Grant Gustin Almost Cried After Watching This ‘The Flash’ Scene
From drama to action, Grant Gustin delivered a wide range of performances on the last seven seasons of The CW’s superhero series, The Flash. And according to his co-star, John Wesley Shipp, one scene from the show left Gustin on the verge of tears.
Grant Gustin and John Wesley Shipp get a touching origin story in ‘The Flash’
Shipp is known for playing Barry Allen in the ‘90s CBS series, The Flash. He returned to the DC universe in the CW version in 2014 as Barry’s father, Henry Allen, opposite Gustin. The actor has also appeared as the Crisis version of Barry Allen, and Jay Garrick.
In a recent chat with Michael Rosenbaum, Shipp talked about how different his and Gustin’s origin stories were. In the ‘90s series, Barry embraces his Flash persona after his brother is killed. And in the CW show, Barry is on a mission to exonerate his dad for his mother’s murder.
Shipp noted how touching the CW version of Barry’s story is. And he said while filming his first scene with Gustin, he felt connected to the characters on multiple levels.
“Having been Barry Allen, it brought those things together,” Shipp said on Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast. “It’s like you talk about being in the moment, being close to who you really are because it was a unique situation. I was playing his father.”
“[Gustin] knew I had played the role,” he added. “I knew what he was taking on, maybe what
some of his hopes and dreams and insecurities might be. And so there were times in those beautifully written scenes between Henry and Barry in the prison in iron heights that I didn’t know if Henry was talking to Barry, or if old Flash was talking to new Flash, or if John was talking to Grant.”
Grant Gustin was on the verge of tears after watching a scene from ‘The Flash’ pilot
In his appearance on Inside of You, Shipp recalled how emotional he got while filming the prison scene with Grant. And he revealed that when Grant watched the scene back, it nearly left him in tears.
“Grant was very funny because I saw him at the upfronts in New York and he had seen the pilot,” Shipp said. “And he was like, ‘Man, have you seen the pilot? Did you see our scene?’ You know the big scene with the hand on the glass [with] the father-son moment.”
“And I said, ‘No, how is it?” Shipp continued. “[Gustin] said, ‘Man, I was sitting there going, you can’t cry, you can’t cry on your own scene.’”
John Wesley Shipp and Grant Gustin return to the Arrowverse as ‘The Flash’ in 2021
Gustin will be back as Barry Allen in Season 7 of The Flash, which premieres Tuesday, Nov. 16 on The CW. Shipp — who played the speedster on Arrowverse shows like Supergirl and Arrow — will appear as Jay Garrick in Episode 9 of Stargirl Season 2. The episode airs Thursday, Oct. 5 on The CW.
