For almost five years, Robin Lord Taylor has won accolades — and hearts — for his turn as Gotham City baddie Oswald Cobblepot, better known to Batman fans as The Penguin.
Despite a series of brutal deeds (He cuts off his best friend’s hand! He freezes a former love interest — and that’s not the half of it), Taylor has portrayed Penguin on Fox’s “Gotham” with such vulnerability, people seem to still root for Oswald Cobblepot no matter what he does.
“It’s so weird,” Taylor told amNewYork during last weekend’s New York Comic Con, with a laugh. “[People say] ‘I love you. You’re so sweet.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about!’ ”
Taylor, who lives in Manhattan, had spent years as an actor playing smaller roles. The 40-year-old also helped college buddy and close friend Billy Eichner hone his “Billy on the Street” chops on the sidewalks of New York by helping out behind the camera.
He’s been widely lauded as the breakout star of "Gotham," which debuted in 2014 and ends next year. Taylor and castmates dished on the upcoming fifth and final season.
He credited the show’s writers with helping him show Cobblepot/Penguin’s tragic life and arc as a villain.
“We needed somewhere to go,” said Taylor, who is as friendly and charming as Oswald is scheming. “We needed to see him be fallible and be vulnerable. The story we are telling is about how Gotham City corrupts these people and destroys love."
The show focuses on the rise of the young Bruce Wayne/Batman and the characters and criminals that inhabit his beloved Gotham City. One tidbit announced during Comic Con was that the final episode of the series will take place 10 years in the future. And Taylor promises he will be full Penguin at that point.
“It’s such an amazing responsibility,” Taylor told reporters during a press roundtable for “Gotham.” “He’s going to have the top hat, he’s going to have a monocle. He’s going to have an umbrella.”
The transformation goes beyond the fat suit Taylor will need to fill out his slim frame. “I want all of that sympathy that people have and the vulnerability, I want it to be erased and I want him to be the supervillain that we all know from the comic books,” he said.
Taylor said he will miss his castmates and the character that has been part of him for so long. But he is looking forward to the next challenge and credited “Gotham” with boosting his confidence as an actor.
“This show is operatic,” Taylor said. “I feel like I can roll onto any set. I’m so excited with what comes next.”
