Tom Cavanagh, Danielle Panabaker, Hartley Sawyer, and Danielle Nicolet Represent Team Flash at Fan Fest Chicago
When a panel revolves around a single cast member of any given show at Fan Fest Chicago, it can be intimate and informative. But when a majority of the cast gets involved, hilarity pursues.
This was most definitely the case when Danielle Panabaker, Hartley Sawyer, Tom Cavanagh, and Danielle Nicolet took the stage for the Team Flash panel.
Each actor showed the amount of friendship they shared with one another by telling inside jokes, one-liners, and flat-out zingers — all in good fun. Overall their love for The Flash and their fellow actors shone through like a twinkling star.
As they all entered the stage, they welcomed each other warmly, pointing out each other’s strengths on the show and in life. They all seemed to be very fond of Danielle Panabaker’s directing style, which she debuted on The Flash Season 5 Episode 18.
Tom Cavanagh started with a joke saying, “She certainly set a high bar for hygiene.”
After a few chuckles, he focused on the difficulties of directing the show, “On a serious note, this show is a very difficult show to direct because of the fact that the Earth rotates once every 24 hours. There is just no time to get in all the things you need to do.”
“Danielle was wise enough to be one of our most prepared directors. The two-week preparation is massively important,” he continued. He then turned to her and said, “You thought out all your options and were remarkably prepared.”
Throwing a kind word back to Cavanagh, Danielle Panabaker said, “Tom taught me everything I know.”
Panabaker went on to explain, “I shadowed Tom in Season 4 when he directed Season 4 Episode 4, which was the introduction of Hartley Sawyer’s character.”
Hartley Sawyer chimed in, “I remember that. That was my first episode. You [Panabaker] were running out to a meeting and shadowing Tom and all that. It was really cool to start there and still be here for you to direct Episode 18 — you were so composed and seamless.”
Soon after, the discussion was opened up to the audience to pick the actor’s brains. One of the first questions was dealing directly with Cavanagh’s character Dr. Wells.
The audience member was curious if Cavanagh himself was responsible for the creation of all the different versions of Wells, and the amount of ad-libbing he did while playing these characters.
Cavanagh explained, “I’ve got about a solid 70 Wells in my back pocket at any time. Which ones I can do will make it on television because they are PG — so that cuts it in half. Then from there, we pick the one you can understand accent-wise — then that cuts it in half.”
“It becomes an exercise in shamelessness. How much do I want to embarrass myself, and how much can we do without canceling the show? That really narrows it down to a solid ten or so,” Cavanagh continued.
Another audience member stood up and wondered if any of the actors had any other plans if acting didn’t work out for them, or if they never got discovered.
Danielle Nicolet was the first to answer. “I had no plan B. My whole plan was leap empty-handed into the void and hope that something good happens — I got lucky.”
Cavanagh corrected her, “We got very, very lucky.”
Nicolet smiled, then added, “On behalf of all actors, I would like to say there is no such thing as being discovered. It is a tough job, and you have to put 100 percent into it. You have to train, and you have to go to hundreds of auditions before you find the perfect job.”
Panabaker agreed, “You worked really hard and then you got an opportunity.”
Sawyer added his two cents in, “The first person who ever represented me saw me at a cupcake shop. I didn’t work for two years after that, so it wasn’t like, wow, I’m on The Flash!”
An Arrow fan in the crowd wanted to know how the ending of that series would impact The Flash and the yearly crossovers. Confused looks and banter erupted between the cast members as Cavanagh admitted he didn’t even know that Arrow was ending with Season 8.
Panabaker then addressed the audience saying, “As you can tell, none of us have any idea. Before anyone else asks, they just started writing Season 6 of The Flash, and Season 8 of Arrow. So nobody knows anything.”
Sawyer made it known that he wasn’t overly concerned about it. “We have Supergirl and Legends. We have Batwoman coming in, right?”
Cavanagh then joked, “We can always crossover with Game of Thrones. Who would like to see a Flash/Game of Thrones project?”
Panabaker ended the subject by saying, “We are not even done with Season 5 yet — there is great stuff still coming!”
A younger member of the crowd wanted to know if anyone onstage had any hidden talents, and the collective answer was no.
Sawyer had no qualms about telling it like it is. “This question comes up a lot — I’m just not a talented person at all.”
This rolled into further questioning about what they put down as talents on their resumes. It turns out, the stars are about as truthful as we are when applying for a job.
Panabaker said, “I rode a horse once; therefore, I am an excellent horseback rider.” Nicolet also joked, “I’m a tap dancer,” then added, “Hell no.”
Sawyer thought for a moment, then added, “I had bullwhip cracking on there. I haven’t done that in like 10 years, because who does that ever?
He then yelled out to the audience, “Where’s the bullwhip, get it out here!”
Surprisingly enough, someone was actually able to find Sawyer the whip he was looking for. After a few mock attempts and false starts, Sawyer and the rest of the cast onstage decided it was for the best to skip it.
Panabaker summed it all up, “To get back to the earlier point — actors lie.”
After the laughter subsided, Panabaker tackled questions about becoming Killer Frost. “The process every day is about 90 minutes,” she said.
Panabaker explained, “They tie my hair up, and then they do the makeup. Then it’s a wig and contacts — then I get dressed.”
This evolved into a discussion on whether Killer Frost will remain a hero, or slide back into enemy territory. Cavanagh said, “It is great that she is friendly but at some point…”
Panabaker agreed, “Yeah, she has that dark side.”
Soon other cast members were asked to weigh in on their feelings about their own characters.
“I get to do a bit of everything — that’s always a blast for me — to be able to get to be a little more dramatic, as well as wacky. He gets to interact with all the other characters on their own too, and that is a lot of fun for me,” Sawyer commented.
He continued, “I like playing Ralph better than I like playing the Elongated Man. They are kind of one and the same for me anyway.”
Cavanagh then went into details about playing the Reverse Flash. “The reason I’m on the show is to be the Reverse Flash. When you get to put on the suit, and then do those stunts, for me it’s a way to free myself. I really enjoy it,” he said.
Cavanagh delved into more detail, “When I play the Reverse Flash, that is 90 percent my personality. All the bad stuff that I just bring out, I’m accessing emotions inside of me to play these characters.”
“I very much enjoy playing darker characters. Reverse Flash has been phenomenally enjoyable and a privilege for me to play,” Cavanagh finished.
The last question of the panel had to be one of the most fitting. It brought the laughter to a close and ended on a positive note that was more than a little heartwarming.
The sole audience member still in line asked in a meek voice, “If you could describe your cast members in one word, what would it be?”
Panabaker said with a smile, “Love because I love them all in different ways.”
Everyone seemed to like that word, but Sawyer wanted to make it more precise. “Family comes to mind because we all have a family thing going on here.”
Panabaker and the rest of the cast members had to agree — family was the best fit.
And it was true. Seeing this foursome onstage interacting with each other, giving playful banter, and compliments to one another, really screamed family, a complete love for one another that spoke volumes from the stage.
As they all left the stage, it was nearly impossible to not be a bigger fan of The Flash than you already were when you walked in the door that day.
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Charles E Henning
Charles E. Henning lives in a quaint town of Illinois with his ever-loving wife since 1998. He is new to writing reviews, but has over thirty years of fictitious writing for his own personal fulfillment. His interests range from science fiction to character-based dramas, but he is a sucker for anyone in a cape.