Edi Gathegi on Mister Terrific, Credits Scene, X-Men

“Fourteen PhDs, polyglot, polymath, auto-didactic, natural aptitude for natural aptitudes, Olympic athlete — all of these characteristics,” he says, his face lighting up listing just how, well, terrific the character really is. “But then there’s a big wound. He lost his wife, was on the verge of suicide, is visited by The Spectre, who educates him on the previous Mister Terrific, Terry Sloan, and he takes up the mantle himself. I thought, this is a character who’s equal parts d’Artagnan and Sherlock Holmes.”

The next day, however, the fan-casting began to focus on “the usual suspects,” Gathegi says. “John Boyega, Daniel Kaluuya, Michael B. Jordan. I just let it go and forgot about it.”

Gathegi had been down the superhero road before: In 2011’s “X-Men: First Class,” he played Darwin, a mutant with the ability to transform his body into anything it needed to survive its environment or circumstances. And yet, the filmmakers still managed to kill off the character — the only man of color of significance in the film — before he’d had a chance to do anything of importance.

So when Gunn finally did cast Gathegi as Mister Terrific, the actor was delighted to realize that this time, the superhero he’d be playing was second only in importance to the Man of Steel himself. Terrific first shows up in “Superman” as part of the Justice Gang, a team also consisting of Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), a Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced). But once Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) locks Superman (David Corenswet) away in a secret prison in a pocket universe, Terrific decides to help Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) find Superman. Terrific even gets his own showcase action sequence, in which the super-genius uses his high-tech T-Spheres to take out a legion of Lex’s goons on a beach as Lois watches on in shock and amazement.

Terrific even appears alongside Superman in the film’s end credits scene, which Gathegi only learned about on the night of the film’s premiere. In an interview with Variety, he discussed why that scene in particular was so meaningful to him, as well as his initial feelings about Terrific’s unusual T-shaped mask, the training process for that big fight scene, and what he knows about the character’s future in the new DC Universe.

What was your familiarity with Mister Terrific before you got cast in this role? I confess he wasn’t big on my radar.

Well, hopefully we’re going to change that for a lot of people. Like you, I wasn’t aware of Mister Terrific. The first time he got on my radar was when James took over DC as the head of studio, and the very first picture that he posted on social media was a picture of Mister Terrific. I ran into James at “The Suicide Squad” premiere, and he pulled me to the side on the red carpet and told me what a big fan of mine he was. I left that premiere levitating like, Oh my God, will I work with James Gunn one day?

So when he took over the job at DC and posted that picture, my thought was, “Maybe it’s that guy. Let me look him up.” There was a fan-cast that happened that same day, and the first person to post something, their fan cast was me. The next day, it was all the usual suspects: John Boyega, Daniel Kaluuya, Michael B. Jordan. I just let it go and I forgot about it. 

When I made the [audition] tape, I didn’t even know that it was for Mister Terrific. I thought it was for Lex Luthor, because the character was named “Apex Lex.” In my research, I discovered that Lex has this mechanized suit — maybe this is a play on the super-powered Lex Luthor, and James has a different take. But I was actually auditioning for Mister Terrific.

When you were researching the character, what most struck you about him?

Just how magnificent of a character he is, because of his intelligence. Mister Terrific does want to fight crime, but he’s actually trying to change the entire world in tangible ways. He’s the highest concept character that I’ve read. We could do street level stuff, but then we could do world-saving, cosmic, galactic stuff.

Talk to me about your mask. Did it go through many iterations before you settled on the way that it ended up being on your face?

I don’t think that there was too many iterations. The template is there from the comics, so we were only ever in that space. We might have gone through a couple of iterations, just for comfortability. But in terms of design, I think they kind of had a firm idea of what they wanted from the beginning. The material that they used was molded to my face and also very pliable, so it didn’t get in the way of facial expressions. It was also two pieces — the top of the T came down to my top lip, and the second piece was for the chin.

How long did it take to put on?

Like an hour, hour and a half.

Was it tricky to eat in it at all?

Well, we had to do touch ups after lunch because the because the lips were painted as well. The way that they designed it, I was always aware that I was wearing it, but it never felt like it was getting in the way.

It’s just such a unique look that I’ve never seen in a superhero movie, so I’m fascinated by how it might have affected your performance.

I had a lot of questions when I first saw the mask in the in the comic books. I didn’t really get the design, to be honest with you, and it wasn’t until I started exploring the character more, that I understood the functionality of the mask, but also that the mask was cool because Mister Terrific was wearing it. He’s the third smartest man in the universe. Everything that that guy does, including wearing a whimsical jacket with “Fairplay” on the sleeve, is going to be cool.

The final film doesn’t provide any sense of Mister Terrific’s tragic backstory, and how enormously informative it is for his character. Was there more that you shot that didn’t end up making it into the film?

