‘Superman’ actor Anthony Carrigan visits Winchester Cooperative Theater summer camp program

Cathy Alexander is anxious. She has been peeking at her phone all morning.

“I’m not absolutely sure he’s going to make it,” she says, from her perch in the Winchester High School cafeteria where she’s keeping an eye on tables of students running lines. “But I hope so!”

The “he” is a former student of Alexander’s, who started out in the Winchester Cooperative Theater as a kid, and is hopefully on his way from the North Shore where he is visiting family to speak to the 70 camp kids and staff using WHS as their base this summer while their usual space at the Lincoln School is being renovated.

Another look at her phone and Alexander smiles.

“He’s on his way!” she says, finally relaxing.

The “he” she’s been waiting for is none other than three-time Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominated actor Anthony Carrigan, who has starred in such television shows as “Barry,” “Gotham,” and “Twisted Metal” and on the big screen in “Death of a Unicorn” and “Bill & Ted Face the Music.”

Oh, and you may have seen him in a little movie last summer called “Superman,” where he played Metamorpho, a superhero created by DC Comics in 1965.

Alexander says it was Carrigan who recently contacted her and asked if he could come speak to her students on this July 6 morning. They’ve kept in touch over the years.

Abbie Gatto, assistant director of Winchester Cooperative Theater, is another alum of Alexander’s program. She says generations of people have gone through the program, like her mom, but few reach the heights of Carrigan’s success.

“He has said he attributes his success to her,” she says, of Alexander. “A lot of people who go on to be successful are grateful for the opportunities they had at a younger age.”

Like Allsun O’Malley, another alum, who is a working theater actor and has been on Broadway, debuting in a production of “Wicked.”

But it’s not about the fame or who’s gone on to what for Alexander.

“What’s most important for me is the result,” she says, waving all the other things away. “For me, it’s about when they go on that they are comfortable speaking or being in front of large groups. I want to give them that confidence for life. It’s an honor to be part of that.

“I want them to love the theater for the rest of their life,” Alexander adds, “whether they’re on the stage or in the audience.”

The arrival

If you’re not paying attention, you won’t notice Anthony Carrigan. He strolls into WHS wearing day-glow sneakers, sweats and a baseball cap. Very non-descript for a Hollywood up and comer.

There are hugs and a round of hellos, as Alexander introduces Carrigan. The staff shuffles their students into the auditorium and as if directing a play, Alexander sets the morning into motion.

“I started out here in the fourth grade,” Carrigan tells a room of rapt kids, ages 8 to 14. “My favorite, most memorable part was playing Fagin in ‘Oliver.’ I was on stage and my beard fell off mid-song.”

With a little kick step, he whipped the beard in the air, grabbed it and put it back on.

“The thing I was most terrified of happening, did,” Carrigan says, laughing. “The lesson there was thinking on your feet and using your imagination.”

He’s carried that through his life, from being accepted and graduating from a prestigious acting program at Carnegie Mellon University to doing stage work in New York City into television and on the big screen.

“It’s all the same stuff,” Carrigan tells his audience. “These are skills you take in your career as a professional actor. It’s all the same skills you’re doing right here, the same stuff you’re learning. It all about the building blocks that you’re learning here.”

Carrigan talks about growing up in Winchester, where he was a student at the Ambrose School when his parents decided to enroll him in the Winchester Cooperative Theater.

“I was so shy as a kid,” he says. “Your shyness is part of you. It’s a challenge when you don’t know what to say and you ask yourself what if I say something wrong, what if people don’t like me? That’s the beautiful thing about being on the stage is that you can be anybody you want. You can try new things. Even though I was shy, a part of me wanted to be seen and understood.”

And he credits Alexander and Winchester Cooperative Theater with helping him move beyond his shyness.

“Cathy was such a wonderful gift to me,” he says. “She gave me the foundation and building blocks to be on Emmy-nominated shows and on big, big movies. The stuff I do in ‘Superman’ is the same stuff Mrs. A gave me. It’s the same building blocks.”

Carrigan shares the first role he ever played in a production at Winchester Cooperative Theater was as Wilkes the pirate in “Peter Pan,” a two-line part.

“I still have the script!” he says, laughing. “Like my dad used to say ‘There are no small parts, just small actors’ and it’s true. If James Gunn likes something you’re doing, there will probably be more movies. It’s not a matter of how many lines you have, what matters is how you bring them to life.”

Questions & answers

Like any good director, Alexander has questions she asks from the sidelines, such as what is the role that made Carrigan famous?

The actor says it’s all a matter of building one role on top of another. He says he did a small part in the show “The Flash,” where they liked him so much they asked him to come on again.

It was supposed to be a one-shot role, he says, adding a casting director on the show liked what he was doing and asked him to be on “Gotham” in the role of Victor Szasz. Another one shot role that turned into a reoccurring character.

That led to a main cast role as Chechen mobster NoHo Hank in the HBO series “Barry” (2018–2023).

“By the time ‘Barry’ came along, I felt more confident and I decided to have fun,” he says. “For my audition, the casting director was laughing so hard that we had to start again. I knew I had it. Each experience I’ve had has been a valuable one.”

Carrigan talks about the process of finding his characters: Who they are, what they feel, how does he relate to them? Everyone has feelings about everything, he adds, it’s a matter of finding how does the world interact with the character and how do they feel about things?

