‘The Flash’ Star Candice Patton On Suiting Up As Speedster

“The Flash” star Candice Patton opened up about suiting up as a speedster in this week’s Season 4, episode 16 of the CW series.

In a recent interview with Variety, Patton revealed that her co-star Grant Gustin helped her a lot in getting used to her superhero costume and the stance she was going to have to take when running.

“He’s had four years to perfect that,” Patton said of Gustin who plays the titular role. “And I got one episode to just try to not look stupid.”

“It was weird and challenging and fun and interesting all at the same time,” continued Patton of her experience suiting up for the show. “It was great — I was glad I got to do that. The bucket list is checked. If [producers] killed me off tomorrow I would think I had a good run.”

Patton first revealed her dream to suit up for an installment of “The Flash” during the “Heroes and Aliens” panel at PaleyFest last year. “I would love to strap some leather on for an episode,” the actress said (via Entertainment Tonight) at the time. “[But] I love that [Iris] provides this human quality on a very superhuman show. I think she’s extraordinarily important to Barry’s superhero narrative.”

In this Tuesday’s episode, aptly titled “Run, Iris, Run,” bus meta Matthew (Leonardo Nam), aka Melting Pot, who has the ability to swap people’s DNA, accidentally takes Barry’s (Gustin) Speed Force powers and gives it to Iris (Patton). When a new threat named Jaco Birch (Max Adler) is unleashed on Central City, Barry is left with no choice but to serve as the team leader and let Iris takes on the mantle of The Flash in order to defeat their new foe.

“It’s a complete role reversal,” Patton told Variety of Barry and Iris’ dynamic in the hour. “And [it’s] the team trusting in her and her stepping out from behind the console and being a leader in a different way.”

Executive producer Todd Helbing said that they did the role reversal so Iris “really gets to know what it’s like for Barry when he goes out there, and Barry gets to know what it’s like for her” back in S.T.A.R. labs.

“The Flash” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.