Not to play favorites, but, well...It's happening.
Robin Lord Taylor is our favorite breakout star of the new TV season. As Oswald/The Penguin on Fox's Gotham, he owns every scene, giving a perfectly nuanced and multi-layered performance as the man who ultimately will become Bruce Wayne's greatest foe.
To the casual onlooker, it might seem as though Robin popped on the scene out of nowhere, but the truth is he's been auditioning—as he puts is "for anything and everything"—for quite some time, and was high on casting director Sherry Thomas and Sharon Bialy's radar for years after coming THISCLOSE to landing the role of Creepy Todd on Breaking Bad.
Yup. It was down to Taylor and Jesse Plemons, and although Plemons ultimately won out ther role (duh), I couldn't help but play a little "What If?!" with the Gotham star when he came in to our E! studios. With absolutely no forewarning (that's how we roll...sorry!), I asked Robin to do a scene as Todd from Breaking Bad and the results were astounding...
Suffice to say, the guy can act his dang face off!
Bialy and Thomas cast Robin Lord Taylor on The Walking Dead (you recognized him when he was lined up in that horribly epic bathtub scene in last night's premiere, right?! He was blonde!), and then on Gotham, and he says he owes everything to the casting gurus, who saw something brilliant in his work and weren't about to let him go unnoticed.
In the two video interviews below, you will see Taylor talking about:
1) Gotham, the moment that changed his life forever (hint: It involved a stranger at the Sheraton Universal hotel!), his own struggles growing up in a small town in Iowa (and how he can relate to Oswald's childhood), and how Penguin will shake up Gotham City.
2) The Walking Dead, and being a part of the grossest and most disturbing TV scene of all time! (IMHO)
Watch the videos, and then post your support for RLT in the comments below! We love him so, and can't help but champion someone who is so refreshingly humble and...TALENTED.
Robin, thank you for playing!
Gotham airs tonight on Fox.