Violett Beane on What to Expect From Jesse Quick’s ‘The Flash’ Return
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The Flash may be about to unveil its most explosive episode—literally—when a nuclear bomb goes off somewhere in Central City on Tuesday night.
Luckily, Barry (Grant Gustin) has some fleet-footed backup to help with the emergency: The equally accelerated Jesse Quick (Violett Beane) is in town from Earth-Two and instantly joins him in Flashtime (basically a Speed Force setting that allows them to instantly slow down time).
But even that may not be enough to save the day, so they also recruit old school ally Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp) and get to work. Beane shares with TV Insider that this was a blast to film since it meant sharing all sorts of time with her fellow Speedsters. Read on for more from the star herself.
Welcome back to Central City! How it it being back?
Violett Beane: It’s going good, yeah.
This sounds like a super experimental episode.
Yeah, no, it definitely is. I mean having all the Speedsters—or most of them—back in one room, it’s pretty epic, I would say.
How long is the Flashtime sequence, where everyone else is frozen and you guys are the only ones moving?
It’s pretty much the whole episode. And that aspect of it was super fun to shoot because we were the only ones moving and everyone else was frozen for basically two weeks of shooting.
But that also means you, Grant, and John were responsible for all the action and the dialogue?
Oh yeah. It was a heavy one!
What initially brings Jesse back?
You know how Jesse told her dad [Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh)], ‘I can’t have you as part of my team on Earth-Two?’ Well, the reason Jesse comes back is because Harrison sends her a apology cube, but there’s nothing on it. In Wells fashion, he doesn’t put an actual apology on it! [Laughs] So she comes to town to figure out what’s up. And while she’s talking to him, this explosion happens and she can’t leave. She’s got to help Central City.
And Jesse and Barry immediately jump into Flashtime?
Yeah, so it’s slowly but surely exploding throughout the whole episode… it’s not like it’s just paused. It’s going to explode and we need to figure out what to do as it’s happening. We’re both kind of throwing out ideas and trying things. You know one is running everyone out of the city and then it’s like, ‘Well, we don’t have that much time, we can’t take everyone in here out of the city.’ So they come across all these obstacles and it’s Jesse and Barry’s idea to grab Jay Garrick. So Jesse goes and runs and grabs him, and then from there, you find out what they ultimately do.
Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash and John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick
There have been questions as to whether or not we will see Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) in this episode. Obviously, he and Jesse have broken up, but he’s a Speedster and we kind of need them to save everybody.
Um, a little bit, but that’s a little bit more addressed in my appearance on Legends that same week.
Oh, that was super fun.
I loved going over there. What was fun in that the scene is not what people were expecting. I can’t give away too much, but our scene definitely ends in a way you’re not expecting.
Gregory Smith, who started off acting on Everwood, directed the episode and has done a bunch for the Arrowverse. How did he and the crew create the Flashtime effect?
It’s really just relying on everyone else to stay still [during scenes]! And then, obviously, our special effects come into play. Since everything is slowed down, there were a couple cuts where Cisco [Carlos Valdes] and Caitlin [Danielle Panabaker] would be in like slightly different positions from where they were before to tell that time was still moving. And Joe [Jesse L. Martin] had like a wire thing in his jacket that was making it look like it was blowing up in the air and frozen. It’s gonna be really cool.
Everwood
Jay Garrick is there, looking like Barrys’ dead father, and Jesse’s dealing with her own dad stuff. So is there common ground that these two find on an emotional level?
I think so, yeah. You know, Jay comes into it and he’s dealing with his own thing that you’ll see unfold with the episode. There are a lot of moments between Jesse and Wells, one in particular when he is still frozen that’s really heartbreaking. But those have always been my favorite scenes because you get to create more intimate characters and dive into why they do what they do. You get to see a lot of that with Harrison and Jesse.
You just booked Greg Berlanti’s pilot God Friended Me, so if that thing goes, does it mean you’re hanging up the leather suit?
[Laughs] You know, Jesse’s never gone. She’s doing her thing on Earth-Two and there’s always that chance that she comes back.
Plus, Berlanti is the boss on both shows, so he can always find a way to work you in.
Yeah, exactly. I’ll stay in the family!
The Flash, Tuesdays, 8/7c, The CW
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