Superman & Lois Interview: Erik Valdez Talks Kyle Cushing

Erik Valdez has made quite an impression on The CW television series Superman & Lois as Lana Lang’s husband Kyle Cushing, a fire chief with a strong defense of his town and his family while still facing some of his own personal demons. With a new episode of Superman & Lois titled “Loyal Subjekts” airing tonight (June 8) at 9PM ET/PT on The CW, KryptonSite spoke with Erik about the experience of playing Kyle and what makes his character tick.

Enjoy, and if you’d like to see photos from tonight’s episode, you can find them here.

KRYPTONSITE’S CRAIG BYRNE: What is the biggest challenge in playing a character like Kyle?

ERIK VALDEZ: To me, the challenges are in the little nuances of the character. I’ve talked a little bit about this, with my producers and writers – just the way that they approach the writing to him. He’s not a character that’s over the top or really big at any given time; it’s the subtleties that really make him who he is.

To me, I find that’s often more challenging as an actor, rather than being able to go super big, either physically, or vocally, or anything like that. When you have to play these nuances on a more even tone, to make them come off the screen, it’s a challenge. So for me, that’s been a constant thing of trying to do justice to the brashness of Kyle, and in the flawed elements of Kyle, while also implementing a little peek into his heart and soul, and then where his intentions are.

I’ve liked the way that he’s been written from day one, because you start at a place where people are like, “oh, man, this guy’s kind of a jerk, right?” And to me, that was great, because you’ve got nowhere to go but up from there, and you get to a point where the audience is really getting a glimpse into Kyle and who he really is and the fact that he’s not really a jerk. He just doesn’t know how to handle all these situations. He’s really got the best of intentions at all times, andd I find playing those little subtleties is definitely one of the biggest challenges.

How do you think Kyle would react to Sarah being interested in one of the Kent boys?

It’s funny. I listen to a lot of country music. I listen to a lot of music in general, but I am a bit of a country boy in real life. I grew up in Texas, and so I’ve got elements of Kyle, and I understand Kyle quite well. I was listening to a song the other day by Thomas Rhett on his new album, and there’s a line in there in a song called “To The Guys That Date My Girls.” Thomas Rhett has three girls now, and there’s a line in there where he’s talking about the future, to the guys that date his girls, that “when you pull her close, basically save some room for Jesus, because if you cross that line, boy, you’re gonna need him.” And to me, that’s pretty much spot-on with how Kyle is gonna approach this thing. He’s not going to be this helicopter parent that doesn’t let his daughter do anything. She’s a beautiful girl, of course guys are going to be interested in her, but you better not cross any lines, or Kyle will wreak all hell on anybody who does not take care of his girls, basically. So that one line in that song, literally, as I’m listening to it… I listen and see and hear things as Kyle sometimes… I’m like “oh yeah! I get that!”

You get to play guitar in Tuesday’s episode. Can you talk about that?

First of all, I’m glad I love the fact that that they’ve allowed us to do more than just act. They’ve implemented some of our other talents or things that we may not be that talented at, like guitar, and secondly, I’m thankful that they didn’t script a very complicated song, because I can play but I am no guitarista or whatever you want to call it.

It’s awesome to be able to do though, because music has been a big part of my life forever. My grandpa, when I was a kid, literally, they had a farm outside of Lubbock, Texas, and we’d be out on the on the porch, and he’d break out his guitar, and he’d make up songs. He’d sing some songs we knew, but he would just make stuff up and strum on the guitar. And so, getting to do that in this in this show, in this episode here, it really brought back a lot of fun memories, internally for me as Erik, of getting to do that type of stuff. It also gave me an excuse to go out and buy another guitar, because my guitars were back in L.A.. I was like “I’m not gonna ship them up here, so I’ll go buy another one,” and my wife like, “okay, I guess it makes sense.”

What do you think would make Kyle Cushing happy?

That’s a great question. I think at the end of the day, that’s what he’s really striving for, is his happiness. Internally, he’s got a lot of demons that he hasn’t quite faced yet, and I think that’s part of part of who he is. He puts himself last. It maybe doesn’t always come across that way. but he’s always looking out for the people he loves. In this case, this season, it’s been his town. Smallville is everything that him, outside of his immediate family, and so if he sees his people happy, if he sees his loved ones happy, that makes him happy. I don’t think he’s quite ready to deal with his internal demons, and we’ve seen that manifest itself in both the way he lashes out here and there and in his drinking early on. I think initially, having his people around him that he loves happy, would make him happy. And I think internally, he’s still struggling with what he really needs for himself to be happy, but that’s kind of an ongoing process, and I think we’ll get to see a little bit more of that as things unfold.

