Lifelong Teen Titans fan Titus Welliver discusses bringing Lex Luthor to Titans
Superhero stories are so common in movies and TV now that you can't expect every actor involved in such a production to be a lifelong fan of the material, but sometimes you get lucky. Titans showrunner Greg Walker previously told EW that when he reached out to actor Titus Welliver about portraying iconic DC supervillain Lex Luthor in season 4, he was surprised to find that Welliver was already well-versed in the comic book history of the Teen Titans.
"I've been collecting comic books since I was 7 or 8 years old," Welliver tells EW. "I'm 60 now, so that's a lot of comic books."
He has the nerd knowledge to prove it, too. Check out EW's conversation with Welliver about Luthor and all things Titans below.
HBO Max Titus Welliver as Lex Luthor on 'Titans.'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What first got you interested in the Teen Titans?
TITUS WELLIVER: I love the period in the late '60s and the '70s when they're less clean-cut, their hair is longer, they're kind of hip, they're go-go dancing. I had always read the comics. I mean, I have all the omnibuses, plus I still have all of my original collection.
So when somebody calls you up on the phone and says, "Do you want to play Lex Luthor?" The immediate answer is yes. Because despite the fact that it has been done by many different actors beautifully and all very different interpretations of the character, the core thing is that power, that arrogance of genius, and a level of narcissism. Because the interesting thing about Lex Luthor is he doesn't have superpowers. But he possesses an incredible mind, so his life's work has been trying to figure out how the hell to either defeat Superman or obtain his powers.
So when you're acting that stuff, you have to be careful because you can fall into the cliches of mustache-twirling and scary faces. I didn't want to do that. What I really wanted to do was to make him formidable with his stillness.
Speaking of that stillness, one of my favorite moments in the season 4 premiere is when Starfire (Anna Diop) comes bursting into the penthouse and is beating up all the goons in the background while you're sitting in the foreground just calmly eating. That unflappability is scary!
And also the fact that he's a gentleman. He's not fazed by it, and he has such a level of confidence, despite the fact that she has this incredible power. He doesn't flinch. He treats her like we're just two people having a conversation.
He doesn't have any fear. Now, why doesn't he have that fear? Well, look, we all have an imagination. We've read the comic books, so who knows what kind of weapons he can just activate with his mind that could take her down? He's the master of slipping out of stuff.
So those scenes were really fun to play. I mean, I have to say, I laughed my ass off because I had to sit there and be very still and there's stuntmen flying across the room. Crash! Bang! It was a gas.
HBO MAX Lex Luthor (Titus Welliver) and Starfire (Anna Diop) on 'Titans.'
Your conversation with Superboy (Joshua Orpin) at the end of the episode definitely didn't go the way anyone expected, in more ways than one. Superboy came to Metropolis looking for Superman. Superman is busy saving the world, but Lex is there and actually treats him like a son. What kind of impact do you think that's going to have on Superboy?
Well, I think they are both surprised in their meeting. He's very resistant to Luthor. He says, "I just want you to know, I don't think of you as my father." In an interesting way, despite who Lex Luthor is, that stings a bit. I think it's a surprising thing for Lex Luthor because he doesn't have attachment to people. What he has is an obsessive relationship with Superman. It's an Ahab thing. And now what he's done is he's taken his DNA and Superman's DNA and he's created a person who is now the only thing he has that even resembles a family. I think what they ultimately do is they expose themselves in that moment right before things go sideways for Luthor.
And look, the big thing people will ask me is, can he come back? Of course he can come back. I mean, was that the real Lex Luthor? Or was that one of his many clones that he has? We know it wasn't a robot, but he's got a little Lex Luthor cold storage where he keeps those clones. So there's that. But there's also the undeniable part of it that it's supernatural, so who knows. But I think bringing Luthor in was a great mechanism to really take Superboy to the next level of intrigue for the audience and give them something to pull them in.
HBO MAX Superboy (Joshua Orpin) meets his "father" Lex Luthor (Titus Welliver) on 'Titans.'
You're a fan of the Titans going way back, and they have, of course, their own cast of characters. But isn't it always fascinating whenever they intersect, not just with their mentors and the older superheroes, but with the older villains?
One hundred percent. Look, Titans is a sophisticated adult show. It's smart. Titans is about the human condition of these characters, and I think that's why people love the show so much. It scratches a bunch of itches. There are guys like me who love the comics and love the canon, and then there are people who may not but are drawn to the show because they go, "I like these characters." These characters are representative of all different parts of life. I'd watched the previous seasons multiple times before I ever even got the call. And actually, I remember I gave my manager a call after the first season and I said, "Hey, if anything interesting ever comes up on Titans, I would definitely love to do that." So when I got the call from Greg Walker, I lost my s---. As I'm sure he told you, he couldn't really get a word in edgewise because I was geeking out the whole time. I literally turned it into a FaceTime and I just started showing my bookshelves, which are all DC and Marvel omnibus editions. I mean, it's just hundreds of them. And he went, "Okay, got it. You're not just making s--- up." And I went, "No, no, no, no. Not at all!"
Amazon 'The New Teen Titans' by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.
I wanted to ask you a comic nerd question, since you said you've been reading the Teen Titans since the '60s and '70s. We lost artist George Pérez earlier this year, who along with writer Marv Wolfman revolutionized the team in the '80s. As a testament to his legacy, can you describe what it was like when Wolfman and Pérez took over the Teen Titans?
I love the Wolfman/Pérez stuff. It's great because, first of all, it brought in a lot of new characters. And I think in the same way that Titans has kind of moved the needle, the Wolfman/Pérez stuff was slightly more elevated, more sophisticated, broader. And also, it was a different time, so it could be dirty and it could be funky. People got hurt more than just getting hit by some kind of cosmic ray or punched across a room. There was a depth of peril. Plus, the artwork is just fantastic. Fantastic! And the stories are great.
I always say there's always kind of an ebb and flow with comics. I was reading them for years and years completely dedicated, and then in the late '70s moving into the '80s, I kind of stepped away. I wasn't liking a lot of the artists that were drawing a lot of my favorite books. I felt like the books were just being rushed out. And then Dark Knight Returns came out and raised the bar. Everybody went, "Uh-oh. This is a game-changer." It inspired comic publishers to up the ante. And look, Marv Wolfman, I mean, you look at his body of work — and then the combination with Pérez. Without being too cliche, they truly were a dynamic duo. And that stuff was game-changing for people who are serious about being into it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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