‘Legends of Tomorrow’ – Dominic Purcell Interview on Heat Wave and Wentworth Miller

Dominic Purcell Legends of Tomorrow Interview
Dominic Purcell (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)

Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller are back together again for The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, a new spin-off from The Flash. Purcell and Miller first took on the roles of Heat Wave and Captain Cold in season one of The Flash, and they’ll be reprising the comic book-inspired characters when Legends of Tomorrow premieres in 2016.

The duo previously worked together for four seasons on the critically acclaimed dramatic series Prison Break, and during roundtable interviews at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con Purcell talked about their onscreen chemistry.

“It’s something that you can’t intellectualize – I certainly can’t. You either have it or you don’t. People, for some reason, just love Wentworth and myself working together as a team, certainly with Prison Break,” said Purcell. “The response when we both worked together on The Flash as Heat Wave and Captain Cold was massive. It’s just awesome. We’re an inseparable duo.”

“To me, it feels like a second bite of the cherry,” added Purcell. “Doing Prison Break, you don’t…as an actor certainly you realize you’re doing great work and the part’s something special. But it’s after the fact, in hindsight, you go, ‘Wow, I did a really cool show. Will I ever get an opportunity again?’ And I’ve had those discussions with myself. I seem to be getting that opportunity with Legends,” explained Purcell. “The second time around, I’m more in the moment. I kind of just suck it up more. Prison Break was 10 years back…well, not 10 years back, but it was before Instagram. Now I’m doing this show with the new kind of media platform and it’s all exciting.”

Purcell is positive that having a team around Heat Wave won’t decrease his character’s rage in the least. “Heat Wave is a dumber version of The Joker. That’s where I see him. A charismatic psychopath pyromaniac. You know, he’s indirectly very funny. He’s the kind of guy that will make you laugh because he’s so absurdly over the top and full of rage,” said Purcell. “And we identify with that. How many times have we been in the car and want to kill some f*ck?! Heat Wave actually does that. He’s that guy.”

Prior to taking on the role Purcell admits his knowledge of Heat Wave was pretty limited. “I didn’t study because, quite frankly, I didn’t know anything about Heat Wave. I didn’t realize that he was this iconic supervillain in the DC world – that came later after the fact. I have immersed myself in a bit of study on him, and on the peripheral sense, I know what The Joker was like. So for me as an actor it was more or less exaggerating on that.

And yes, you’ve got to take things on the page and some of the stuff that comes out on the page he doesn’t come across as the sharpest tool in the box. So, you know, that’s Snart’s thing. Captain Cold’s intelligent. Heat Wave’s much more instinctively active,” explained Purcell.

As for how he’s going to behave within the group’s dynamics, Purcell said, “He only answers to Captain Cold and we haven’t explored that reason, and that will be revealed as the series progresses. There’s a loyalty there that we haven’t come across yet.”

More on Legends of Tomorrow: Wentworth Miller Interview

Watch the full interview with Dominic Purcell on Legends of Tomorrow: