'The Umbrella Academy' stars on comic books, improvs, and remaining faithful to the original graphic novel

The highly-anticipated superhero series “The Umbrella Academy” is now finally available on Netflix Philippines.

It follows the story of seven superpowered siblings adopted by billionaire Reginald Hargreeves with the goal of turning them into superheroes. After the untimely passing of their father, they must come together despite their differences to solve the mystery surrounding their adoptive father’s death.

It is based on the graphic novel written by Gerard Way, more popularly known as the frontman of the band My Chemical Romance.

While there’s no shortage of superhero films today, "The Umbrella Academy" offers a fresh take on this genre.

At the recent Netflix roadshow in Singapore, GMA News Online participated in a roundtable interview with two of its lead stars, David Castañeda (Diego Hargreeves) and Robert Sheehan (Klaus Hargreeves).

How hands-on was Gerard Way in creating "The Umbrella Academy" series?

David Castañeda: He was just like the “Godfather.” He just kind of gave the blessing. He was there at the beginning of the production. He kind of gave the nod "Okay, you guys know where this is going. I trust you guys.” We had dinner with him and it was very nice to ask him about the comic book.

Robert Sheehan: He was very, delightfully enthusiastic after he had seen us to the read through. He was like “crazy, really good.” God, that was just like catnip to us. Thank god, you approved.

David Castañeda: Yeah, I’m not gonna get fired.

David and Robert at the Netflix roadshow in Singapore

Would you say that The Umbrella Academy series is very faithful to the comic book?

Robert Sheehan: I think that the strength of the graphic novel is in its tone. It's really strong. You know it grabs you, page one, and sort of declares itself as not as like nothing else. I think the show is very faithful to the graphic novel in that respect. But because it's ten hours of television, there is a vast amount of storyline in there. So of course, the show deviates a lot from the source material. Because it has to. It has to be its own thing.

In the portrayal of your characters, were there a lot of improvisations?

Robert Sheehan: They were very good about that. I have done a few things in the past where they can be quite worried when you start drifting off the reservations... Often they see improvisation as worrying because it means they are adding time to their day.

But Netflix has loads of money (laughs). So, they didn't worry too much about us. And also, they wanted an actor to bring loads and loads of chaos to play Klaus, I think. So I was coming out fully-loaded with improvisations. They were really open to that. I am proud to say that few of my improv lines snuck into the first episode. I was very pleased when I saw that.

David Castaneda: There had to be some kind of hierarchy when there was gonna to be a freedom to change a line. But the biggest thing was there was freedom to propose something... Steve Blackman was very good about that.

Robert Sheehan: Within the context of the scriptwriters, they are 100% there. It wasn't as if we were having to fill in the gaps. We were just improvising on top, adding a bit of an icing.

Are you guys fans of comic books growing up? Did you read comics then?

David Castaneda: I did not. But I did watch some anime. Actually, a lot of them... "Dragon Ball" to me was the bible since I was seven years old up until I was fifteen. "Dragon Ball" was such an interesting thing.

Robert Sheehan: I didn't really drift into the comic book world naturally. I used to read a lot of fantasy novels. Fantasy and sci-fi was my thing big time when I was a kid. I guess I ended up with the right stable.

Can you describe the show in three words?

David Castaneda: Family, dysfunction, I'll let you have the other one (to Robert).

Robert Sheehan: Pineapple?

David Castaneda: Super?

Robert Sheehan: What's the opposite of super? It's a really hard question. Anti-hero dysfunction? — LA, GMA News