Exclusive: Gotham's Robin Lord Taylor on Spoilers, Carol Kane and the Moment He Threw His Script Across the Room

02/16/2015 04:48 pm EST

Since the pilot episode of Gotham aired to strong ratings and critical reception, it's been clear that FOX's Batman prequel was likely to return for a second season.

As the show got off to a somewhat uneven start with critics and ratings, there were a few elements that shone through the highs and the lows -- chief among them, Robin Lord Taylor.

Taylor, who also appeared in the season premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead this year, was not marketed as the face of the franchise, but quickly took on that role as his portrayal of Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot won universal praise from fans and critics.

So how does a young actor approach suddenly being at the center of a number of conspiratorial storylines on one of TV's biggest new shows? We spoke with Robin Lord Taylor about the role.

How is it interacting with the audience and the press who are always so spoiler-seeking?

It's not that hard of a question for me because I don't know what's going to happen in the next episode. I kind of do that intentionally; I'm sure I could sit down with Bruno [Heller] and have him just walk me through what's happening in the next season and all, but I actually prefer not to know. It makes my experience closer to Oswald's experience so that we're both experiencing it as it's happening. So I just default to saying that I don't know anything. The Teamster drivers on our show know more than I do, know what I mean?

I guess the most challenging adjustment in terms of being so exposed and just being out there in such a high profile show and character -- the interaction with fans has been amazing but there's also this push and pull becuase I see myself as a character actor and the character actors that I appreciate the most are the ones that I know the least about. So in a way, social media is kind of going against what I and so many actors are trying to achieve, which is to create a character that is apart from ourselves. When everybody knows everything about your life, that becomes much more difficult. The suspension of disbelief becomes that much more intense.

It's walking that line between oversharing and just putting enough out there. I go back and forth with myself every day going, part of me just wants to unplug from the whole thing. The creation of the character and the craft is so much more pure that way.

I say to people all the time, I work with Carol Kane, who is an absolute dream. In some ways, I envy her. She's going to work forever, because she's a legend, but she came up from that perfect time where all of this didn't exist, so she's not expected to participate in Twitter and in the social media world. She can just come in and do a role and then release it into the world. You don't have to analyze it and delve into it; it is very pure for her, and in some ways I'm very jealous of her.

At the same time, the interaction with fans has been really amazing and really validating. I go back and forth on the whole thing.

There is a wide variety of tones in this show; Fish is certainly more broad and heightened, say, than Gordon. You, though, have to interact with almost everybody. Is it ever a challene to kind of match the tone of the scene you're in or the character you're with?

I'm conscious of staying true to the character that's been created by Bruno and by our amazing writing team. I always give them a lot of credit in that what Penguin's doing always feels consistent with itself. I find it fun to come in and have a scene with Fish Mooney which like you said is such a different tone than a scene that I would have with Donal -- with Bullock. I think that's really fun and it brings out certain aspects of the character that people haven't seen before. 

Watching Oswald navigate these sort of different worlds is what I think is really fascinating about the character.

In that regard, how did you respond when you read "The Penguin's Umbrella?" Do you play the character differently knowing that he's been playing everybody now?

I would hope that it would still be consistent, but it's hard to say because yeah -- when it was revealed that I had been working with Falcone the whole time, I didn't know that. I didn't know that until I got the script and I literally threw the script across the room. I was like, "Oh, my God, he's so much smarter than I thought he was!" [Laughs]

But at the same time, it's interesting. I feel like Oswald is so smart and cunning and such a good manipulator of the people around him that it really doesn't matter if I, Robin, know things or not because Oswald would play it off just exactly as convincingly if he knew or if he didn't know.

It almost validates the character in the sense that he had been walking through the first chunk of the season telling people that he was the smartest guy in the room. For a while it seemed like that was kind of sad and delusional...and then one day, he was right.

Yeah, totally. That was my reaction precisely. "Oh, my God, yes! He is very smart!" He's the smartest guy in the room. And it sort of amped up my own approach to the character in that he's one of the most ambitious characters in the show. He never wants to go back to that place where he's polishing Butch Gilzean's shoes again. he needs to be powerful. He needs that in his life and because of that he needs to be not just one or two steps ahead of everybody but five or six steps ahead of everybody and to have everybody's motivations planned out ahead of them.

Do you think that the most recent episode, where Falcone told Maroni Oswald knows his place, is something that Oswald has instilled in him, or do you think that's a bit of optimistic delusion from Falcone?

From Oswald's point of view, I think he gets a lot of mileage by convincing people that he's very meek and unassuming and will never be as poweful as he could be. I do think that's something that he tries to actively instill in everybody who's more powerful than he is; that's his way of manipulating him.

It's also hard to say. When I saw that scene, I tweeted, "Please, Falcone, don't underestimate Cobblepot." It's a mistake everyone has made so far. It's going to be interesting to see how much Falcone believes that or if it's just something he's saying to Falcone to get him to back off.

You've had a very interesting arc this season. Do you have to shift gears a bit for a second season in a way that some characters with less-complete arcs might not?

Yeah. I still think he has a very long way to go in terms of achieving what he needs to achieve in Gotham City. That's what I like about the character, is that he's not fully there yet. He does make mistakes, he overstpes his boundaries. For example, initially when he was taking over Fish's club, his first opening night was supposed to be an incredible success with a million extras and a super-fabulous amazing party. Then there was a rewrite, which is that it's a huge flop. He doesn't know how to run a nightclub at all.

And I was so happy with that change. It's like, "Okay, we have somewhere to go with this." He's making mistakes and he's figuring it out. That's the fun thing for me to play. In the second season, it just gives me more of a place to go. Obviously, I've had a more established arc in this season than, for example, Ed Nygma has, but it is going to be interesting to see how established Oswald is when we're going into the second season. It will also be interesting to see him interacting more and more with these villains that we're establishing every episode. When Cory [Michael Smith] becomes The Riddler, how is their relationship going to change and develop? That's what I'm really excited about seeing.

I love the interaction between yourself and John Doman in the most recent episode; the fact that you're so attached to Carol Kane's character and then playing off the very detached, cold way that he was playing you in the nightclub scene feels like a very interesting family dynamic almost that they're setting up.

Yeah. It's interesting. It makes me so nervous as the actor because Penguin's only real vulnerability is his mother. It's the only person besides Jim Gordon that he trusts in Gotham City and he knows that Jim can take care of himself, obviously. But when it comes to his mother, it is his Achilles heel. So I'm absolutely terrified as to what's going to happen to Carol Kane's character. To lose her I think would be devastating to me as an actor and to Oswald as a character and to the show as well.

But if Oswald can do anything, it's protect his mother, so we'll see.

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