Krypton's Emmett J. Scanlan Talks Filming Season 2 Episode 2

In Krypton Season 2 Episode 2 Lobo was off his rocker, per usual. The actor behind the locks and leather pants recalls the funny and affirming moments from filming the episode. Plus? He gave us a master class on actor terms and now we feel cultured. Read on to find out what "corpsing" a scene means. Trust us, it's not what you think.

SYFY: Your character mostly hung out in the woods of Colu with Seg and Adam for this episode, were there any other scenes you wish you could have inserted yourself into and why?

Emmett J. Scanlan: Me? No. Lobo on the other hand, he'd have inserted himself into every scene if he could... He's modest that way. He loves inserting himself into places, and people.

SYFY: Speaking of Colu, it looked pretty mild to us but what was the temperature really like those days on set?


EJS: We got really lucky on those days, actually. We were shooting in Belfast end of autumn I think. So, I was expecting to freeze my ass off, but the weather couldn't have been better. Dry and cool. The day after we wrapped in the forest however, it pissed down. It was the luck of the Irish we escaped that baptism.

SYFY: What were your most memorable moment(s) while filming Episode 2 with Cam Cuffe and Shaun Sipos?
 

EJS: Has to be during Lobo's rant about Craptown the musical. Cam has never corpsed (that's killing a scene by laughing) throughout his whole career. Shaun is incredibly professional, and an utter joy to work with. They're both always on point and what makes them great dancing partners is their ability to listen, but that also makes them susceptible to laughing. Especially if we go off script... The director Marc (great guy) came over and told me to improvise the part where I think Seagull says "Craptown" He may have even given me the idea of puppets as well, I was off my rocker so it's all a bit of a blur... All I know is they wanted something different, so I gave them different.

I improvised an EROTIC musical puppet show using my hands and some interesting sound effects…Things got R-Rated, fast. They just kept the cameras rolling so I kept going and going. And going. Cam broke first. Then Shaun went. I remember looking up at Marc, he was standing by the monitor, his glasses in his hands, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. The boys would get back on their marks having fallen out of frame laughing and I'd go again, further this time. Of course, none of it made the episode, we knew it wouldn't, but that moment of all the cast and crew laughing, together, was a proper family moment.

SYFY: You're really funny in this episode.

EJS: Thank you.

SYFY: Did you ad-lib any of your lines? If so, which ones?

EJS: We were given permission to riff. Most but not all of which I'm guessing ended up on the cutting room floor. Compliance and all that jazz means you can never go full Lobo... Here's the thing, creating Lobo is only limited by one's imagination. Caging an animal like that is pretty f#@kin hard, in any form... So, you're almost expected to riff a little bit, but not without the blessing of those on top, those scribes who gift us with their stories, or our dancing partners for that matter.

They have to trust you, otherwise it doesn't work. We have incredible scripts to work from and incredible writers to bounce off on set. There was always a collaborative effort to make scenes better, and notes exchanged. And it was always for the art, for the show. So, anything that's ad-libbed will be because and only because of being inspired by what was on the page and in the moment. That freedom came from the top, it came from the legend that is Cam Welsh.

SYFY: Were you inspired by any other characters/or actors, past or present to develop your performance as Lobo?

EJS: Oh yeah. I drew on a couple of people. But I'll leave that up to you to guess who.

SYFY: Fill in the blank, if you ever happened upon Doomsday in a dark alley you would _________.
EJS: As Emmett, find another dark alley. As Lobo, I'd hollow out his skull and use it as a fraggin ashtray.

Want more Emmett? See him in all-new episodes of Krypton Wednesdays at 10/9c on SYFY. Plus? There's a Lobo spinoff heading to a planet near you!
 

*This interview has been edited for length and/or clarity.​​​​​​​