Could Kyle’s feelings about Morgan Edge change once he realizes the danger that he has put Lana and the town of Smallville in?

A hundred percent. Kyle is the kind of person that will take you for your word. You look him in the eye, you shake his hand, and he’s gonna believe you. That’s how he is, and that’s what he expects. And so, he will give people the benefit of the doubt, almost to a fault, up until he doesn’t. And when he doesn’t, especially if you cross him, again, mentioning how much he cares for his town and his family, if you mess with the people he loves, then you are 100% blacklisted.

We don’t really know how, how rough Kyle can get with people, but I have an idea internally of how he would handle situations like that. He doesn’t take too kindly to people crossing him or his loved ones.

Is there anyone in the cast that you haven’t gotten to work with much that you’d like to work with more?

I have not worked with Jordan Elsass much. We’ve seen each other on set, but I think a scene that we have in [Episode 9] might be the first time we’ve actually worked together aside from the pilot, when we, when we were all out at the farm there.

And Alex Garfin, too. I think I’ve seen him more than Jordan, but the Kent kids, in terms of character, they’re ridiculously talented, and I love watching all all of their stuff come to life. I read the full scripts, so I have an idea of what’s going to happen, but they surprise me week in and week out with the life they breathe into these characters. Especially at such a young age, it’s amazing. And Inde [Navarrette] – I work with Inde all the time, obviously, but the youngsters on this show are just ridiculously talented, and there’s also this enthusiasm and this youthfulness that they have.

I work with Em [Emmanuelle Chriqui] all the time, and I work with Tyler and Bitsie, and we’re all around the same age, and that’s really cool. But the days that I do get to interact with Jordan and Alex on set, even if we’re not necessarily in a scene, man, it just reminds me how old I am, and it just reminds me of the sheer excitement, that we should never let go of in what we’re able to do for a living. I try to hold strong to that I’ve had a decent career. I’ve worked a long time. I never want to become this person that just takes things for granted, and I don’t think I do. I’m pretty good about that. But seeing seeing this whole process play out through the eyes of a 17 and a 19 year old is awesome, man. So I would love to be able to work with them more down the road, if not for anything else, just to get a little dose of that youthfulness on set.

You’ve worked with a number of charities. Are there any that you’d like to specifically talk about?

There are many that I’ve worked with that hold a special place in my heart, and one of them is Best Buddies. It’s an organization that promotes inclusion, so they they work with mainly teenagers and young adults with Down syndrome and with learning challenges, in getting the rest of the world to be more accepting and put them into job positions, to let the world know that it’s because someone has Down syndrome doesn’t mean they can’t work and interact well with other people. I love what they do, and any time I get to work with them, it’s awesome. It’s just such a great organization.

Also, there’s City of Hope based outside of L.A.. They’re on the forefront of cancer research and they do a lot for research, but they also help folks that can’t necessarily pay for treatments. There are a lot of [charities] out there, and I wish I could spread myself a million miles then just so I could help as many people as possible. But those are the two that I tend to work with on the regular.

Overall, what has the Superman & Lois experience been like for you?

“It’s amazing” is the short answer. My wife and I were talking about this the other day. To me, this has been a veritable jackpot. Not just because I’m on a TV show, and I’ve got a steady gig… I mean, that’s a big part of it, especially given the state of the world and going through a pandemic, and, and working through all that… but aside from that, it’s a show that is proven to be successful, that resonates well with the audience, that is chock full of talent, from our writers, to our DPs, to even the guest stars that we have coming in and out. They’re all just such great people.

And my cast mates! I was with Tyler and Wolé yesterday. We went kayaking! We’re sitting out on the lake — we rarely get a day off all of us at the same time — we were out there, sitting on the lake in kayaks, and we’re just literally at this moment where we were talking a lot, and then there’s about 10, 15 seconds of dead silence, and it seemed like we were all thinking the same thing. We looked at each other and, and we’re like, “you know what? This is amazing. The fact that we all get along to the point where we actually still love hanging out with each other, even when we’re not working. That doesn’t happen all the time, especially in this industry!” All too often, you’re in situations where you’re forced to work with people that you wouldn’t ever really interact with in real life, or that you don’t actually really get along with. Yhat’s just not the case here. So for me, you know, again, it hits the jackpot. I’ve got my family up here with me. We’re in Vancouver, which is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We’re filming a show that is doing really well, that people really love, with some of the best people in the world. I couldn’t be happier with my current situation.

Don’t miss a new Superman & Lois TONIGHT on The CW. Our thanks to Erik Valdez for taking the time to do this interview!