The Flash has a “Lockdown” tonight (March 16) in its new Wednesday night timeslot, and in addition to a present-day return for the series, Goldface is back in action! To promote the episode FlashTVNews’ Craig Byrne interviewed actor Damion Poitier who brings Keith a.k.a. Goldface a.k.a. Amunet’s beloved to life. Enjoy the interview below!
FLASHTVNEWS’ CRAIG BYRNE: What brings Goldface back to Central City in this episode?
DAMION POITIER: There is something that he and his paramour found out is in the Central City Police Department vault, and he wants it, so they come up with a plan to get in there and grab it.
What is the best part of returning to this character?
There is so much to love about about coming back. The crew is amazing. The cast is amazing. The character himself is so multi-leveled and fun to play. It’s so much fun. This has been one of the times where I get to really just open up the toolbox and just play with a lot of different aspects of what I can do. It’s just a blast to be in a place where I can just kind of go “All right, where are we going to go with this? Let’s do this!” He’s so mercurial in a way that I can just go wherever it takes me and it works within the context of the character, so it’s so much fun to play this character.
Can you talk about Keith’s sense of morality? Even when he’s committing crimes, he has certain limits.
He’s more of a anti establishment-villain than he is a maniacal take-over-the-world type. His thing is, the system doesn’t work, so he’s not going to try to work with it. But at the same time, he’s not out there causing havoc, and everything like that. He keeps his activities very contained, and he’s very much about what his goal is, and doing that as efficiently as possible. He doesn’t want to resort to any kind of overt violence and things like that, but if that’s what’s necessary to get the job done, he will get it done.
Can Barry learn any lessons from his interactions with Goldface on this episode?
We’ll have to watch and find out. What he learns… the ramifications that will show in future episodes, but there’s something to be said for someone who’s in a situation where them and their partner are fully linked up and fully working together, and whether or not someone who might be having difficulty can learn from that is really in the delivery and reception of the situation, I guess.
Can you talk about Keith’s relationship with Amunet?
They’re good. They’re obviously good together. They actually had a nice discussion about some of the things that were causing them problems the last time we saw them, when they were able to literally get into each other’s heads, and saw that there was still plenty of love there, and that was just a lack of communication and misunderstanding. So, they’ve gotten to a place where they can communicate, and they do understand each other. You may find out they may be getting a little help with that you may find out, and that’s helping them to really stay on course and just move forward together as a as a power villain couple.
Are you hoping you get the chance to appear with Katee Sackhoff again at some point?
Absolutely. It’s just so much fun. She’s a consummate professional, and a geek legend, as it were, and just getting to play with her and Grant on that set with these characters…. I’ve been a geek my entire life, so all this is just… yeah.
How often do you run into someone who recognizes you for your most-seen comic book role? [EDITOR’S NOTE: Damion Poitier was Thanos at the end of the first Avengers movie]
It’s not as often, but somebody will know, especially when I’m in geek space, somebody will know and then tell, and then everybody starts saying something. But in terms of it being a big thing, I don’t push it much because of the small nature of it. It’s one of those things where you know, if you know, you know, and if you know, you will tell everybody else that you think should know. [Laughs]
Early in your career, you even appeared in a World’s Finest fan film. Were comic book roles always on your radar?
I got into this business to play superlative characters. I’ve been reading science fiction, fantasy and comic books since I was a small child, and the whole reason I wanted to act was to perform and play superlative characters. So yes, absolutely, it was, 100%, and I’ve been incredibly fortunate…. obviously, when I was a child, I didn’t know how large I’d be… to have the size and the physicality and everything to be sought out for these types of roles. It’s really kismet. This is what I wanted. This is what I’m doing. I couldn’t be any happier.
As an actor, how does it feel to walk onto that Central City police station set and see that mural on the wall?
That was very cool. It’s so surreal for me. I’ve been reading this stuff since I was a small child, so going from from looking at these things and thinking about how cool they are, to actually seeing them in real life and interacting with them and becoming a part of that mythology… I’m still pinching myself.
What would you like to see in the future for your character?
More of him! [Laughs] Whatever they can throw me into, they always give me such fun stuff to work with. I’d love to go back and kist whatever they can come up with, go in and play and take it from what they do, and put my spin on it, and which they love and they ask me for…. it’s an amazing sandbox to play with. A very, very comfortable, very welcoming sandbox, so I obviously want to get back at it as much as possible.
Why should fans be tuning in on Wednesday night, aside from the obvious?
It’s Flash, it’s Goldface, it’s a lockdown… it’s another opportunity for character development. There a lot going on. It’s interesting, because sometimes the powers are a crutch. It’s the Superman conundrum. How do you write a character that’s so powerful that they can do everything? Barry is so fast, that he can almost overcome anything. So, one of the ways to make things challenging is to remove his speed, and there are a few characters that are able to do that, Goldface being one of them. It’s definitely something that that makes it [possible] to see a different aspect of of the fact that Barry’s really smart and actually really able to come up with things on the fly, and move fast even if he can’t physically move quickly.
“Lockdown” airs TONIGHT (March 16) on The CW – a gallery of photos for the episode can be found here!