Season two of “Batwoman” premieres Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. on The CW. (Photo courtesy The CW Network)
There’s a new Batwoman in Gotham City, and she’s played by Maryland native and Hampton University graduate Javicia Leslie. Taking over from Ruby Rose, who played a different version of the superhero but left the “Batwoman” television series after its first season, Leslie also stars as the crimefighter’s alter ego, Ryan Wilder, a new character who recently made her first appearance in the 50th issue of “Batgirl” for DC Comics. Leslie’s casting as the first Black actor to play Batwoman is a game changer, but it’s not her first time in front of the camera, as she starred in the 2019 film “Always a Bridesmaid” and appeared on the CBS show “God Friended Me” and the BET series “The Family Business.” We caught up with Leslie via phone as she wrapped filming her debut season in Vancouver, Canada.
Photo by John Jay courtesy The CW Network
Richmond magazine: Did you major in performing arts at Hampton University?
Javicia Leslie: No, my major was business management.
RM: So how did you make the transition into acting?
Leslie: I was always still acting, so I was doing plays and pageants and stuff like that while I was at Hampton, even though I was a business major. So I never really had to create a transition because I never really took my foot out of the acting world, and then when I graduated from Hampton and I moved back to D.C., I started working for the government, but I was still doing plays and commercials and stuff like that. When my contract was over in D.C., I used that as an opportunity to move to L.A., knowing that I would have some type of income coming in.
RM: Have you been to Richmond before?
Leslie: Of course, yes.
RM: Are there any places you like to visit when you’re here?
Leslie: I shot a film in Richmond by this Richmond director named Praheme. It’s on Amazon Prime, it’s called “Stuck,” it’s a short. When I was there, the city just showed up and showed out. It was so much fun. We used a lot of small businesses for what we needed on set, for food, for everything like that. There was this restaurant that’s like a staple in Richmond, it’s this Black-owned restaurant [Croaker’s Spot]. That place, oh, my gosh, the food was so good. … We also shot a scene on this rooftop bar that was really cool, and you could overlook the entire city of Richmond, which was beautiful, so I love Richmond. It was just a really, really beautiful place and a lot of culture, a lot of history.
RM: What made you want to audition for the role of Batwoman?
Leslie: As an actor, when we’re first starting out, we audition for everything. So of course if “Batwoman” comes across my desk, I’m definitely going to audition for it, and being a superhero has always been a super part of my life — meaning it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.
RM: You’re making history as the first Black Batwoman, so do you find that adds pressure to the role, or is it more an honor?
Leslie: It’s more an honor, no pressure at all because being Black is not a pressure, that’s just who I am, so I’m just doing me. But the fact that it creates representation in a world that is lacking it, especially in a specific genre, which is the superhero genre — it is lacking Black representation — to be a part of that community and to be a part of that change and that shift is just very important, and really that’s the part that I felt so honored to be a part of, that now young Black kids can look on screen and see another example of themselves and where they can be.
RM: Ryan Wilder is an original character, so how does it feel to bring her to life?
Leslie: It’s giving us the opportunity to go as creative and fun and as unique as we want because there’s no parameters, there’s nothing [tying] us to a specific storyline. We get to create the storyline of Ryan, and no matter what happens next, Ryan will always be part of DC, and that’s really dope because that means whenever there becomes a new adaptation of Ryan, we know that we started that.
RM: This is a physically demanding role — how did you prepare?
Leslie: It just so happens that I’m a very active person in general, and I do a lot physically, so I was already training before I got this role. For my fighting scenes, we’ll come through and we’ll learn the choreography because that’s really what it is. Fighting scenes in shows and movies are really like a dance, and so you learn the choreography, and you practice that until it’s time.
RM: What should people expect from Ryan Wilder?
Leslie: You’re going to learn more about her history, you’re going to learn where she started and where she’s from, why she’s where she is, why it’s important that she’s gonna be Batwoman, why she is the hero that city needs.
