"Never experienced anything like that": Superman actor Skyler Gisondo reflects on viral fan support before film casting

Superman actor Skyler Gisondo, who plays Jimmy Olsen, talks to Variety about how fans manifested his role as the dear friend to Clark Kent and Lois Lane before he was cast for the part.

Gisondo, who has been working in the industry from an early age, has been seen in films and series including The Bill Engvall Show (2007-2009), The Three Stooges (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man films (2012, 2014), Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), The Righteous Gemstones (2019-2025), Licorice Pizza (2021), The Resort (2022), etc.

Looking at his body of work, many comic book aficionados envisioned him portraying the character of Jimmy Olsen in the Superman movies, as revealed by the actor in the interview. This is what he says:

“I had never experienced anything like that. I didn’t know people had an awareness of my career in that way.”

Let us find out more about what Skyler Gisondo talks about his character in Superman, and the fans' imagination turned out to be true.

"You’re Jimmy, man"- This is what James Gunn told Skyler Gisondo about his role in Superman

In a conversation with Variety, actor Skyler Gisondo talks about how, way before his involvement in James Gunn's Superman, many people on the internet would propose the idea of Gisondo's casting in the role of Jimmy Olsen. The actor mentions:

“Beginning a year before I auditioned for this movie, my friends would send random messages and comments from forums that were like, ‘Skyler Gisondo would be a great Jimmy,'”

On a lighter note, Gisondo also added:

“You can’t ever allow yourself to get too excited about anything. I also wasn’t convinced it wasn’t just my grandma and my mom writing those messages in chat rooms,”

But at the same time, Skyler Gisondo expressed his overwhelming feeling of gratitude and contentment to see his work getting seen and recognized by so many people, as he mentions:

“All of these things that I’ve been doing for the last 10 years, it feels like I’ve spoken more about them in the last couple of months than I did when they were happening,”

“I’ve almost gotten emotional when they’re like, “Man, I’ve been waiting to see you in something like this. I’ve been rooting for you.”

About his journey towards landing the role in the film, Gisondo reveals that even though he was not really into comic books per se, he adored the work of James Gunn. So, when he was locked in for the role of Jimmy Olsen in Superman, his first impulse went like:

“Oh, I should watch all of the other Jimmy Olsens. I should watch all of the Supermans.”

But eventually, some realizations dawned upon him after feeling the burden of the character's legacy as multiple actors performed the role of Superman's best buddy. He continues:

"But the second I started to do that, I started to spiral. I was like, “It’s too much, the responsibility to get it right, to honor the people who have done it before. I think I just need to kind of be present and do my thing.”

Ultimately, James Gunn, the man who made the numerous fans' imagination come true, spoke the supreme words of encouragement and belief to Gisondo. This is what Gunn had told him:

“You’re Jimmy, man. Whatever you do, that’s Jimmy now.”

The character Jimmy Olsen debuted in the comic book in 1938. Olsen is a photojournalist and a co-worker of Clark Kent and Lois Lane in the film. In all these years, multiple actors have portrayed the role in the Superman films and series, including Tommy Bond, Jack Larson, Michael Landes, Sam Huntington, Aaron Ashmore, Michael Cassidy, Mehcad Brooks, and Douglas Smith.

In fact, in the James Gunn film, Jimmy Olsen's character witnesses a shift, as a romantic angle is added. In the film, he gets romantically involved with Eve Teschmacher. When asked about how he felt while reading his lines and understanding the depth of his character, Gisondo felt a sense of relatability with Jimmy, as he says:

"When I read the script — you’re so lucky if this happens once in your lifetime as an actor — where it just lined up in a way where James’s vision for this character and his version felt in my voice. I was cracking up reading the character because it just felt so close to home."

Further in the interview, he later also mentions:

"Jimmy, at the end of the day, is a guy trying to do his job — and that I related to. There is a sense of like, everyone around him is super in some way. His world is full of meta-humans. Part of the magic of James’s script is the stakes in the newsroom feel just as high as the stakes out there when Superman and Ultraman are battling."