the windows to the soul? I haven’t seen much of the episode, so I don’t know how I played it, but I was trying to play it where Bizarro Jon had a completely different look in his eyes.
He looks totally strung out
Nice. And I think regular Jon would see that and that will throw him. It’s not that he’s looking at himself, but more like he’s looking at himself on crack, you know what I mean? There’s a very empty and soulless kind of feeling to Bizarro Jon because he has done so many awful things.
Clark has a line that he believes everyone is redeemable. Does Jon share that sentiment? Can the dark version of him be redeemed?
Jon is always hard on himself and I think that he even wonders if he can be redeemed for stuff that pales in comparison to what Bizarro Jon has done. So he maybe doesn’t necessarily feel the same as his dad…like Jon wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps and have those same ideals and morals, but it’s like he is just a little more cynical, deep down. And he really fights that.
So how will this impact our Jon going forward?
He’s really distraught and I think that this keeps kind of tearing away at the layers…every little thing just makes him feel more and more helpless and worthless. I think he’s a very, very strong kid and he’s becoming even stronger, but I think that everybody reaches their breaking point.
Did you absolutely die when you saw Alex’s hair straightened?
It was, so, so good. He would wear it after work too. We go out with people after work and he’d still be in that hair. Usually, Alex rocks the most casual clothes you’ve ever seen in your life, right? Like, man would be in cargo shorts and a light windbreaker, like the most mismatched shit you’ve ever seen in your life and then he’d have that straight hair with the eyeliner on. So like, Alex’s normal, his clothes very much match him. But with the straightened hair and the eyeliner, not so much. It was so off-putting! [Laughs]
Last question and I tried to get this out of Todd [Helbing, showrunner] at the WonderCon panel…I’m worried about Jon’s girlfriend because last we saw, she was walking home alone and we know there are people out there angry about her X-K dealings.
Oh yeah, yeah, no definitely. It’s sketchy, I’ll put it that way. There’s definitely some very sketchy stuff going on in Smallville all around.
Superman & Lois, Tuesdays, 8/7c, The CW
