Doom Patrol has been a real jewel in DC Universe’s crown, and that’s thanks in no small part to Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane.
Born Kay Challis, she suffered trauma as a child that led to her developing 64 distinct personalities as a defense mechanism. Playing one character is enough of a challenge for most actors, but when you can switch throw multiple personalities in one episode, that can be a challenge for anyone.
Entertainment Weekly sat down with Guerrero recently and discussed the process she goes through to tap into all of those personalities. “Right from the beginning, I started working with my acting coach on breaking every personality down through movement, through why she needs them or what their main characteristics are. Once my body gets in that space, then everything else can follow,” Guerrero said. “I have a notebook, and I have basically every personality there. Whenever one pops up in the script, I can reference my notes, and I reference music. I like to think I have a lot of sides to myself that I can easily access at any given moment, like if I feel threatened or if I want something to go a certain way.”
Guerrero also addressed that, yes, she has two favorite personalities to play. She loves Dr. Harrison because “I like her power of persuasion and being able to talk to somebody about their own weaknesses and then have her use reverse psychology on them. I like that she’s calm and uses her words” And her other favorite is Baby Doll, saying of the younger version of herself, “It’s interesting when people access their inner little girl or little boy. I remember doing tons of those exercises when I was in school, where you’re trying to dig into your vulnerability. There’s no mask for a child, so all those feelings are real. But also for Baby Doll, it’s scary because it’s a 30-year-old woman acting like a 7-year-old.”
We haven’t seen all 64 personalities as of yet, but as more and more keep showing up, it will be interesting to see how many more ways she can change things up.
The whole interview is worth reading and is linked below. It’s always interesting to see how actors handle situations like this. You have Rose McIver on iZombie who has to integrate a different personality into Liv’s every week. Or you have someone like Tatiana Maslany on Orphan Black who had to play distinctly different clones, sometimes in the same scene.
If you haven’t checked out Doom Patrol yet, new episodes debut Fridays on DC Universe.
SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly
