Diane Guerrero plays many parts. And not just on television.
In DC’s Doom Patrol, she portrays an individual whose mind is split into 64 different personalities, each of them possessing a different superpower. She is a one-woman cavalcade, and in a TV show that’s full of weird and wonderful characters, Crazy Jane stands out as the weirdest and most wonderful.
When she’s not doing that, Guerrero is also one of Hollywood’s leading immigration activists. Her 2016 memoir “In The Country We Love,” detailed her experience watching her parents and brother be deported from the United States to Colombia because they were undocumented immigrants.
Last week, we caught up with Diane via video call for a quick chat about the latest season of Doom Patrol.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Umapagan Ampikaipakan: The superhero genre is so often obsessed with saving the world, and what makes Doom Patrol so fascinating is that it’s about a group of people who are very much struggling to save themselves. Talk to me about how the series takes on these characters and these issues.
Diane Guerrero: I think that Doom Patrol does a such amazing job of showing you how anyone, and all of us, have the ability to be superheroes. And in order to do that, you have to be your own superhero first. You have to help yourself in order to help others. And you can tell, especially in the first season, how these superheroes don’t want to help anybody else, they don’t want to save the world. They’re very reluctant to do that. And the main reason is because they don’t want to save themselves. They pretty much have given up. And when you have that, there’s really no reason for them to be around, nothing really sparks their interest or attention, and so it really shows you how you have to deal and grapple with yourself before you can handle anything else. And I love how Doom Patrol follows each character and their own individual experience to show us that regardless of what has gone on in their own lives, that they’re all capable of change. That they’re all capable of doing good. Most other superhero shows sort of pre-package the superhero. You don’t really see their backstory in that way. And I think that’s what’s so exciting about this one. In that you really see the humanity in each character.
UA: I wanted to talk to you about your book. Which I loved by the way, but also because it’s something that never seems to not be relevant. There is a through line between your story of immigration and the struggles of the outsiders that make up Doom Patrol. And I wanted to know, with everything that’s going on in America now and always, how you stay hopeful, and how you still believe in that dream? Because it must be hard.
DG: Thank you for that, by the way. If you only knew how I felt three years ago about my book, and how it related to the world. I felt like no one was listening. There are so many awful things that have come since I’ve released my books and since my parents deportation. With everything that’s been going on at the border, with the family separations and children in cages, and all of these awful detention centers that are very dangerous and have, and are, causing so much trauma for these families and these young children, it really is lifelong damage that is being done.
And it’s great to see the world responding. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve all been home and forced to really see what’s happening in the world – especially with a health pandemic. People can really put their lives into perspective and really listen to those who have been crying out for help and for support.
At one point, I felt very disillusioned with my decision to talk about this. But as I see the world opening up and the people around me making similar demands of equality and to see the humanity in people, it’s lit a fire inside me that is brand new, and even brighter than it was in 2016. I’m very encouraged to continue this work that I was that I’ve been very dedicated to. But I’m also excited. And I think that we have a chance because of everyone that is joining this superhero task force, if you will. I think it’s an all hands on deck matter. I don’t think people can look away from the problems that have been revealed. So it’s an exciting time for me.
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