From the sidelines, Alexander asks Carrigan what his best role has been?

“They’ve all been really different,” he says. “But because I spent so much time with NoHo Hank, I’d say that one. When I got the character description it said ‘a mob boss, but a really nice one.’ I really had to use my imagination and creativity to figure out what his world is supposed to be.”

Kids in the audience also have questions. One asks about his Metamorpho role and the use of prosthetics: Are they re-used or new every day.

Carrigan gives the run down: New ones every day, costing thousands of dollars to make. A costume that is worth even more.

He says he’s in the make up chair for five and a half hours each time, showing up around 3 a.m. for an 8 o’clock call on set.

Carrigan says it’s a process and by the time it’s complete, he’s sown into his costume.

“It’s kind of hard, uncomfortable,” he says. “But what’s great is that this character is uncomfortable in his own skin, he doesn’t like the way he looks. I can use that.”

And yes, the 12 to 15 hour days are tough, especially if he’s in the wire harness.

“But I’m flying next to Superman!” he says, laughing like a small boy. “That is really very cool!”

Other kids want to know what it’s like to transition from the stage to film, would he ever take a Marvel Universe role, and what’s it like to be rejected.

Carrigan says being on stage is all about big movement and projecting to the back of the theater whereas television and film are all about smaller movement, being still. And yes, he’d take a Marvel role if the right opportunity came along, although he’s sort of contracted to the DC universe at the moment.

As for rejection, he knows all about that. Carrigan says all you can do, as an actor, is to give your version of whatever character a production is calling for and if you don’t get the part, that’s perfectly fine.

“It’s OK,” he says. “It just means the part isn’t yours. There will be a part that’s yours and it will be special. I would say that 99% of the time, you’re not going to get that part, but remember it’s not about you so don’t take it personally. Before you know it, you’re going to be doing something you like.”

Meet and greet

The show must go on and indeed the students at the Winchester Cooperative Theater still have an entire afternoon of getting ready for their summer production of “Mean Girls Jr.”

As their famous guest leaves, they are right back at it, working through their music.

Alexander and her famous guest are now back in the empty cafeteria. Carrigan is talking shop with some older students who still have lots of questions.

Asked about the experience of having Carrigan come to speak, Alexander is teary.

“What a gift!” she says, laughing. “What could be greater than this? I’ve had a lot of people go through the program, but he has to be one of the most successful. For him to be so thoughtful and so kind is just the frosting on the cake!”

Carrigan sits down for a few minutes to talk exclusively to Winchester News. He says Winchester High School looks a lot different from when he was a student, given the renovations, and so does Winchester.

Asked if he really still has his “Peter Pan” script, he nods.

“I was so fond of it, I held on to it because it was the first script I ever had,” he says. “I recently found it again and I still remembered some of those lines.”

Carrigan says how much he enjoyed coming back to speak to the Winchester Cooperative Theater students.

“The questions they had were so insightful, so intelligent,” he says. “Kids are very smart and people need to give them more credit. They’re really able to process big themes and understand character.”

Carrigan talks about how his parents had both done local theater in Arlington and Cambridge and his two older sisters had also gone through Alexander’s program.

“They had done Mrs. A’s plays so it made sense for me to join in. We were a theatrical household,” he says, of those years. “Slowly, I started to come out of my shell and let myself be seen.”

Carrigan says he and Alexander have kept in touch over the years and there have been two previous attempts to find a time for him to come meet her students, but he booked jobs and those fell through. Until three weeks ago, when the stars seem to align.

“I’m personally really grateful to come back, to reconnect with this thing that was so formative and influential for me,” he says, of the experience. “It was something of a foundation for me that carried me through my education and career because it’s really a lot of the same stuff.”

What’s next?

So, what’s next for Carrigan? Two upcoming projects: “Spaceballs: The New One” and “The Stalemate,” both of which are in post-production. The former of which is slated for 2027.

“‘Spaceballs’ is amazing!” he says, of that project. “I grew up with the VHS of ‘Spaceballs’ and I’m a fan of Mel Brooks.”

Has he met Mel Brooks yet?

“No, but he’s meet me,” he says. “He watches all the dailies.”

Carrigan also talks about what it’s like to be different. He has alopecia totalis, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss and has championed raising awareness of the condition.

“Being different is a superpower,” he says. “It gives you a different perspective, a perspective that’s new and fresh and totally unique and that’s a uniqueness people want to see. Whether it’s film directing or writing or whatever you’re using your creativity with, everyone has their own voice and the more you can use your voice and stand by it, the more people will be excited by something that’s not been seen in other places.”

He says he’s a big believer in allowing people to tell stories the way they want to tell them.

As Carrigan’s day in Winchester wraps up, there’s one more thing to know: Is he hanging around town a bit?

The answer is that Carrigan hasn’t been back where he grew up for awhile so his plans on this day are to drive around a bit and take it all in. He says the town looks so different.

“It’s very exciting to be back,” he says. “There are so many memories and it’s such a great town. I’m so glad to be back!”

Nell Escobar Coakley has been a journalist for more than 30 years. She is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Gotta Know Medford and editor of Winchester News. She can be reached at editor@winchesternews.org.