Since the earliest days of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, Superman has lived two distinct lives: as the Kryptonian hero that we all know and love and as the mild-mannered Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent. Though his reporting has been a consistent part of his story, the focus on the actual rigmarole and process of being a journalist is at the heart of what makes the recent Superman so great. When we sat down with director James Gunn and the cast of the newest DC blockbuster, he was quick to explain just why it was vital to his vision.

“Journalism is important to me,” Gunn shares. “If I give to charitable organizations, it’s animals and journalists. I think that people who are relentless in pursuit of the truth—the actual truth—are heroes, and it’s something I admire greatly.”

Superman delves into life at the Daily Planet and just how hard Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen—under the tutelage of Perry White—will go to get a story. The stakes here are immense as war looms over the new DCU, and only the truth will enable Superman to truly save the day against the nefarious Lex Luthor.

“Today, when journalists are especially under fire from people all across the political spectrum who don’t want them to be reporting on what is, but instead, on what they want the truth to be, I’m grateful for those people,” Gunn says. “I think all those things are really important to me in real life, and so it’s important to portray those things in a positive light in the movies.”

Bringing Lois to life as an actual working investigative journalist was key from the very outset. Rachel Brosnahan recalls early chats with Gunn about the character.

“When I first met with James to talk about the role ahead of our chemistry test, I said, ‘Where does this Lois fit into the canon?’” shares Brosnahan. “She’s one of the characters, just even in preliminary research, who’s changed so much over the course of her life in Superman. And he said, ‘I really want to make sure that we focus on her as a journalist as well as a counterpart for Superman and their love story.’”

“From the beginning, both Rachel and I were very clear that we wanted to make Lois an actual journalist who actually reported on things,” Gunn agrees. “Lois [has] actual specialties that we talked about. We might see a little bit more of what she specializes in, in the future, which is basically corporations.”

Their eagerness to bring authenticity to the screen meant a lot of research, including interviewing real journalists, which led to a particularly influential and important moment.

“James talked about it being perhaps more important than ever that she’s questioning [Clark’s] journalistic integrity and also showing how important that is to her,” Brosnahan reveals. “In my own research, I had the opportunity to speak to a couple of investigative journalists, and I asked one woman whether or not she would ever blow the whistle on a colleague for compromising their journalistic integrity. And she said, ‘Absolutely, and I think we would all expect that we would do the same for each other. And if you don't have that, what do you have?’”

While Lois might be on the ground investigating and Jimmy is busy with his numerous sources, there is one consistent at the Daily Planet and that is Tony Award-winning Wendell Pierce’s take on Daily Plant chief, Perry White. It's a really fun throwback to the classic comics that inspired the film, as Perry makes sure everything gets done, whether it’s happening in the beautifully lit Daily Planet bullpen or in the back of Mr. Terrific’s airship. To get ready to play Perry, Pierce looked back to his iconic turn as Detective Bunk Moreland in the critically acclaimed series The Wire.

“I studied the last season of The Wire, which was all about journalism and the ethics of journalism, and how, because of the pressures that newspapers are going through today, you can make a right choice or a wrong choice,” Pierce explains.

Staying on the right side of that choice is the mission that drives Perry White and his ragtag group of journalists.

“It’s a frustrating journey and an aggravating journey, and that brings about his grumpiness and the craziness that an editor has to go through,” explains Pierce. “And so, while it is not a part of Superman’s story, it is the driving engine within Perry White and gives you a reason for some of the behavior you see from him.”

And as suits the Editor-in-Chief of Metropolis’s most storied newspaper, Pierce also thinks that journalism is of massive importance in a functioning society.

“Now more than ever, you have to have a true north, and your ethics have to be spot on, because that’s the only chance we have to survive,” he says. “With all the media platforms that are out there, that are competing, that are challenging the survival of newspapers, there has to be this drive towards absolute truth, because that will be the only thing that will save the paper.”
 

Superman, directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult, is now in theaters. Click here to get tickets.