Hypable spoke with the Gotham cast and executive producer at New York City Comic-Con, and what they had to say will intrigue you.
Danny Cannon is an executive producer on Gotham and explained how he got involved in the project, “Bruno Heller had spoken to DC about the idea and he sat me down at Thanksgiving and pitched me the idea to go back in time in Gotham and meet the only honest cop left. The conversation we had was in twenty years time what will make a city like this need a masked vigilante and why are the villains so outrageous. We started by looking at the villains that didn’t have backstories and the amount that didn’t have them enthused us.”
Cannon explained that Gotham is a New York City without gentrification, without Giuliana and Bloomberg. The show will be very feet on the ground. Gotham maybe a kind of crazy town but it is based very much in reality. The procedural aspect of the show doesn’t exist during the time that Gotham happens. When asked about what time period Gotham exists in Cannon dodges the question.
Robin Lord Taylor
Robin Lord Taylor had a very interesting audition process considering he didn’t even know what he was auditioning for, “When I auditioned I didn’t even know what it was for. It was the untitled Warner Bros project, it was a fake scene.” Taylor continued, “The night before I went in though I got the tip off that I was auditioning to play the Penguin. At that point I was fully prepared and did what I did. It all worked out.”
Taylor explained that even though he had seen previous incarnations of the Penguin he made the Penguin his own. He tries to bring the fun from previous incarnations and still keep the character in the darkness of Gotham. Clearly he has been successful in that area as he is most definitely a fan favorite.
In regards to Oswald finally accepting the nickname Penguin Taylor said, “For him, he was a victim of bullying by being called Penguin but the moment he comes out of the water (in the first episode) is like a rebirth and he embraces it. When you embrace the thing you hate the most it has no power over you. He decides then that if you want to call me the Penguin then lets go, you’ll be sorry for it.”
Erin Richards
Erin Richards is a fan of Bruno Heller, “Bruno Heller writes amazing female characters which are so important and brilliant to play. I feel like television is really leading the way with this.”
When preparing to play Barbara Gordon, Richards says she watched all the films and read Batman Year One. She further said, “Barbara is such an interesting, intelligent character. She comes from money but it doesn’t even matter. She has kind of forged her way and has all this history behind her and I think the really interesting thing about Barbara is that even though she is really strong she has all the weaknesses and character flaws. There are all of these things that don’t take away from her strength but make her multifaceted.”
Ben McKenzie
The role of James Gordon was written with Ben McKenzie in mind. Bruno Heller approached McKenzie after working on a pilot that wasn’t picked up. Mackenzie was interested although, a bit nervous about how Gotham would approach the established mythology.
McKenzie discussed playing the iconic character of James Gordon, “It was intimidating at first but it is also a thrill. The character has been portrayed before but what is freeing about it is that we are showing how he came to be and that hasn’t been seen on screen before. We get to take advantage of the mythology but also breathe fresh life into the character.”