Las Vegas native actor Fallon Smythe portrays Harper Row for the live action adaptation of Gotham Knights on The CW. Given her prior experience with Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, Smythe continues to diversify her acting range with the action packed comic-based series. I connected with the talented performer to gain more insight on how she developed her acting career beginning in Las Vegas, Nev., her portrayal of Harper Row, and how she proceeds in Los Angeles, Calif.
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Tune in on Tuesdays at 9 pm ET to catch live episodes of the Gotham Knights series on the CW. Stream the latest episode on Wednesdays at www.cwtv.com. Read on to discover more about how acting talent Fallon Smythe broke into her role as Harper Row on the CW's Gotham Knights.
Q: Congrats on your role with Gotham Knights as Harper Row! Can you share your experience when you got the news that you were selected for the part?
A: I was visiting my grandpa in Ohio; he was in a memory care facility. I’m sitting in the car because the screen test was that day. It was when all the studio and executives would watch the tape and decide.
They said I would find out if I got it in about seven days. My mom and I are just taking a moment in the car like, “Okay, this is it! We are going to see what happens if it happens great, if it doesn’t, you know I’ll live.”
Harper Row’s code name in the comics, her alias, is Bluebird. [As] my mom and I are talking about this, we see a bluebird fly in front of us and I was like, “Oh my God did you see that bluebird?”
I hadn’t processed what I saw or what I said. My mom was like, “Honey, did you hear what you just said?” I was like, “God, if that wasn’t an omen, I don’t know what is.”
30 minutes later I found out I booked it. I was with my grandpa who was also an electrical engineer [and] so is Harper so everything was really serendipitous. A year later it came out so here we are full circle.
Q: How do you prepare to portray Harper Row?
A: Harper, I wanted to be intentional about how I prepared for this because there are huge shoes to fill playing any kind of DC roles or from the comics. There are a lot of fans and there are these high expectations that I wanted to do justice for.
It was a lot of reading, reading the comics and even little Reddit threads of all these opinions that people have of Harper, these people who have really dived into this kind of world. I would journal a lot as Harper. I would create my own music playlists and workout to that when I was training for the role.
Really putting yourself into the mindset and doing all the work to fill in the details that may not be in the comics. It was a lot of research, a lot of reading, watching videos because this is the first live action of Harper Row. There are small bits of her being portrayed as animated characters so really doing my research with that and watching as much as I can.
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Q: What are your favorite things about Harper Row?
A: Harper is incredibly strong-willed; she’s very [assertive.] She really takes on this primal maternal role for her brother Cohen. She has this need to protect him and I love that.
She’s incredibly fierce and determined. I’ve tried picking up a few things from Harper for my own life, having that assertion and drive.
Q: You grew up in Las Vegas. Do you still live in Vegas or are you based out of L.A.?
A: Yes, I was born and raised in Vegas and I moved to L.A. when I was 16. We still have family friends in Vegas [and] my parents met there. I don’t really have any family there [anymore] but Vegas is my home so I try to go back and relish in the nostalgia of it and visit my favorite restaurants and friends.
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Q: What are some of your favorite restaurants in Las Vegas?
A: I’m Syrian. There’s a Middle Eastern restaurant…called Stefano’s…Then Sushi Ko this little [spot] in Summerlin. My parents were in the restaurant industry in Vegas.
They had a bunch of restaurants and clubs and my dad had this club called Mirage at Caesar’s Palace and attached to it was this restaurant called Kokomos. So just all these kinds of old spots when I eat there, when I’m there it’s just this nostalgia; I just feel like I’m home.
Q: Which acting classes did you take or who did you study with?
A: I started with classes actually in Vegas. The reason I started, it’s an interesting story. I was diagnosed with type I diabetes and from that I was really sick.
My mom’s friend was trying to get me distracted and busy so she had enlisted me in a pageant and for the pageant my mom’s other friend decided to put me in acting classes to get me comfortable with interviews and thinking on my feet. His name is Tim Colceri in Las Vegas.
He put me in a short film, that short film got me an agent and it was all a domino effect from there. I’ve been working in Los Angeles with Patrick Day for about 10 years and I adore both of them.
Q: Well I am so happy for you that you landed this role with Gotham Knights as Harper Row. Any additional projects we should look for you in?
A: So right now I am [prioritizing] Gotham Knights. You hear most casts say this, but we really became like a family. It’s really crazy how immediate our connection was and how familial it was.
Photography by: By: Anthony Mongiello; Gotham Knights -- Image Number: GKTS1_8x12 -- Pictured (L-R): Fallon Smythe as Harper Row, Tyler DiChiara as Cullen Row, Oscar Morgan as Turner Hayes, Navia Robinson as Carrie Kelley / Robin, and Olivia Rose Keegan as Duela Doe -- Photo: The CW -- © 2023 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved;Gotham Knights -- “Under Pressure” -- Image Number: GKT103a_0097r -- Pictured (L-R): Oscar Morgan as Turner Hayes, Navia Robinson as Carrie Kelley / Robin, Olivia Rose Keegan as Duela Doe and Fallon Smythe as Harper Row -- Photo: Amanda Mazonkey/The CW -- © 2023 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
