‘I got to grow up with the character’: Grant Gustin looks back on his time as ‘The Flash’

Grant Gustin has had the honor of portraying The Flash in CW’s Arrowverse for nine years, and now, as his time as Barry Allen comes to a close, the actor takes a second to look back over his time as the red speedster.

Speaking to Deadline, the star talked in depth about what it was like filming the final season after playing the character for so long. When asked about what he thought of the season finale, Gustin claimed that he likes where the show wraps things up. “I felt good in general about the last few [episodes] and some of the story points that we were able to hit.”

The final episode saw Flash’s most iconic villains teaming up against the hero, while multiple characters from the Arrowverse appeared alongside other major characters from earlier seasons. It brings the whole saga to a close with a pretty neat bow, “it was really fun to bring back old friends and do it one more time.” When asked about what he would miss most about working on the show, Gustin paid tribute to the people that have come and gone through the years.

“I mean, the people for sure. The obvious and the true answer is the cast and the crew and the routine. I mean things that become routine that you take for granted. We became family. We were all really well taken care of. You just fall into a rhythm with everything, and that’s just the rhythm of the work and the people I got to work with.”

The cast undoubtedly did a great job at making the show as memorable as it was, with many staying with the show from season one all the way to the finale. The distance all of these characters have come in terms of development is crazy. Barry out of all of them has developed a great deal over the seasons.

“I think just growing up with him. Going in, I wanted to be perfect, which I was never going to be. I wanted everyone to be pleased. I wanted to be pleased with myself, and I was setting, I think, impossible standards for myself and putting too much pressure on myself. I think I realized early on a lot of my life and his life and experiences were parallel in a lot of ways. I got to grow up with the character.”

Gustin became so involved with the character of Barry Allen/The Flash that the lines between the two blurred at points as the actor admitted to the struggles of figuring out where he ended and his character began.

“when you are doing a show for so long and you’re doing it for so many months out of the year and you’re working such long days in your formative years of your life — like all of my 20s and then my early 30s — it gets lost where you begin and the character ends. There’s some days where it feels like one. As the show ended, he’s starting his family in the present day and now, I mean, my only priority and goal is to be a good father and a good husband.”

Ultimately, the show’s ending marks a transitory phase for Grant Gustin. Like Barry, he too, has started a family and grown alongside his character. Now it’s time for both to begin a brand new chapter in their lives.