In a recent interview to EW, actor
Ben McKenzie talked about stepping into the shoes of Gotham resident, Jim
Gordon. The actor also spoke about what he liked about the character, and how
he prepared for the role.
…
What
excites you about the character?
He’s
a truly honest man. The last honest man in a city full of crooked people. It’s
very tricky nowadays to play a true, honest-to-goodness hero. Everybody is so
cynical of people’s intentions. What’s interesting about him is he comes into
this city that he hasn’t lived in for two decades, since he was a kid, and has
fresh eyes to a world he doesn’t actually know. He thinks he knows it, and his journey will be
to figure out how to make it better both for Gotham and himself without
completely [losing] the moral standing that he has. He’s not an anti-hero, he’s
a true hero — but he will have to compromise.
From
reading the pilot script, it seems like, given the tightrope he has to walk in
just the first episode of the show, it’s hard to see how Gordon could
maintain his ideals throughout the series.
He
won’t. And that’s one of the things we talked about very early on. This is not
a Batman-from-the-’50s kind of show, with moral duality in black and white. In
this world, everybody lives in the grey. Everybody is on the take. Everybody is
compromised. There is no way he’ll emerge unscathed from that. How does he hold
onto the thread of his mortality while getting things done?
…
How familiar were you
with the Batman universe before this?
I’m a big fan of Batman. I can’t claim I grew up
reading a lot of comics — weirdly the one I remember is Iron Man. I would watch repeats of the cheesy biff-pow-bang
show, the Adam West version, in the afternoons in Texas. As I grew older, [the
depictions of Batman] grew more sophisticated, and I loved the [Christopher]
Nolan films. The thing that I think is universally relateable about Batman is
he’s not a superhero. He has no special powers. He’s simply a man who’s
experienced this extreme trauma, and has access to all sort of gadgets and
weaponry that a wealthy person could have, and has an emotional need for
justice. As an actor, I’m much more interested in people. When they have
superpowers, it’s not that I don’t find them enjoyable, it’s just that….…
…
How have you prepared
for the role?
I went to lunch with [DC Comics chief creative
officer] Geoff Johns and asked, “What do I need to know? I’m familiar with
Batman and Gordon, but what’s my responsibility here?” He gave me Gotham Central … and said two things: The
origin story of Gordon hasn’t been fully explored before. As central as he is,
Gordon has never been the focus. And second, you can’t worry about that. “We
hired you to play you and to make this character fresh.” And he said it without
provocation. That coming from the guy who’s so well versed in this, saying to
make it your own, it was a real pat on the shoulder. There’s a tendency with
such a familiar world that it can be intimidating. But you got to relax and do
it. It ought to be bigger and grander and — frankly — cooler than most, but you
have to treat it like a job.
…
Gotham stars Ben McKenzie
(Detective Gordon), Donal Logue (Detective Bullock), Zabryna Guevara (Captain
Essen), Sean Pertwee (Alfred),Jada Pinkett Smith (Fish Mooney), Robin Lord
Taylor (Penguin), Erin Richards (Barbara Kean), Drew Powell (Butch Gilzean),
David Mazouz (Bruce Wayne), Camren Bicondova (Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman), and
Corey Michael Smith (The Riddler).
Source - EW
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