‘DC Stargirl’s Joy Osmanski Breaks Down That Epic Supermarket Fight Scene

On this week’s episode of DC’s Stargirl, “Chapter Three: The Blackmail”, the mystery of who killed The Gambler deepens — but not before it heads off in the wrong direction when Starman (Joel McHale) decides that Paula Brooks (Joy Osmanski) and Larry Crock (Neil Hopkins) are behind the killing… Leading to an epic showdown in, of all places, the local supermarket.

“What are you going to do, it’s me, Neil, and Joel just hanging out on set in this random grocery store,” Osmanski told Decider. “We had a great time. We shopped, we looked around, things exploded. You know, a typical time at a grocery store.”

In between supermarkets exploding, Paula also has time to build her friendship with Barbara (Amy Smart) after last week’s German Chocolate Cake disaster, thanks to a speech Paula is asked to deliver at the local Rotary Club. To find out more about this, that fight, and joining the cast full time for Season 3, read on.

Decider: Last time we talked the news had just come out about you joining the cast full-time. So… What has it been like joining the cast full-time for season 3?

Joy Osmanski: Honestly, I have to say, and this is a testament to the nature of the work that we do, not that much changed. And I mean that in the most lovely way. It’s because sometimes on productions if you’re not a series regular you can feel, as much as people might try, you can feel kind of like an outsider. But I never, I never felt that way. So, honestly it was mostly something that just happened on paper. And it was like, official? But otherwise, I think both Neil [Hopkins] and I were just like, “Cool, officially part of the family.” But, we always felt that way. I did anyway. So not much changed

Do you feel like, now that you are a series regular, though, and certainly there’s been some big changes for the Crocks in season 3, that you’ve gotten to explore different flavors, different sides of the character?

Yeah, that’s been really gratifying. I mean, when Geoff [Johns] told us we were going to come on board in a bigger way in Season 3 that just meant for me, we got to see more aspects of their personalities and a little bit more of who they are outside of the fighting scenes, which is great. Because of course that’s totally their personality. But yeah, it’s been so fun to try and adapt to normal life as those characters.

I do love the idea of having the Crocks next door as sort of the ‘crazy next-door sitcom neighbors,’ and we get a great scene in tonight’s episode of them jumping in, forcing their breakfast away, forcing them to eat a healthy breakfast. It’s a little up in the air in my mind how the Whitmores feel about the whole thing. But how do you think the Crocks feel about the Whitmores? Are they like, “These are our best friends,” or how are they reacting to it?

Right now, anyway, it feels like they’re ready to be besties, but they also see them as in dire need of their assistance. So I’m not sure if that really puts you on an equal playing field. They’re like, “Oh these poor, sick people, they need our help and our health.” So I think it’s more like a pity case right now. They’re just like, “They don’t know, they need us to show them the way.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, and I talked to Amy Smart about this a little bit last week, there clearly is a friendship forming, particularly in this episode, between Paula and Barbara. So what’s it been like developing that?

Easy, easy as pie. I mean, Amy and I are great friends already, so the fact that we got to live out some of that in another way in a parallel universe onscreen has been so much fun. And the writing for those scenes is so great, because when you take a character like Amy’s and you put her in the same room as someone who is completely socially inept, like Paula. And Amy’s character, Barbara’s so gracious. But she’s also like, “how do you not know these basic things?” So it’s just such a contrast, it’s oil and water. It’s really fun.

The standout of the episode is that huge fight between the Crocks and Starman that takes place in the supermarket. I have some specific questions about it, but just generally speaking, what was it like filming that sequence?

A dream. Working with Walt Garcia, both as a stunt coordinator and then as a director, was a dream. And when I saw that he was doing this episode I was like, “Well of course he is, that makes perfect sense,” because that is his gift – to shoot those scenes. We had so much fun, I think we shot it over three days and mostly in the dead of night. And you know, what are you going to do, it’s me, Neil, and Joel [McHale] just hanging out on set in this random grocery store. We had a great time. We shopped, we looked around, things exploded. You know, a typical time at a grocery store.

I was going to ask you about that. So this was a real supermarket? It was not like a Supermarket Sweep style set?

Yeah, it was a real supermarket with a very specific thing that they do, actually, to serve that area. I was kind of fascinated by the whole set-up. I’d never been in a market like that before. But, I think it was supposed to double as like, a Piggly Wiggly, I think.

