Gag reels and behind the scenes set videos have become increasingly popular over the years with fans eager to learn how the actors kill time on set between takes, as well as wanting to see how their favorite films and television shows are made. Part of what makes the sets so fun to work on is the chemistry between, not just the characters that are being portrayed, but the actors themselves.
Great chemistry off-screen can have a huge impact on chemistry during scenes, but if two characters have little to no chemistry, it can take the audience out of the viewing experience. By the sounds of things there are no chemistry problems between the cast of Legends of Tomorrow, so let's take a look at some behind the scenes facts about the show you may not have known.
Shooting Music Videos Between Takes
Long television shoots mean long hours, and if your character is not in a scene, there is a lot of waiting around.
The cast has to come up with some kind of way to pass the time and in a video from ET at SDCC 2019 Caity Lotz (who plays Sara Lance/White Canary) revealed that to pass time on set they shot music videos and did photoshoots. Here is an example of the cast killing time between takes to Will Smith's 'Wild Wild West'.
A Legendary Marriage
Brandon Routh has now left Legends of Tomorrow as Ray Palmer/The Atom after first appearing in Arrow many years ago. Courtney Ford, also appeared starting with the season 3 episode 2 titled 'Freakshow' as Nora Dark, the daughter of DCTV villain Damien Dahrk.
For those of you who do not know, Routh and Ford, even though their characters have clashed on the show, are married in real life, which probably helped their chemistry a lot during their scenes together.
Ties To Smallville
Glen Winter directed season 1 episode 1 of Legends of Tomorrow, the first part of the pilot, also directed an episode of Smallville titled 'Absolute Justice' which aired in 2010.
Like the pilot of Legends of Tomorrow, the Smallville episode also included Hawkman - however, he was played by Michael Shanks in 2010. Winter has directed many other episodes of Smallville, The Flash, Supergirl, and Arrow.
The Circus Party
Ramona Young (who plays Mona Wu in Legends of Tomorrow's 4th season) revealed in an interview with MEAWW that Jes Macallan, who plays Ava Sharp on the show, invited the whole cast to a circus dinner which ended in the actors doing a cha-cha slide throughout the circus tent. These off-screen moments are incredibly important to keep everyone grounded and to maintain a good headspace on those long set days. Young also stated that everyone on set is incredibly down to earth and make all the new additions to the cast feel very welcome.
Lotz of Dancing
Legends of Tomorrow has many action and stunt sequences in each episode and, in order to effectively portray those sequences and make them seem as realistic as possible, it definitely helps to be flexible and quick on your feet. When she isn't impaling aliens and henchman with blades, Caity Lotz spends her free time dancing.
This no doubt helps with her fight sequences and other stunts which she does a lot of herself, as the White Canary. Here is a video of Caity breakdancing at FANX18!
Extras
This one is a little more obvious, so even though you may have guessed it, you may not have known. It is standard practice when shooting a movie or a television show to re-use extras, but in the final episode of season 4 titled 'Hey, World!', one of the scenes is set at the 'Heyworld Amusement Park' where there are seemingly thousands of carnival lovers. In actual fact, executive producer Phil Klemmer stated that it was the same 150 extras that are just moved around the shot. So keep an eye out, you may see quite a few matching outfits.
Re-shooting Ray's Send-Off
Brandon Routh shot his last scene as Ray Palmer in season 5 episode 8, 'Romeo V. Juliet: Dawn of Justness' and there was a very emotional scene between Ray and Nick Zano's character Nate. In an interview Routh revealed that they had to shoot that goodbye scene two more times than they were supposed to due to cameras constantly breaking down.
Luckily both the actors were so emotionally involved in the scene that they managed to still put all the intensity they needed into it.
Caity's Directorial Debut
Season 5 episode 6, 'Mortal Khanbat', was directed by none other than Sara Lance herself, Caity Lotz. This is not the first time an actor from the CW shows has directed an episode of their own show. Danielle Panabaker directed two episodes of The Flash: 'License To Elongate' and 'Godspeed'.
Lotz told Variety that she had a small advantage over the other directors who usually just come in for one or two episodes as she knows her character and the other characters better than some new directors do.
The Secret Legend
Caity Lotz supplying us with another behind the scenes scoop from her social media and it looks like there is another legend joining the cast. Caity bringing her dog on set is apparently, according to the actress, "the best part about filming on location."
Being away from dogs for weeks or even months at a time must be horrible but it's great to see that they can travel along with them at times.
Lynda Carter
Executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed that Lynda Carter, who originally played Wonder Woman in 1975 to 1979, and who plays President Olivia Marsdin in Supergirl, was set to reprise her role in The Legends of Tomorrow episode of 'Invasion', the third DCTV crossover event.
However, Warner Brothers spoke to Guggenheim and said that with all the parallel earths and characters, having Lynda Carter appear as the president on another earth than her original would be "one sci-fi problem too much" amidst worries it would cause confusion.