Azie Tesfai of The CW's "Supergirl" On Making Her Voice Heard as Guardian

The CW will be inducted into the Advancing Diversity Hall of Fame during Advancing Diversity Week September 2023 Click here to registerquotI had an idea of Kelly39s personal journey but I didn39t know about the superhero journeyquot Tesfai explained in an exclusive interview with MediaVillage quotI also had an idea in terms of the representation with telling her story which was important but I didn39t know where that was going That part was very planned out But the rest of it has been a wonderful surprise as to how she got into her power this seasonquotFinding her powers as a superhero it39s never linearquot she continued quotKelly started as a civilian she came onto the show to be there for her brother met this gorgeous woman and fell in love That whole process was an emotional rollercoaster Your brother is sick you meet someone that you have chemistry with and fall in love It39s so messy and complicated I liked that I didn39t know because in life we don39t where the future is going to take usquotTesfai thanks Supergirl fans for Kelly39s current trajectory quotThe fans started making Guardian fan art for Kelly when I first startedquot she recalled quotIt was something that was publicly pushed for Then COVID happened and there were a lot of things that made it kind of not 39a moment39 Instead it was a 39potential moment39 Then schedules got moved around so it didn39t have a big boom It was kind of a slow burnquotBut once it was official the first thing I wanted to do was get with our stunt team and get some physical trainingquot she added laughing quotThat has been the most fun part by far I went in every day to train with them Our stunt team really took me under their wing and it got me tough and strongquotComing up with the perfect Guardian costume proved to be a lengthy process quotWe started initially with the idea of it two years ago in Los Angelesquot Tesfai explained quotWe started with a fitting at Ironhead Studios who did Black Panther and Wonder Woman where I did a fullbody scan Then the storyline got pushed Then we did another one up here at an incredible studio in Vancouver Then I end up going back down to Ironhead so yes this moment has been years in the makingquotThe suit had gone through different iterationsquot she continued quotThe original suit was much closer to Jimmy39s A lot has happened in the last couple of years not just with Kelly but within society Once I39d really come into writing more for television my personal views on what a black female superhero should look like I talked with my showrunners about it A lot of what it ends up looking like was a shift from that Going from the full helmet to the half helmet that came with the shift over the last two years and the timeliness of what39s happening in the world and conversations we were havingquotOne thing that made Tesfai39s transition to superhero even more special was the fact that she got to pen the fourth episode of her story arc to be telecast on September 21 a rarity for most actors quotOver the year that we were locked down between seasons I had been writing a lot and started developing some ideas with a showrunner I39d worked with on another showquot she shared quotI had written a spec script of a Supergirl storyline I really wanted to do with Kelly that we ended up not being able to do The showrunners loved it I thought this voice of Kelly39s was interesting in terms of her evolution It was enough to get me approved to write an episodequotThen this arc came aboutquot she continued quotIt worked out perfectly I39m protective of Kelly and have a really strong vision of what I see for her and my showrunners agreed I was in the writers39 room for a month from ten till five every single day I broke the arc that39s coming up for the back half of the season for Kelly and then we did the outlines for my episode It was amazing to be a part of that conversation and to be able to have so much say and control over this character stepping into her powersquotAs I39m finding my power within my voice as a writer there was an empowering parallel between Kelly and I that was inspiringquot she added in closing quotIt was a beautiful thing to get to go through an emotional journey with your character at the same time in real life It lit a fire for me Now all I want to do is tell these kinds of storiesquotSupergirl is telecast Tuesdays at 9 pm on The CWClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Azie Tesfai of The CW's "Supergirl" On Making Her Voice Heard as Guardian

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