Tom Cavanagh is a fantastic person to just listen to. Bringing comedy into everything he does, and with an impressive resume to match, he kept things interesting from start to finish. Taking questions from the crowd at Fan Expo Dallas last weekend, the panel focused on his time as Harrison Wells (and all of the other versions of this character that have appeared) in the CW’s The Flash.

Article by William Gray

The crowd mostly seemed interested in how it felt to play a character who changed so drastically so often. Cavanaugh pointed out that this was an actor’s dream! He gets to have a part on a long-term show without having to play the same character the entire time. He was excited about the fact that he has a say in who the character becomes next.

They try to change the character to fill in whatever the team is lacking. Initially his character was the main villain, the Reverse Flash, who still makes appearances occasionally. When they first introduced Harry Wells, it was to fill in the role of a pessimist, a role that he still fills on a regular basis. Wells came in to be the laidback (not overly helpful) fun guy. This character got to play an interesting role in the show, going from the goofball to the hero.

Getting away from his work on The Flash, Cavanaugh made sure to shamelessly plug his podcast Mike and Tom Eat Snacks, making sure to tell everyone NOT to check it out and NOT to look it up on Soundcloud or iTunes.

When asked about directing episodes and bringing in guest directors, Cavanaugh explained the issues that come along with this. The community that is built, while working on sets, allows everyone to understand how each of the cast members works best and how the crew works as a whole. When a guest director comes in, they aren’t familiar with this dynamic, and while some are great about working with the already existing dynamic some directors are set in their own ways.

This, of course, brought up the fact that Kevin Smith directed an episode in the past and is directing an episode in the current season. Cavanaugh had nothing but wonderful things to say about Kevin Smith, pointing out the fact that if there is anyone that you want to look up to in life, it is Kevin Smith.

If you need more fix of Tom Cavanagh, you can watch him in Scrubs (as Dan Dorian), Ed (as Ed), Royal Pains (as Jack O’Malley), and many other shows.

Featured image credit: DC Comics and The CW