To promote tonight’s debut of Gotham, Robin Lord Taylor, who is playing Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin, along with 40 men dressed like the character stood in front of the United Nations building in New York. The 40 Penguin look a likes were holding umbrellas with letters spelling out “Gotham”, “Fox” and “Tonight 8 PM”.
Gotham related gear (Sunglasses and a lanyard with lenticular cast photo) was being handed out to fans from the Penguins who walked around New York. During his appearance, the actor had time to speak with Comic Book Resources for a quick interview. Here is what Taylor had to say about seeing 40 men dressed as his character, “It’s so, so surreal man. I kinda, like, go to work and live in somewhat of a bubble in that way. When you see it actually in front of you, and you see all this amazing stuff, it just all comes crashing down. ‘Oh my God — this is really happening!’”
Taylor goes on to mention how fans on Twitter are already starting their costumes based on his character. He continues to mention that his costumes for Gotham were all tailor-made. “I am the luckiest dude ever,” Taylor said. “Our costume designer is Lisa Padovani, who did the last couple seasons of ‘Boardwalk Empire.’ All of my suits were made by a tailor named Martin Greenfield who makes all of the suits for the last three presidents… I’ve never had a suit made for my body, and it’s just a whole different story.”
Each of the men who were dressed as The Penguin all had makeup and prosthetic noses to resemble the character. Taylor describes the make up process he went through. “We started, and we had [the makeup process] down to an hour and a half,” Taylor explains. We’re down to maybe, like, forty-five minutes now. The nose goes on, and then there’s the whole skin treatment that they airbrush, and then they paint my teeth disgusting. They just hit me with the ugly stick a million times, but it’s integral to the character and it makes my job so much easier because it’s transformative. Once all the makeup goes on and the hair gets done, and the suit comes on, I feel like I’m just there.”
With other actors portraying The Penguin before, Taylor had something to reference before his own interpretation of the character. “I would say, my favorite thing about Burgess Meredith and Danny DeVito’s performances is that they really bring this fun aspect to this character. I would say from my experiences working with [‘Billy on the Street’ host] Billy Eichner and all of that, and just seeing their performances, that’s something that helps me bring the fun to the show even though it’s so dark in many ways.
Gotham premieres tonight on Fox.
Source: Comic Book Resources and Facebook (Gotham Page)