I know of course they’re going to keep you safe, that’s the primary concern, but usually when you’re doing these fight scenes on a superhero show like Stargirl you’re doing it in a big room, or warehouse, or something like that. So, what changed about the fighting and the choreography, doing it between those tight spaces of the aisles, with packages, and bottles, and everything else going on there?

Yeah, and plus, dealing with the reality of a grocery store, there’s no overhead rigging. There’s just fluorescent lights. So, all the mechanics of what they had to do typically, they weren’t there. They had to build a lot of things. What happens with creative people, is once you’re given a parameter you have to become more creative. That’s what happened in this case… The sequence was the most brilliant, fun thing, to go over the aisles and just keep going, zigzagging down through the store. I mean it’s genius, and there’s so many things to use in there. There’s so much glass. It was great, god, it was great.

It definitely amps up the danger to just know, “Oh gosh, maybe there’s some real bottles there.” But again, intellectually, I know you’re going to be fine.

Yeah, for real, for real I never felt, not for a moment have I ever felt unsafe. They do a really good job of keeping us protected.

There’s a great shot in the middle of the sequence where, I think it’s Starman, shoots the staff at you and you bend backwards to dodge it and then hang there for a second… How did you do that? Did you actually do that?

[Laughs] Years of training. Um no. Actually, it did help that my back is fairly flexible. But, I was in a harness so I was fully supported for that. I wish I could say I just casually leaned back with my arms crossed and defied physics. But no, I had a lot of support.

You’ve done this before on the show, but when you’re doing a sequence like this, how does it change choreography when it’s you and Neil Hopkins together; versus a solo scene?

Because Neil and I have had so much time to get to know each other and we speak so much of the same vocabulary, both on set as actors, as parents, as people, as the characters… It’s very simple, and I don’t take that for granted because there’s some people that you work with, for whatever reason the chemistry is a little harder to find. But, Neil and I have always had a real easy time together and we trust each other, and we’re good communicators, and you have to be when you’re doing this kind of work. You can’t be like, “Hmm I don’t know if that…,” you have to say it out loud and make sure it’s in the air and that everyone understands. So, I think we’re good at communicating.

It definitely comes across. Towards the end of the episode they confess about what’s actually been going on with The Gambler, with the blackmail. Given this, it feels like Courtney at the very least has moved on to start trusting them, and Pat a little bit as well. Do you think the Crocks have what it takes to heroes? Or is there always going to be villainy in the background?

I mean, I think it’s hard to shake that. That’s their legacy, that’s all they’ve known, all they’ve come for, and all they’ve been identified by. So that’s been a lifetime. You want to hope that if someone has a change of heart and makes an earnest and sincere effort that they will be taken seriously. But they’re fighting a lot of past. So, I don’t know. The desire is there, but will it persevere and last? I don’t know.

The speech at the Rotary Club seems like a big turning point for Paula, particularly in embracing her new life in Blue Valley. I loved how you played that scene, and Amy Smart doing the little clap at the end. Where do you think that pushes Paula forward as a character?

It was so lovely to see her be just truly, desperately uncomfortable. She’s so used to being physically very confident, she’s generally in her element, she’s always the aggressor. And then, like a lot of people, public speaking is the one thing that just like, she’d rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy. It’s petrifying. That was a really humanizing moment, and it was so smart of Taylor [Streitz] to write that into the episode because it really just, in one simple scene, reduces her down where she’s on everyone’s level. I love that Amy’s character, Barbara, comes in and supports, and you see real friendship there. That’s the proof of it, in that little scene.

That said, even with the progress she makes, we do have that one final scene of her doing something terrible to Tim. Not that we should worry about him because he’s the worst, but how worried should we be for him, just as a human being who is alive?

If you’re that obviously a douche, I think you should really be– [Laughs] He makes no effort to hide it, so he’s asking for it. And when Paula witnesses how he treats Barbara, it’s over. Like, you know something’s going to go down. And you know Paula, that’s the thing, is once she has a friend, and maybe this is her first, she’s going to defend that person to a fault. Should he have been HR’s problem, absolutely, but Paula was like, “that’s too much paperwork, I’ll just do it myself.”

What, if anything, can you tease about Paula — and perhaps the rest of the Crocks — over the course of the season, as we get deeper into this murder mystery?

They are going to continue to make themselves as useful as they can. They’re going to continue to step in it, too. They’re finding a new path here. There’s no template for them, and they certainly don’t look to anyone else’s behavior as how to do it. So they got to find it for themselves, and it’s going to continue to be awkward. But, that’s okay. As the trust builds, I think it’ll round out.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

DC’s Stargirl airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.