Diyah Pera/The CWPatty Spivot, aka Barry Allen's new potential love interest and Joe West's new police partner on The Flash, is a real go-getter. Like, the kind of go-getter who seems like she just had two cups of coffee no matter what time of day it is. She's totally a morning person.
Shantel VanSanten, who plays the newest addition to the CW hit, thinks it might even be worse than that: "I feel like she's one of those people who doesn't even drink coffee; she just wakes up that way—which I'm very jealous of," she tells E! News of her character.
Ugh, we hate her even more. (Just kidding. We're just sleepy all the time and envious of her natural pep.)
In real life, VanSanten has a few things in common with her character. For one, she's a good student, and did thorough research before starting on The Flash. She read some of the comics, and also watched a lot of season one episodes. "I wanted to understand the tone of the show and I wanted to see the special effects," she explains.
Like, for example, how the idea of a 14-foot gorilla would translate from page to screen. The verdict? They're great. Especially now that she's seen that transition happen in real life. She was especially excited to see how the sand demon from her first Flash episode would look once fully realized.
"To see all of that was so neat, because I watched it in practical when they were really fake punching each other and not knowing what it would actually end up looking like and reacting to that," she says.
She'll be seeing a lot more of the metahumans brought to life now that Patty is Joe's new partner on the anti-metahuman task force.
"Moving forward, I think that of course there's a part of her that wants justice for her father's death," VanSanten says. "She wants to come face to face with Mark Martin, whether or not that will happen or whether or not she will be ready for it and what she will do with that will be interesting to watch unfold. But I think right now every metahuman they encounter and every metahuman they rid from the world is one step closer to healing this brokenness inside of her."
She continues, "I love that Patty is broken and has a dark secret and has some life that she's lived but she doesn't wear it on her sleeve. She doesn't walk around wanting everybody to know that. She just trucks ahead, determined to take down one metahuman at a time."
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.