Jinx, portrayed by Lisa Ambalavanar, could spell trouble for the Titans. Introduced in Tales of the Teen Titans #56, Jinx was a powerful elemental sorceress who quickly became a member of the Fearsome Five. Now the character is being adapted for the small screen. The third Titans episode, aptly titled "Jinx," finds the villainess incarcerated as Dick and Kory attempt to recruit her. The team is recovering after a brutal battle with Mother Mayhem, and they are seeking Jinx's expertise in the world of the supernatural to better understand Mayhem.
Jinx, however, proves to be more than a handful and forces Dick to join her on a mission in exchange for her services -- and to save Kory. She has her own agenda and maybe can't be trusted, but that is part of her charm. Ambalavanar recently spoke with CBR about Jinx's history, costume fittings, magical powers, and supersuits.
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CBR: How much did you know about the Titans and Jinx before landing this role?
Lisa Ambalavanar: I had actually seen Titans before I got the role. I had watched it. We get it on Netflix here in the UK. I had seen it on Netflix and was very aware of it. The DC Universe, I was obviously aware of. It's hard not to these days. I had seen all the films and a lot of the TV shows that they had done, which by the time Titans had come out was mainly CW stuff that DC had done at that point. I was aware of comic book movies in general. Blade was the first one I remember. I watched that as a teen. I was very aware of the whole universe. I hadn't grown up with comic books. I got more into that side when I got the role. That was the thing that I started delving into more, the physical comic books.
Chuck Patton, the comic book artist who co-created Jinx with Marv Wolfman, was recently tweeting about the character. How would you compare your version of Jinx to the original?
Going into something like this, you want to do it justice, and you want to please the fans [of] both the character and the genre, but you know you can't please everyone. That can be quite anxiety-inducing, to be honest, knowing there are going to be some people out there who don't like the direction it's gone in or what you have done or the look of the character. What is difficult about this character is there are two very different versions. Some people are very attached and connected to one version and some the other, and some both, but they could not be more different. They are like two different characters, in a way. Trying to find a meld of the two that also worked for the story, which I was not involved in any way, some version of the character that worked all the elements that were going on was quite tricky.
At some point, you have to let go of all the noise and go, "Look, we just have to be OK with potentially some people not being happy with this because I can't be 10 different versions of the character at once. We just have to have faith in what we have done and put it out there and hope for the best." What I am trying to say is it wasn't easy, and we did bear everything in mind. I went deep. I can show you the stack of comic books that I bought. I tried to buy as many, if not all, the issues with Jinx in them. Although our version has pink hair and, in some ways, physically resembles the Teen Titans Go! version more, there's a lot of comic book Jinx in there. I was aware of her history and her background and how she became a part of the Fearsome Five and who she interacted with… All of that is very much in there.
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Jinx is described in the show as a thief and a grifter. Do you see her on the same level as some of the other Titans' foes?
Me personally, no, but I am biased. I don't think anyone playing a villain goes into thinking of them as a bad person. It's almost impossible to do it that way. You have to find some humanity. There has to be something that grounds them and something you can hold onto. 90% of the people playing villains are not villains themselves. You have to find ways that you can relate to in some way. Jinx, regardless of that, if I am trying to put myself in an outsider's shoes, no, I don't think she is a big bad villain like some of the ones you get. Our showrunner, Greg Walker, has even described her very clearly and openly as being chaotic neutral -- somewhere in the middle of bouncing between the two sides. She's almost her own entity.
What brings Jinx and the Titans together?
Jinx has a history in Gotham with Dick. Dick knows her from his past. Because of the magical element that we see in the first couple of episodes that have been released, he gets in contact with her to try and see if she is willing to help them out.
Of course, she jumps at the chance to do good. "Yes, I would love to help you."
Yes, of course. Why wouldn't she be? That's to be seen. It's not necessarily to get her on board, but Dick knows her well enough to know going in that it's probably not going to be easy. She is probably not just going to say yes.
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How much did you enjoy developing that banter between Jinx and Dick with Brenton Thwaites? She knows how to push his buttons.
Brenton and I got really lucky, to be honest. We met the first day of shooting. We hadn't done any chemistry reads. We hadn't passed each other in the hallways for fittings or anything. Luckily, we got along so well and worked together so well, which was quite important for those two characters. There is a way for them to go. It may not be what people are thinking, but there is some growth in there for Jinx and the Titans. It's not necessarily a romantic relationship, but having a bond was really important.
Dick recruits Jinx to pitch in with their looming supernatural baddies. What exactly are Jinx's abilities? What was outlined for you?
We stayed pretty loyal to the comic books with regards to her powers. They are elemental. She does draw power and energy from the ground by taking her shoes off. In our version, for practicality, she doesn't need bare feet all the time. She almost charges up using the ground and then retains some of that until it wears out. There is a whole range of stuff she can do, including telekinesis and moving stuff with her hands... the Matilda powers, as I called it. It was really fun to shoot and film. The specifics of what she does with that I kind of want to leave as a surprise for people.
Jinx sticks around for more than one episode. How instrumental is she in tackling Blood and Mayhem?
Jinx does have quite a big part to play. To say more than that is quite tricky. There is a growth, and she ends up having a big part in the Titans being able to band together.
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Dick, the Titans, Brother Blood, and even Mother Mayhem have their own set of snazzy threads. How psyched were you to possibly suit up in your own costume?
Going into it, for my audition tapes and everything, I was given no information. I knew nothing about how they physically wanted Jinx to look like and how they wanted her to dress. However, when I got the role, within days, if not hours, I was being sent straight to London to get fitted for a supersuit. That was literally my first introduction to Titans. They needed to get that done straightaway because that takes so long to construct. Usually, LJ [Shannon], who is absolutely incredible, and her team do fittings in Los Angeles. I was in the UK on another job. We had to fit around that. I got fitted in, and my first measurements were taken in London. It wasn't until February time that I came out to Toronto for some fittings with LJ and the team. It was a very long process. Those suits are works of art.
At this point, I didn't know the story. I hadn't received any scripts at all. I didn't know when I was going to be getting in the supersuit or if I was going to be in it for the whole time or what my arc was going to be. I didn't know where I was starting off or if I was going to be a big bad villain all the way through. Knew nothing. Physically, the supersuit is based more on the comic book version. That was really exciting, so that was my first introduction to the Jinx they wanted for the show.
Developed for television by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and Greg Berlanti, Titans releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
