Chris Mundy on Why Aaron Pierre Was the Hero ‘Lanterns’ Needed

MEN’S HEALTH: How did you begin to consider Aaron for the role of John Stewart?

CM: We looked at a ton, a ton of people, then met with a bunch of candidates. Then Aaron and Damon Lindelof and I all went and just had coffee here Warner Brothers. He’s a quiet guy by nature. But when you get him one-on-one, he has such a warmth. On a TV show, you need the people you’re working with to be good at their jobs, but you’re also going to live together for a long time, so it helps if we all like each other too! And I just instantly liked him.

MH: What made Aaron the right person to play John?

CM: It’s a tricky role because there’s a physicality to believing that someone is a superhero, and then there’s a physicality to the character of John Stewart. He was a Marine sniper, which requires a certain kind of focus and diligence. After the Marines, he becomes an architect, so there’s an artistic side to him. Those are a lot of elements that an actor has got to be able to project. And Aaron is someone who understands that physicality as a trained theater actor. We talked a lot about that how being a Marine is John’s job, but it’s not his entire personality. He’s as much an artist as he is a Marine. There’s a real balance of the physical and the artistic that’s just innately inside of Aaron, and I think it’s essential. If we’re doing our jobs well as writers, we’re not stating all this stuff out loud. We’re trusting that our actors can fulfill that role. The audience has to believe that he could take a guy down with one punch, and also believe that he could sketch intricate portraits of his family and birds and all these beautiful things.

Pierre as John Stewart and Chandler as Hal Jordan in HBO’s Lanterns.

MH: Were you guys looking for a certain kind of interplay between John and Hal that you found in Aaron and Kyle?

CM: We wanted it to be as much of a buddy cop show as a superhero show. Kyle’s character has kind of a throwback Chuck Yeager vibe to him. He’s the kind of guy who you meet, and you don’t know whether you like him or you want to punch him. Then there’s Aaron, who has a quiet authority about him, and I think that’s important to their dynamic, to the story we’re telling. And literally from day one, Kyle started giving Aaron shit for being young and inexperienced. And then Aaron started giving Kyle shit for being an old man. You’d see it in between takes too—they’d start messing with each other would just keep sitting there playing with that dynamic in the best way. And because all the dialog is supposed to be in a very back-and-forth, style they were into that rhythm before they even got into those scenes.

MH: An essential part of John and Hal’s comic lore includes that they butt heads when they first met. They had different philosophies. Different ways of doing things. Is that part of the story you want to tell?

CM: Our show is in a lot of ways about replacement—when should someone step aside and when is it time for the next person to take the reins? That push and pull between those two characters is really important. So much of the power that John has is by not taking the bait, understanding that you lose your power if you’re yelling and screaming. That’s what we’re trying to convey: that he knows he belongs, so he doesn’t have to overcompensate. There’s a real balance there that’s just innately inside of Aaron. He’s big. He’s an intimidating presence just physically. But there’s a softness to him too. There’s a thoughtfulness. You can’t teach that.

MH: Did you give Aaron and Kyle any homework—a comic book syllabus or anything like that?

CM: Everybody did varying degrees of comic book homework on their own, and we [including co-creators Lindelof and Tom King] were there to answer any questions. But we aren’t telling one specific chapter that’s already existed in the comics. Our characters are true to the comics, but we’re putting them in a new story. So the actors didn’t have to dig into a specific period in the comic books. It was more about understanding who John is and understanding who Hal is.

MH: Was there anything that Aaron did during filming—any choices he made or characterizations he expanded—that reinforced for you that this was definitely John Stewart?

CM: Our story takes place in a couple of different time periods and so the challenge was for the characters be consistent at their core. John’s sort of a different person in one of them than he is in another. And I do think the physicality and magnetism that Aaron brings to the role brought that all together. That theater training, that wanting to be in the minutia of the work and the craft, it really added to John’s character from all sides. It added dimension to the more physical side of the role, and to the more emotional, creative part of the role.

MH: John Stewart is known in the comics for manifesting meticulous, intricate constructs. So it makes sense that creativity is an essential factor to the character.

CM: One thing we attacked from the beginning was that the Green Lantern powers, a lot of it is based in creativity. To manifest things from the Lantern rings, you’ve got to manifest something from your brain—but also kind of from your soul. What does that look like? What does it feel like? I imagine it’s not much different than being a sculptor or a painter. And Aaron had to be able to sell that John could have that ability. And that’s what he did. He understood that John would appreciate that aspect of their powers. We always joked that Hal just wants to hit everything with a big, green first.

MH: Aaron is playing a really important and meaningful character in the DCU—one that multiple generations of readers feel a deep connection to and ownership of. How did you see Aaron handle that pressure?

CM: Aaron felt a responsibility, especially as a Black man playing this particular role, to make sure he really understood him and brought him to life. I think fans will see the reverence he has for it, and that goes a long way.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Nojan Aminosharei is the Entertainment Director of Men’s Health and the Special Projects Editor of Harper’s Bazaar. He was previously the Entertainment Director of Hearst Digital Media, and before that a Senior Editor at GQ. Raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nojan graduated from NYU with a master’s degree in magazine journalism. The late Elaine Stritch once told him, “What the fuck kind of name is Nojan? I’m 89 years old, I don’t have time for that shit.”