THE FLASH: Candice Patton on Iris’ New Mentor, and How Barry’s Confession ‘Turned her World Upside Down’

THE FLASH’s Iris West is continuing her streak of big life changes: fresh off of moving in with her boyfriend, Eddie — and finding out that her long-time best friend, Barry, is in love with her — Iris has taken a reporting job at Central City News.

I spoke with THE FLASH star Candice Patton (Iris) about the changes in Iris’ life…

Iris has a new job! What can you tease about where that takes her?
Candice Patton: Basically, she takes, what I think for her, is a dream job at Central City News, and I think that’s how we know Iris in the comic books — as this journalist, at this great newspaper. So she joins the newspaper, and immediately, she realizes the editor really only wanted to bring her in for her relationship and proximity to the Flash. He’s really more interested in more stories about this super-human guy that this city has found out about.

So, it’s kind of disappointing to Iris, because that’s not how she solely wants to be known. And she gets paired up with Mason Bridge [guest star Roger Howarth], who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, and he’s not interested in working alongside her.

She starts the paper, and it’s not as dreamy as she imagined, and she’s trying to prove her worth in this world.

As she’s trying to prove her worth outside of the Flash, what lengths will she go to?
CP: The thing about Iris, is she’s extremely curious and inquisitive. With that comes a lot of danger, but she was doing that even before she had the job — she was finding herself in dangerous positions. I don’t think that’s going to stop. I think that’s only going to get worse with having this job and having to meet deadlines. And she’s also got this mentor, Mason, who is known for getting the story no matter what it takes, so, that will rub off on Iris. She will use that in her own profession.

How are Mason and Iris working together?
CP: Initially, he not really thrilled about her. He’s kind of old-school, and comes from an old-school way of reporting — digging and going after the story. He sees Iris as this new generation of blogger, who just gets their information from the internet and hearsay, and types up their thoughts and feelings.

One of the things they need to investigate is Dr. Wells. How is Iris handling that?
CP: The thing is, Iris doesn’t know much about Dr. Wells. She has no reason to think of him other than a savior, of sorts. She knows him as the man who saved her best friend’s life, and for that, she’s eternally grateful. So, for anyone to kind of accuse him of anything other than being a great scientist, it’s kind of shocking for Iris, and puts her in a somewhat difficult position.

She’ll definitely be prompted by Mason in particular to go after the story, to look into it, to ask her friends about Wells. And it’s a difficult thing for her to do. So you kind of have to wait and see how she handles that.

Is she able to talk that out with her father?
CP: We don’t see much of that. Iris is pretty self-sufficient, and I think she wants to prove to herself that she has this grown-up job, and she can do it on her own. She relies on that. She uses her resources. She pops up at the police station when she can to get information, or to bug Eddie to look into something for her. But for the most part, Iris is taking this job as something she’s very capable of doing.

Her relationship with Eddie seems to be strong, despite Barry admitting his love. How is Iris’ romantic life seeping into everything else she’s trying to handle?
CP: There’s a lot happening for Iris. She’s obviously moving in with Eddie, this man that she loves, and has been extremely wonderful and amazing to her. And she’s also dealing with the feelings that have been placed on her by Barry, in the Christmas episode, where he confessed his love for her.

Romantically, Iris is in a very confusing place in her life. She loves Eddie — there’s no reason not to love him, he’s never done anything but be amazing. And yet, here is this person she’s known for most of her life, telling her he’s madly in love with her. For Iris, it turned her world upside down, because she never thought of him in that way, and now that that box has been kind of opened for her, she’s forced to reevaluate how she feels. I think over time, you see her battling with her feelings.

How is she reacting to the new girl that catches Barry’s attention in next week’s episode, “Crazy for You”?
CP: I think it’s always interesting how relationships are — you always want what you can’t have. I think what we’ll constantly see with Iris is that until something is placed in front of her and she’s forced to see it, that’s when she realizes more of her feelings. So when she sees Barry go on a date with Linda, it’s like, oh, wait, I don’t know how I feel about that. She doesn’t know how she feels about seeing Barry with another woman at this point, when he’s just said he loves her. So there’s a lot of conflicting and confusing emotions in Iris, and the fact that she can’t put words to them — or express them — she’s kind of trapped.

And Linda is also Iris’ coworker, correct? So how does that stress add to Iris’ predicament, since she can’t even use work to escape the Barry situation?
CP: She works in the sports department, but yes, they work in the same office. Iris has nothing but respect and admiration for Linda, she’s a great reporter. But I think it is hard to see Barry come into the newspaper to see Linda, and not come in to see Iris. That’s new. [Laughs] I think it’s hard, because she’s always been the center of his life. For someone else to take that role, it’s difficult for Iris.

As an actress, is there a part of you that wishes Iris was in on Barry’s secret so you could play more with the Flash world? Or are you content to let it pay out until the timing is perfect?
CP: That’s the thing — the timing has to be perfect. We want to reveal it at the perfect time for audience members [so] they’re just as excited as we are.

I want Iris to find out, obviously, I really want her to find out. Maybe that’s just Candice wanting that. But at the same time, it’s kind of part of the character. It’s part of the Lois Lane, thing. That’s just how it is. And if you give it away too soon, it’s kind of not fun. So I want her to find out, but I don’t know that I, personally, need it to happen tomorrow. I think it’ll happen at just the right time.

That makes sense. Which upcoming metahuman are you most excited for viewers to see?
CP: There’s so many! We were just shooting with Mark Hamill on Friday, the Trickster. That’s a real treat for everyone — the cast and the crew and the background actors. It’s just kind of amazing to have such an iconic actor on our show, reprising his role as the Trickster. And he’s just as amazing as you remember. So that’s probably one of my favorites.

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THE FLASH airs Tuesdays at 8 PM on The CW.

Related:

THE FLASH: Grant Gustin, Wentworth Miller, and Dominic Purcell Preview ‘Revenge of the Rogues’
ARROW and THE FLASH at TCA: Live-Blog
THE FLASH: Mark Hamill to Reprise The Trickster
THE FLASH: Jesse L. Martin Talks Joe’s Commitment to Helping Barry

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