No. This is the beginning of the new DC Universe, and the focal point is Superman. There wasn’t a lot of room to delve into Mister Terrific’s backstory. If we’re lucky, we’re going to have a lot more opportunities to to dig into what Mister Terrific is and who he is. I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface. 

You’ve said you’re signed up for more projects. Do you know what they are? 

I know that I have a multi-project deal, but the specifics of that are unknown to me. What James is driving home is the idea that they’re never going to rush into production with scripts that aren’t ready, so even whatever they do have planned for my characters is irrelevant until the draft comes in and it’s shootable. So I don’t count my chickens before they hatch. I want to be involved in this universe in a major way, and whether or not that comes to fruition is just a matter of time and faith and other people’s hard work. 

Do you know at least if you will join your Justice Gang compatriot Nathan Fillion in near year’s HBO Max show, “Lanterns”?

Oh, no, I can tell you that I’m not.

How did you work out how Mister Terrific operates the T-Spheres?

I can get real heady about it. I tried to think of what I was trying to achieve, and since he has a telepathic connection with his T-Spheres, as well as a way to control them with hand signals. I just created a system by which I’m commanding them to do x, y, z. So I just basically did my own internal choreography.

For Terrific’s big fight scene on the beach, what was the process to decide what the spheres were doing, and where they were going? How much was led by you on the set versus what was in the script or what the visual effects team needed to accomplish?

I think the fight was written in the script as “It’s a fight.” James got together with Wayne [Dalglish] and Adam [Hart], the fight choreographers; they came up with the specifics of what the fight would entail, and then they taught that to me. It had to be precise. They were saying, “That guy’s gonna get hit by a T-Sphere in this moment, that guy’s gonna get hit by T-Sphere in this moment.” And we created the moves to create that [on screen]. For everybody else who was getting hit by T-Spheres that I wasn’t doing hand signals with, I justify that by the telepathic communication with the T-Spheres. I’m thinking it, therefore they do.

How long did you take to rehearse that fight scene?

We got in a couple of days a week for a couple of hours. It was constantly evolving, but we started very early. So I would say for somewhere between three and five months. And it evolved until we wrapped the scene. We were still improvising and creating new moves on the day, which turned out to be one of the most difficult things that I’ve ever done as an actor. To keep all of those moves in your head and to then to get new moves in the middle of a heat wave on a beach wearing a full leather outfit — it was almost overwhelming. But I reminded myself that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I hit that choreography and then we wrapped.

How long did it take to shoot?

About two and a half days. 

It sounds like you were the one performing the choreography on camera?

Yeah. Most of it was. I thank my stunt double for being amazing. He helped me in a pinch, because they created a new move on the day that I probably needed at least a week and a half to perfect. That’s when I tagged my wrestling partner in.

You don’t share many scenes, but what was it like to reunite with your “X-Men: First Class” star Nicholas Hoult in a very different kind of superhero movie playing very different roles?

I mean, the irony is not lost on me, that we get to have this experience in yet another CBM [i.e. comic book movie]. We had a great experience on on “X-Men: First Class.” We spent months together. We were training together. We didn’t train together [on “Superman”]. He’s playing Lex, the apex predator of intelligence, so he wasn’t in the gym with us. We’ve stayed loosely in touch, and it was just really nice to reconnect with him on this. I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other.

So how did the post-credits scene come together? 

That was originally in the movie. I wasn’t there for the decision making, but to me, it’s exciting because that’s a promise. I don’t know if it’s a promise that DC is intending to make, but to have that moment at the very end of the movie, for me personally, is the full circle moment of me being unceremoniously killed before the big battle in “X-Men: First Class” to be kind of the last man standing.

When did you find out that it was the post credit scene?

The day of the premiere. I got a text message from James saying, “Heads up, just so you know, some things are different, and that scene is now the end.”

So at least you wouldn’t find out watching the movie itself.

What happened was, when the movie’s done, my guests are getting up out of their seats, and I’m like, “Sit down. I think there’s an end-credit thing.” And now they’re whispering to everybody else, telling everybody to stay and they’re like, “Are you sure?” Then I second guess myself, like, maybe I’m having all these people stay here and there’s nothing at the end. Then it happened, and I was blown away.

You mentioned training — did you work out alone for this movie?

For the physical training, I was alone for both the martial arts portion of it. But when we were lifting weights, Gabby [i.e. María Gabriela de Faría] was in there all the time, so I would see her very frequently. David [Corenswet], when he was in town, he would pop in.

This seems like a silly question to ask an actor, because of course there’s a difference between you and your characters, but what did it feel like to be lifting weights next to the guy playing Superman?

That’s the wild thing. I think people kind of understand now that the two are inextricably bound, David and Superman. He is Superman. You look at him and you go that’s Superman. I’m lifting weights with Superman. It’s a surreal thing.

This interview has been edited and condensed.