Supergirl's Azie Tesfai Gets Candid About Screenwriting, Becoming Guardian, And Representation

My favorite part of the episode is when a young girl uses a trashcan lid as a shield and says, "I'm Guardian." What was that moment like for you as the writer and the actor, and how do you feel being able to give young viewers a superhero that they can really see themselves in?

Oh, that makes me so happy that you say that because I wanted that so bad, and then I got to cast the young girls who did it, and it made me so happy to see. There were two girls, and I got to cast them both. And then when I ... I just remember meeting her. I met everyone in my normal clothes, and then I had to go to change, and then I met that girl as a superhero, and her response to me was such a testament. 

I walked into the cast area to say hi to all our guest actors, and she was like [gasping], and I'm like, "Oh, I'm a Black female superhero." It was the first time I'd seen before we shot that scene, the young girl scene ... And it was just like, she just watched ... To the point where, when we did that piece, I had already shot something, and I was going to do something else, and they couldn't get her to stop looking at me, and so I had to come behind Ramsey and stand behind the camera because she just could not...

And then I was behind the camera, and I had to be like, "What's your most powerful pose?" And then she would do it. So I got to coach her through that, and it was so special, but to genuinely see this young girl be so taken aback by the superhero, it was such a testament to that scene, not just being important for the show, but I think I forget that she ... at the end, she was so scared to ask for a photo, but I felt like a really cool Disneyland character at the park. Yeah. It was amazing. That was such a cool day because it was one of the first days in the suit with a bunch of actors, and she literally gasped and grabbed her chair when she saw Guardian, and I've never felt cooler.