We sat down with Ben McKenzie and Robin Lord Taylor this week to talk about the very special relationship Penguin and Gordon have on Gotham.
If you’ve watched only the Gotham pilot, much less all four episodes that have aired to date, then there is one thing you cannot deny: Robin Lord Taylor is fantastic in the role of the Penguin. With each passing episode, Taylor’s Oswald Cobblepot seems to slither into one deeper shadow of the Batman’s city, and the fowl villain never looks more comfortable than when drenched in that shade.
Last night’s episode in particular showed Cobblepot, among his many activities, announcing his return to Gotham in the home of a less than pleased Jim Gordon. Insinuating that they are irrevocably linked due to Gordon’s mercy on the condemned snitch in the pilot, Penguin both helps Jim save the mayor’s life while effectively blackmailing him.
The unique dichotomy of these two intertwined stories, about men rising amongst the ranks of law and crime, is also something very much on the minds of actor Taylor and Ben McKenzie. When I sat down with both of them at New York Comic-Con this past weekend, they had some interesting details to reveal about how they view the two’s sordid history.
“We’re deepening the relationship between Gordon and Penguin in the sense that Gordon would probably prefer this isn’t happening,” Taylor said. “But their relationship just keeps getting deeper and deeper. And in a weird way, they both sort of need each other. In a way, their stories are kind of parallel in that they’re both finding themselves starting off in their lives. He’s on one side of the fence, and Penguin’s on the other side of the fence.”
When asked if this is intentionally a parallel unto itself of the eventual duality between the Batman and Joker characters, Taylor said, “[They’re] very similar.”
When I talked to Ben McKenzie a little later, he elaborated on the guilt that could potentially weigh on Gordon’s mind well past the storyline of Gotham.
“Letting Oswald live is going to come back [to] bite him in the ass,” McKenzie told me. “Effectively, Jim is morally responsible for the creation of a super-villain in Penguin.”
That is a grim realization, also not unlike how Batman might feel about the Joker, at least as according to Tim Burton and Red Hood variations on the deranged clown.
McKenzie also talked about when we might see Gordon’s moustache in the future.
“I think I’ve got to earn it,” McKenzie said with a laugh. “And I think that’s got to come towards the end of the show if we’re lucky enough to have a good long run. Right now, he’s just a rookie detective, so I think he’s got a good long ways. And to be honest with you, I don’t think a moustache on a gentleman of my age, the moustache alone, is a great look right now. [Laughs] I can do it! I can grow it, but I think we’ll earn it later as we go along.”
Perhaps he will decide to age-up like that after he puts Penguin behind bars? Although, judging from last night’s episode, that will not be anytime soon…
Gotham airs Mondays at 8pm ET/PT on Fox. Also click here to learn what McKenzie thinks we might expect from Gordon and Harvey Dent’s upcoming relationship in the series.
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