Stargirl Episode 6
Throughout Stargirl season 2, there’s been a looming puppet master in the darkness. Working through the mysterious Black Diamond wielded by Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy), Eclipso has been helping the teen put together a new iteration of the Injustice Society of America. But in a shocking–or not so shocking–twist this week, Eclipso finally revealed his hand. The nefarious demonic creature had been playing Cindy all along. His aim was to use Stargirl’s staff to free himself, meaning he could live outside of possessing Cindy Burman. It was a grim surprise for the daughter of the Dragon King and it cost her and her new ISA cohort Isaac their lives. Eclipso murdered Isaac with one of Cindy’s own blades and then opened some kind of smoky portal that sucked the young girl to her doom. In the aftermath of the horrifying final act of episode 6, we spoke with Nick Tarabay about bringing Eclipso to the screen. Like most people, Tarabay was not familiar with Eclipso before getting the role. But, interestingly, he also didn’t know who he was trying out to play at all as it was a blind audition. “There are the famous comic book characters that everybody knows,” Tarabay explains. “Superman and Batman, people know about these characters. But I did not know about Eclipso.” When the actor did discover who he’d be bringing to life, he was exhilarated. “Holy shit, this is a DC show. This is a real thing!” Immediately he began to research and couldn’t believe that Eclipso wasn’t more well known. “It really surprised me because once I started to look him up I realized this guy is really dangerous,” he says. “He’s really important. He’s really delicious! I can’t believe more people don’t know him, but I’m happy to be the one correcting that.” Despite Eclipso definitely being a deep cut character, Tarabay sees it as a chance to make his mark. “You get to put your print on it. After that, everybody’s gonna kind of mimic it if you do a good job, kind of like Sean Connery as Bond. So when it’s not been done before it gives you a lot of freedom to do it.” There’s more to it than looking creepy, though. “My job when I put prosthetics on is to ground the character,” he says. “My main focus, playing someone like Eclipso, is I don’t want the audience to think this is some fantasy thing that will never exist in real life. I wanted to leave this episode and every episode with them thinking this guy could exist right now in this world. I want them to lock their bedroom doors thinking Eclipso might show up.” To do that Tarabay crafted what he described as an “animal” that matches the ferocity and violence that Eclipso evokes when he gets out of the Black Diamond for the very first time. But now that he’s out and has that freedom, what does he want? Tarabay tells us his thoughts on what’s driving Blue Valley’s newest and most dangerous foe. “I can’t say too much about what’s about to happen, but put it this way: he’s here to clean house. My interpretation of him believes that only the finest, the purest, and the strongest will survive and should survive.” To get into the mindset of Eclipso, Tarabay refuses to think in moralistic black and white, instead diving deep into what drives him. It’s an interesting mindset as it arguably puts Eclipso on the same mission as the JSA, though obviously his approach is far more violent. In some ways, Tarabay likens Eclipso to Thanos, someone willing to do whatever it takes to get his way. “There’s no such thing as pure anything,” he says. “You cannot say somebody is pure good, there’s no such thing. The only reason you know you’re good at certain things is because you have something to work off of. Meaning you know this room is bright because it was dark before, so without that darkness you don’t have that measure you will know. So if you say, ‘I’m gonna eradicate something,’ no matter what it is a big mistake. These kinds of mistakes are usually the things that give birth to creatures like Eclipso.”
