Robin Lord Taylor, the openly gay actor who plays Oswald Cobblepot on Fox’s Batman-themed melodrama Gotham, recently put in his two cents regarding the viewers who criticized the fact that his character’s love interest is another man.
In short, he thinks the reactions are “homophobic.”
While speaking at a press conference in March, Taylor told Collider that he’s annoyed some people think the gay subplot is insignificant since it never previously existed in any of the DC comics.
Related: BD Wong On His Strange Role On Fox’s ‘Gotham’ And The Homoerotic Appeal Of Batman And Robin
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He says:
“But, you know, when we introduce a queer storyline: ‘Eh, we love you and we love the show, but this really bothers me because you’re really messing with the character’s origins.’ And I’m like, ‘You’re homophobic, that’s homophobic.”
Cobblepot is gay? pic.twitter.com/L5JtmOlNAk
— John Marstion (@_Nineteen96) January 24, 2017
In season 3, Cobblepot professes his love to Edward Nygma, but those feelings aren’t reciprocated. (Nygma is instead interested in a woman named Isabella.)
Taylor absolutely supports the creative decision:
“I have to say the fact that we introduced a queer element to a traditional villain storyline, something that’s been around for a very long time, I thought that was very brave and I thought that, even though it’s not the traditionally trajectory that things tend to go, I thought that really what we brought to it, both Cory and I, was a place of emotional honesty and the fact that that was treated and was embraced by both Warner Bros. and Fox I think is something that should be applauded.”
This all echoes the sentiment he expressed at Rhode Island Comic Con:
“I have to say, that that’s a bunch of horsesh*t. You can’t say that to me if you also didn’t have the same amount of consternation about Batman No. 89 where the Joker killed Batman’s parents. That is a total departure from the canon’s characters.”
You can watch a video of the segment below:
h/t: Towleroad
Kieran
Needed to be said. He said it well.
Preach.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
The character has been around and heterosexual since 1941 and this show decided to fundamentally change a character and then acts surprised when people don’t like it. Stop gaywashing existing characters. It’s just sad and pathetic.
tham
Yeah, if your going to gay it up, stick to Batman and Robin!
Juanjo
Oh please girlfriend. I remember some of those comic books form the 50s and 60s and there was a strong gay subtext. There was one scene where Robin walks in on Bruce in the shower that is damn near pornographic in one. I think that is what turned me “gay”.
scotshot
It’s called fiction. Writers may take a character in any direction. If you’re disturbed change the channel.
startenout
Love the narrow minded homophobes who decide what they want is the only way it’s supposed to be. That’s followed closely by the idiotic gays that back them up.
Within the Comic Universe, characters get introduced and reintroduced in varying sexualities, yet you’re going to complain about a choice on a tv show that stems directly from that flexibility. Wonder Woman has flipped. Batgirl. Green Lantern. Don’t pretend to act like it is something offensive to the canon, when you clearly
Don’t know what canon is!