[Warning: This submit incorporates spoilers for Tuesday’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Learn at your personal danger.]
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow mentioned goodbye to fan favorites Ray (Brandon Routh) and Nora (Courtney Ford) in a delightfully bizarre hour that additionally packed an enormous emotional punch. Tuesday’s episode, titled “Romeo V. Juliet: Daybreak of Justness,” noticed Ray Plamer embark on his closing mission as a Legend, whereas Nora rang in her closing days on the Waverider with an epic bachelorette bash.
A lead on the Loom of Destiny prompted the gang, together with Nate (Nick Zano), Constantine (Matt Ryan) and Charlie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) to journey to Elizabethan England the place they got here head to head with William Shakespeare. Their mission rapidly developed right into a pseudo bachelor occasion for Ray, with everybody consuming and having time. Little did they know, Shakespeare had been paying attention to their wild tales and reworked his seminal romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet right into a bawdy superhero story.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow‘s Brandon Routh Opens Up About Ray and Nora’s ‘Forced’ Exits
In the meantime, Sara (Caity Lotz), Zari (Tala Ashe), Ava (Jes Macallan), and Mona (Ramona Younger) threw Nora a spectacular bachelorette occasion that includes sparkly confetti, an superior cake, a pony, and even a stripper. It was each messy and fun–the finest type of occasion.
It did not take lengthy for the Legends to understand that Ray and Nate’s rambling modified historical past and so they had been pressured to return to scrub up their mess. Issues had been much more difficult with Ray struggling to inform Nate that he was leaving, solely gaining the braveness to take action after a touching dialog with Shakespeare. However Nate overheard their heart-to-heart and stormed off, and it appeared just like the besties wouldn’t get a correct sendoff. However alas, Legends got here by means of for the pair in one of many present’s most transferring scenes. Again on the Waverider, Ray and Nate lastly obtained their much-delayed goodbye, and Ray and Nora had been quickly off to start a brand new chapter of their lives.
Within the wake of Ray and Nora’s bittersweet exit, TV Information spoke to Brandon Routh about Ray’s touching goodbye with Nate and what it was wish to movie that scene. The actor additionally opened up about his favourite Legends episodes and weighed in on whether or not or not he’d return.
Nick Zano and Brandon Routh, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
What was it like filming this episode realizing that it could be the final one for Ray and Nora? Did you guys do something particular for the event?
Brandon Routh: I believe simply being there on daily basis was the factor. Additionally, to make issues more difficult, we filmed the final two episodes and the crossover all on the identical time. So we had been going forwards and backwards, taking pictures three totally different episodes. My precise closing day was a pickup day of taking pictures inexperienced display with the Atom for a half hour so it was a really unusual exit. If I take a look at the moments the place Ray is saying goodbye to Nate, after which Ray and Nora going off the ship for these two days, a few of these issues had been type of what I mark in my mind and my coronary heart as the ultimate days for Ray. However it was difficult. [There were] numerous tears by the actors and by crew members in sure scenes. We’re a household.
All through this episode, it seemed like Ray and Nate weren’t going to get a correct goodbye however then they really do and it is simply this earnest, heartfelt second. What was it wish to movie that scene?
Routh: It was actually tough on a private degree after which, clearly, for Ray. There’s numerous the true emotion effervescent up so these moments in these scenes and that complete episode might be a few of my finest work. I am truthful and actual in a method perhaps I have never been earlier than as a result of it was hitting so near residence for me. A digicam was glitching once we had been taking pictures that day so we may solely shoot with one camera–normally now we have two or three–And due to that, Nick and I had to do this scene many extra instances than usually we’d have. It was such an emotional second for each of us and our characters and we had been in a position to proceed holding the through-line of the emotion all through the scene. However we had been actually crying to one another and we stored messing with the ultimate line as a result of it wasn’t becoming till we made it what it was.
For a lot of, Nate and Ray’s friendship kind of flies within the face of poisonous masculinity. They’re so open about their emotions with one another and it is stunning. What has that bond meant to you all through the collection?
Routh: That is one of the crucial serendipitous issues that is come out of this for me. We definitely did not notice that in any respect within the second. We had been simply doing our factor and being two guys as a result of that is how we’re with our buddies and I assume not everybody [is like that]. It is definitely not exhibited on tv, that type of a relationship between two males. And so, it was us simply having enjoyable, appreciating one another. Then we began to see that individuals had been actually responding to the bromance side of it and breaking down poisonous masculinity and so then there have been moments that then we began to place in particularly. Possibly the writers did, too, to type of to push that, to point out that it is okay for 2 dudes to like one another in a completely heterosexual method; to point out love for one another and appreciation for the humanity that you just discover in another person regardless of who they’re.
Completely. And in my earlier interview with Courtney, she touched on Ray and Nora’s relationship and the way they’ve helped one another to grasp what it is wish to be absolutely human. What’s your tackle their relationship and the way it’s modified Ray?
Routh: I believe you see that type of development of Ray’s change all through the time with Nora. It might appear that her change is extra pronounced from having been possessed by demons, you possibly can say, to working with the great guys. However Ray involves phrases with the truth that not every thing is all the time sunshine and rainbows and you need to enable for heaviness and darkness to be part of life. I do not assume that Ray and Nora would have been in a position to succeed as a pair if Ray would not have accepted Nora’s previous. Not simply realizing it however accepting it and letting or not it’s part of her.
Letting folks sit with their heavy feelings was an enormous factor that Ray realized. I believe historically, he would have simply tried to bypass it, tried to say, “Oh, however you’ll be higher. We’ll simply do that and this and that and it will make every thing higher” as an alternative of realizing that generally the perfect medication when anyone is having a tough time is to only enable them to vent and converse and to be supportive of them. We do not see these moments essentially within the present however they’re there, these little bits the place we see Ray opening as much as that and that is what makes the connection work.
For those who had been to be requested to return, is that one thing you have think about or is that this the final we have seen of Ray?
Routh: It is a actually robust query to reply. It is one which I do not even know the way I can actually reply as a result of what I used to be instructed was that there was simply no extra to jot down for Ray and Nora, so I do not see how they are often introduced again if there isn’t any extra story to be written for them. There is no, “Oh, we’ll come again. We have now a time crew. We’ll come again and examine in on you.” It was a goodbye eternally. That is what’s scripted and when Ray says goodbye to Nate, that is what’s occurring. I do not know why that is how they selected to jot down it, however that is how I performed it. I can say that I really like this character. I really like my forged and my crew and the followers who’ve supported this present so he is all the time close to and expensive to my coronary heart. I positively wish to see Ray part of one thing once more however there’s rather a lot that has to alter earlier than that occurs, I believe.
There are such a lot of superb, unforgettable moments within the present. What are a few of your favorites and why?
Routh: I actually cherished the final episode [“Mr. Parker’s Cul-De-Sac”], so many improbable components in that. Courtney is so humorous in it and I really like the connection between her and Damien [Darhk]. After which, we do not get to see numerous it, however simply the connection between Ray and Damien. There are such a lot of ranges there, it was so fascinating and enjoyable and bittersweet to shoot.
I actually assume that perhaps this final episode shall be my, in a bizarre method, my favourite as a result of it is so earnest and true and speaks to Ray. And we see extra of his reality than we have seen earlier than. Previous to filming that episode, I often go along with the Camelot episodes and the Knights of the Spherical Desk and Sir Raymond of the Palms. After which “Cellphone Dwelling” can be a fantastic episode to me.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
Brandon Routh, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow