LaMonica Garrett – Crisis on Infinite Earths

By starrymag | January 26, 2020

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

 

Q) Outside of The CW “Crisis on Infinite Earths” what have you been busy working on?

 

A) I had some things that I was doing while I was doing the crossover and leading up to the crossover. I did Call of Duty, Primal and Clemency and those are all coming out. Clemency is out now, Call of Duty is out now and Primal is on video and demand. And I have a project that I’m about to start working on that I can’t really talk about. It will be public soon.

 

Q) How did the opportunity to be The Monitor for The CW come to you and what made you want to take on this role?

 

A) I have always been a comic book fan. The chance to be a part of the DC universe – I jumped at it. I had no idea of the scale of it would be this big. When I signed on last year for Elseworlds as The Monitor it was for three of four episodes. And then we found out it was going to be more and then we found out about crisis and it just kept on. It was a fun reveal like finding out more and more of what was to come and midway through the season I found out I was going to be The Anti-Monitor as well. So, I didn’t know that when I signed on. Like I said, these are fun surprises. Like with everything, it is temporary. That’s a lot of work but you can do anything for a short amount of time. This was a fun experience.

 

Q) Talk about the process for getting into to character when it came to the prosthetics.

 

A) I would have to get to work a couple of hours earlier than everybody because it took a little over two hours to put the prosthetics on for The Anti-Monitor. I would get to work at 4AM and be in the chair for about two and a half hours. And the days where I had to play The Monitor and The Anti-Monitor were crazy schedule days. It would take about thirty minutes to get out of prosthetics and then I would get shuttled. I started on “Supergirl” and then I will get shuttled over to “Arrow” midday. And then to get into The Monitor with the hair prosthetics it would take another hour and fifteen minutes. It was a lot of chair hours but it was well worth it. It was a fun experience. I couldn’t have imagined it would turn out like this.

 

Q) When you first saw the design for the costume did you give any thoughts or guidance for adjustments?

 

A) No, I trusted them. They have been knocking it out of the park with everything else. And they were trying to go comic book accurate and I think they pretty much did that. When I first got the job, I flew up to Vancouver for fittings a couple of times. And when I would go there, I would put a little bit more of the suit on. And the third or fourth time going I got fully dressed and it looked amazing. It was such a difference from all of the other suits in the Arrowverse. It was like a throwback ancient suit but that is who The Monitor was. And I think that we really did it justice in the fourth episode with me talking about the suit and how the suit came to be. It protects you from coronal radiation. I didn’t like it but my wife said I had to wear it. That is pretty much how it goes anyway with husbands and wives. They run the show and you just play ball. [laughs] So it turned out very well.

 

Q) What was your first reaction to reading scripts for Crisis on Infinite Earths?

 

A) I was blown away and we got them in layers. First, we got the initial episode and then we got the second and the third and then the fourth and fifth all within two or three days of each other. And when I got the email with the scripts, I would stop whatever I was doing and just read. I would read it like a comic book. I wouldn’t read it for the shooting locations or who are my scenes with or what am I trying to get across. I would just read it like a fan going through. And then I would go back and reread to see what my responsibilities were and what is the story they were trying to get out. So, I would fanboy out reading all five of them and it turned out great. The story was amazing and they integrated all of the characters well and the cameos. A lot of the cameos that came in like Ezra Miller – that happened after the fact. So, what happened in the script there were so many things that were shot after we were filming that were put in surprises. I watch them unfold on TV like everybody else.

 

Q) Were you looking forward to sharing a scene with anyone in particular?

 

A) I looking forward to working with them all, like from all the different shows. I’ve known David Ramsey for a while. It was fun to work with him. I’ve watched David Harewood for a while and it was fun to work with him. Grant [Gustin] was great and Melissa [Benoist] and Stephen [Amell]. Brandon Routh is the OG Superman from back in the day. Jesse Rath. I’ve been fans of them for some time. Like John Cryer – I used to watch him back in the 80s from all of these movies. It’s just an amazing time. I wish I could’ve worked with Kevin Conroy. I wish I could’ve worked with Marv Wolfman for his cameo. But you can’t get them all but it was so fun to be a part of this project with so many massive names coming and how big of a scope it was for television history.

 

Q) What were some of your favorite scenes to shoot?

 

A) Probably my favorite was the “Arrow” stuff – playing young Mar Novu. It gave me a chance to explore him a little bit more. That was my first time playing The Monitor without playing with the cape and the whole costume and it shows backstory with his wife. That was fun to play. And the stuff with The Anti-Monitor was in the middle. It was in the quarry where we were filming. That was fun. It’s freezing that day and it was raining. It was miserable, but it looked great and it lent itself to the overall dawn of time. I felt like the dawn of time. When we were out there shooting it was miserable, but it looked great and that was probably the most memorable stuff. We were on another planet. It was raining for like ten to twelve hours and we were out there. We were making to do and figuring out things. But it turned out really well.

 

Q) What did you personally take away from your time working on the crossover?

 

A) It was great just being a part of the DC universe. I was a fan of Marvel and DC comic books growing up, so when I found out that I was playing The Monitor I know what it could be. The Monitor was an obscure character, but he is pretty much needed for one story and that one story happens to be Crisis which is one of the bigger stories in DC. I didn’t know they were going to do this until after Elseworlds and they announced it after “Supergirl.” It’s taking the time to embrace everything. Usually when I’m not shooting, I’d be hanging out in my trailer or just going over the script or be away from everything. But we were given the episodes leading up to the Crisis. I was always out just watching everything like a kid just being around all of these heroes and villains. It was a fun experience and I got to move to British Columbia and meet people that I’ve been following you for years that are now in front of me. Like Jim Lee – I was a fan of Jim Lee for years. I met Geoff Johns and that was amazing. It was just fun to be a part of this whole universe.

 

Q) Since you are a part of social media what kind of fan feedback did you receive to your time on Crisis on Infinite Earths?

 

A) Yeah, that’s another thing. The fans are amazing. Just being injected into this universe – it comes with the fandom. I interact with fans. I’ll be on social media probably a little bit more responding back, re-tweeting and just interacting with the fans. That’s what makes all of this possible. I think this whole Crisis crossover it was like a tribute to the fans that have been around for so long and not just for the Arrowverse but they spent decades with like old-school Batman. They brought in old-school Flash. It’s like if you’ve been following DC for decades, this was kind of a thank you to the fans I think from DC comics and the Arrowverse and Marc Guggenheim and everyone involved in putting this together.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and the work you do?

 

A) Thank you for following me. Thanks for the ride. It would be nice to come back in some capacity to do some stuff. I hope this isn’t the road for DC for me. Time will tell. We’ll see. Just thank you for making this enjoyable for me. Sometimes you join a project and the fans don’t like what you’re doing and that makes for a miserable experience. I’ve seen that happen on different shows that I’ve been on, so I’ve been impressed with open arms from the cast to the crew for the fans and the people behind the scenes at The CW. Everything has just been a great experience and it doesn’t happen like that all the time.