Actor Barry Watson stars in Ava Duvernay's new DC Comics show 'Naomi.' He joins Cheddar News to talk about the series. 

Between Bells

Actor Barry Watson Talks New DC Comics Series 'Naomi'

between 1000 Cheddar news and baker machado in new york and what do you get when you mix Dc comics and the brains of filmmaker Ava Duvernay, we get a hit series called Naomi that this show is based on the 2019 comic book that follows a superman obsessed comic book loving teenager whose life is forever changed. That after a supernatural event occurs in her town. Now with the help of her step parents and her friends, she tries to find answers to what exactly happened. Take a look at this, Better hurry, bell rings in 15. If you let me get a car, you wouldn't have to worry about me being late, what's happening, something happened to me, I could hear it, annabelle everything and joining us now is Barry Watson actor and one of the stars of Naomi Barry, great to have you here on Cheddar news. Welcome. Hey, thanks for having me. So, okay, so so far fans have been going gaga over this series, they're loving it. So what in your opinion is it about this story that's really resonating with viewers here? Um you know, I think there's sort of, and you mentioned Eva kind of, you know, opening this, you know, this whole segment, but I think what Eva kind of brings is um something that's a little more grounded to sort of this, this superhero world and what's great is that you have a character like Naomi that yes, we find out that she has superpowers and she's a huge fan of comics before she discovers some of these things about herself, but she's truly just a real teenage girl and even as she discovers more and more about these powers that she has, you still have these very grounded sort of real sort of teenage moments within the show. Um So I just feel like um you know, she's just a super relatable character and also you know, casting Casey waffle as the title character is Naomi I think Eva does this so well and all of her projects, she just casts really well and I just think she just nailed it with casting Casey. Hopefully me too. Yeah, totally. Well yeah of course you're the biggest part in all of this barry, are you kidding me? And we're sure we're going to talk about your character here in a second, but I just I got to ask you about Ava Duvernay because what's fascinating about this, we knew all of her previous work that she does, but we we've never sort of seen her do superhero things before. What was it sort of like working with Ava on a project like this and sort of getting insight to her mind when it comes to supernatural things like this. Uh Well, you know, I've been lucky, I've gotten to kind of you know, meet Eva on different occasions for other projects as well and so you know, I was always hoping fingers crossed, like I get the chance to work with her at some point and it ended up working out where Naomi was sort of the right fit, I guess for us to finally work together. But um, you know, the thing that's so great about Eva is she's a risk taker. She knows what she wants, she doesn't go into anything um with sort of hopefully somewhat of an idea of what she wants to bring. Um but like I said, she's always willing to take risks and experiment within in the way. And I think as uh an actor like myself, that's just you don't see that that much anymore in the business as much as maybe you used to um where I feel like I'm working with a true true filmmaker. Um and we obviously there's more filmmakers out there and creative people within the business still or whatever, but you know, she kind of does what she wants to do, where I think, you know, so many things in the business are sort of like, okay, this is hot right now. So if we're this network, let's make another version of that, You know, she's always wanting to kind of experiment and find something new and not try to do what everybody's done before. Already know. So, true. No, that's a very good point. So, barry, let's talk about your character Greg and all of this because you play the role of one of the parents in all of this, who knows about the identity of the supernatural identity of Naomi here, right? Well, you know, Yes, I played, you know, you know, Naomi's adoptive father and yeah, we we we know a little bit more than we, you know, first learned about in the first couple episodes, but there's also still, I think stuff that that my character, Greg is discovering about Naomi as well, I mean he knows where they found her and knows a bit about her backstory, but I think there's still more to discover with within that relationship that we will of course, without spoiling too much find out and um some other episodes, but we're also going to find out the back stories of like I'm I'm watching right now, you know, the Zimbardo character, uh Dee's character, we're gonna find a lot more about Greg and jen her, her parents. Um And so as an actor, I've never been on a series where each week as I'm reading the new episodes going what, you know, and discovering more and more, not only about the ark of what's happening with Naomi but my own character as well, where I usually have a sense of kind of what my story arc is gonna, you know, end up how it's going to finish off by the end of the season. So it's um it's fun and it's the show has some funny moments, it's got obviously dramatic moment, it's sci fi, it's it's it's it's fun, it's really, really fun, I'm proud to be a part of it. Well, and clearly the viewers are loving it as well. Barry. Always good to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. Barry Watson star, Naomi. And you can watch the show every Tuesday at nine p.m. Eastern time, right on the CW.