GOTHAM's Ben McKenzie Talks Mythology and Mustaches

Gotham premiered on Monday to strong ratings, which makes it unlikely that Fox will let them build up an intricate mystery and then cancel it after eight episodes. (I miss you, Reunion! And New Amsterdam!) Eight million of you watched it, so what did you think? I’ll tell you what series star Ben McKenzie thinks, Actually, I will let him speak for himself. He did a conference call with reporters recently, and here are some of the highlights.

On whether his work as Bruce Wayne on Batman: Year One had helped him prepare for the role:

"Hmm… I don’t know!  I’d like to think so!  I’ve always been a fan of Year One, even before I did the voice of Bruce/Batman for it.  And so, it was an opportunity to re-read it, as an adult, and look more closely at it in terms of how to interpret it on screen… just my voice, not my body.  So, I would say, it definitely pulled me in a little bit closer.  And then, when Gotham came about and Geoff Johns sent me a bunch of literature, including Gotham Central, and Long Halloween, and the like… I think it certainly helps to understand what this is all coming out of; and what this is all coming out of, of course, is the comics, that have evolved wildly over 75 years.  I think you pick certain sort of reference points, at least stylistically, and then you need to go out and do what you would do on any other job, which is work on the script and work with the director and your fellow actors to bring the scenes to life, playing your beats, playing your objective, not really doing anything different than you would do in any other job except that you know there is a certain heightened style to it."

He also said:

“One of the initial challenges is to not let the mythology overwhelm what is, at the end of the day, just an acting gig. It’s a great acting gig, a little bit more public than others, but, at the end of the day, it’s just a part that you play and you have to treat it like any others.”

On the stunt work involved in filming Gotham:

"I try to handle as much as I can, as much as I feel comfortable with.  We have a great stunt team, lead by Norman Douglas our stunt coordinators.  I do as much as I can.  Stunts and action are a big part of the show.  That being said, it’s all coming from a central aesthetic, the world that we’re portraying as being more swift and brutal than it is operatic and grandiose.  You know, if Jim is in a fight, he wants to get it over with as quickly as possible and take out whoever he has to take out as swiftly and efficiently as possible.  It’s more of a kind of brutal, military fashion than it is a kung fu style, or sort of acrobatic style.  There hasn’t been a lot of wire work or things like that.  We may get to that point, but I would prefer that this guy is portrayed for what Bruno, Danny and I agree he is, which is an old school hero, which is, you know: just a man!  Completely fallible, who can’t jump up a building or fly through the air; he has to use what he’s got and he has to occasionally lose.  I think that grounds him into more of a sense of reality and I think this is what we’re aiming for.  That being said, each episode, the fight scenes get more and more complicated, so we may end up there anyways."

And on why Detective Jim Gordon isn’t rocking the luxurious Commissioner Gordon 'stache:

"I had lengthy conversations with Bruno and Danny about everything else; lengthy, lengthy conversations about all sorts of things!  And then, as soon as it hit the Internet that I was doing it, -chuckle- it seems like all anyone wanted to talk about was whether I had a mustache or not.  And I thought about ringing Bruno and being like 'Hmmm… One last thing…' We just literally NEVER talked about it.  And then I brought it up to him and he was like 'No, that would look ridiculous on you!  We’re not doing that!' It’s 20 years before he can grow into the maturity and wisdom that it takes to sport a mustache and that’s the line we’re sticking to.  Maybe 20 years from now, the mustache will feel, you know, EARNED!  -chuckle- I can grow it, for the record, I can grow the mustache!  If you think that I can’t, you should watch Junebug.  I’m not afraid of the mustache, I just don’t feel it’s appropriate for the age."

You can read more of the transcript over at Batman News. Gotham airs Monday nights on Fox.