Variety – Last year, in addition to starring in the CW’s “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” Caity Lotz participated in the 2019 Warner Bros. Television Group Directors’ Workshop. All of the graduates of that program went on to receive offers to direct episodes of Warner Bros.-produced series; Lotz, perhaps naturally, received an offer to direct her own show.

Although in the past actors from the “Arrowverse” who have gone on to direct episodes of their series have done so by shadowing directors on set first, Lotz tells Variety she wanted to go through more thorough training to see what it would really feel like to bring a story from shot list to screen, with everything in between.

“The program is like a boot camp,” she says. “It’s less about the creative side of it and more about the rigors of TV — working with all of the different departments and on your first day of prep, what happens? What can be expected? When you go on the tech scout where does the director sit on the bus? Just the logistics and rules of what people will expect from you.”

Lotz participated in the program (alongside her “Legends” co-star Jes Macallan, as well as eight others who happened to be currently starring in or staffed on Warner Bros.-produced television series — although the program is open to anyone who meets the criteria) during the summer hiatus between the fourth and fifth seasons of her show, and she also traveled back up to Vancouver after “Legends” wrapped to shadow onset at “Arrow.”

Once the producers at “Legends” decided she would direct an episode of the fifth season, it became about finding the right one — and setting Lotz up for success. As Captain Sara Lance in the time travel superhero drama, Lotz is usually needed on-screen, steering the Waverider ship — as well as her crew — to pivotal moments in the past, present and future to stop some of the greatest villains from screwing with the timeline.

When the team behind the show realized they wanted Lotz to direct the fifth episode of the fifth season, entitled “Mortal Khanbat,” they worked in a story point that Sara would leave the ship in the episode before her directorial debut and basically be off-screen for the majority of two episodes. In the story, Sara had to help some other friends from the “Arrowverse,” while in reality, Lotz needed the first week to focus on prepping and the second to actually direct it.

“Mortal Khanbat” airs Feb. 25 and focuses on Ava (Macallan) leading the rest of the titular legends in an attempt to defeat Genghis Khan (guest star Terry Chen), who has mysteriously arrived in 1990s Hong Kong. Additionally, Constantine (Matt Ryan) has been cursed to die imminently, and Charlie’s (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) secret past is starting to catch up with her.

“I’m good with action — it’s sort of my specialty — and they made sure to write a very action-heavy episode for me,” Lotz says.

The action in “Mortal Khanbat” consists of multiple shoot-outs, including one in a teahouse in Hong Kong that Lotz looks back on as one of the big challenges of the shoot.

Caity got to go out and do some promo work for the episode of Legends Of Tomorrow that she got to direct 5×06 – Mortal Khanbat, She made a stop at KTLA 5 News to do a little interview and take some funny photos backstage.