Gotham is the upcoming television series revealing the origins of Batman’s greatest allies and enemies.
When is a Riddler not the Riddler?
When he’s still E. Nygma.
Cory Michael Smith plays Edward Nygma on the upcoming Fox series set after the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents. The theater breakout is breaking into comics culture history by helping share the back story of an infamous villain.
In a break from comics continuity, Nygma will be a forensic scientist with the Gotham Police Department in the new Fox series. I asked Smith where is Nygma’s head is as we join the story.
“The best part of doing the origin stories is starting far far away from where everyone knows where I’m going. So we have Edward starting as a forensic scientist with the Gotham City Police Department. We’re dealing with a well intentioned, curious young man with a brilliant mind and so he’s helping Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Captain (Sarah) Essen. He’s just really good at his job. He starts testing boundaries. Dipping his toes in other ponds. He’s extremely helpful so they’re allowing it to happen. We’re going to see him gain more and more responsibility in the police department so that eventually he knows the police department in and out – it will be pretty helpful for him you know in a very Dexter-ous kind of way. So that’s kind of the beginning of Edward’s arc. ”
When taking on a role like Nygma, did Smith hit the (comic) books and look at past interpretations (Frank Gorshin in Batman, Jim Carrey in Batman Forever) or is he sticking to the scripts?
“I have to treat the script as my Bible. There aren’t a lot of liberties taken but certainly that’s all that we have to work with. You know I can’t justify any actions unless it’s actually happened to my person. But for me you know, developing character, voice, physicality all of that…I’ve been reading a lot of the comics and I wasn’t someone that read comics as a younger guy. My brother and I weren’t big comic book readers. We watched the 1989 Batman with Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, it was a Tim Burton film. We LOVED that. That was my “in” to Batman. But since I’ve gotten this job my apartment is littered with comics. And at first I was like I was buying them and my publicist sent my some. I was spending this small fortune in a quick period of time doing research and indulging. And I did this interview and this guy was like,” so did DC give you a bunch of comics?” and I was like “no, DC did not give me a bunch of comics” so I wrote to my manager and I said, Hey (laughs) can we get some comics for research? And they were really wonderful about that and sent me a bunch of stuff. So I am swimming in comics. I’m very lucky”
Smith revealed Tim Burton’s Batman was his “in” to the the world of the Dark Knight. This longtime fan recalled running off the bus to catch reruns of the Adam West Batman series after school and always being thrilled when the Riddler was the guest villain. Smith has his “Ridder confessions” about exposure to Frank Gorshin and avoiding Jim Carrey’s performance:
“I’ve seen clips of Gorshin. I haven’t watched the full series so my knowledge of Frank’s performance is minimal. And I’ve never seen Batman Forever. I love Jim Carrey. I love that man. He’s the reason why I became an actor but I’ve not seen that film, probably for the better. I did a lot of impersonations of him as a kid. The last thing I need is to let that slip out while I’m working. For most part I’ve been reading comics.”
Gotham is a television “big break” for a young actor with some projects wrapped but not released and a theater background. I asked Smith about the excitement of getting a significant role in the next stage of a pop culture icon especially in the year of Batman’s 75th Anniversary
“Not a bad year to start the series, right? It’s a privilege. It’s a real privilege. It’s certainly a responsibility. It’s a little terrifying. No it’s cool. we’re adding to a part of the mythology that hasn’t been charted yet. Not just doing our take on something but to actually be contributing and getting to work with DC Entertainment in developing it is a cool honor. It’s major. We feel like we’ve either gold (laughs)….or not. I’m excited for what we’re doing. I think there’s a lot of integrity in it.”
Fans will be watching for hints of Nygma’s transformation like green suits and question mark icons surrounding him as the series progresses. I asked Smith to imagine four of five season in and imagine the moment when four seasons he sees the script or goes to the costume department when Nygma becomes the infamous rogue.
“The fascination and love of question marks is just inherent in Edward. Using the symbol as kind of an antagonistic treat – that doesn’t happen yet but his love of wordplay, puzzles, riddles starts from the beginning. I have this really awesome tie clip that’s an old typewriter key that’s a question mark the costume designer found for me. The costumes certainly at this point aren’t flamboyantly green but there are tastes of that. There are greenish grays really nasty, dirty color. I’m pretty much in muted colors right now. As E gets more brave and flamboyant his costumes will as well. I can’t talk about what season he – Edward’s big turn but it will be coming ”
Batman and most of his enemies rely on smarts and strength but diving into the comic book world I asked Smith if there’s a super power he’d like to possess.
“Oh my gosh. See that’s so hard because why I love Batman’s world is because it’s about psychology – and not about powers. That’s so interesting to me. That’s the work that I do – psychology essentially . If I had a super power (long thoughtful pause) it would probably have to do with time being able to time travel be able to travel to a different time and place just to see it, experience it.”
I interject by saying how he could do all this press for the show without all the jetting about.
“…or go back and fix some messed up interview and stumbled on words. (Laughs)”
Smith started as a guest star in the pilot but was promoted to series regular.
Gotham premieres September 22nd on Fox.
Thanks to Zanadu Comics in Seattle for letting us shoot the interview in the Batman 75th Anniversary section. You can watch the interview here or below but we did some camera maneuvering to let comic book shoppers get to the racks.
As I shared with Smith, if you want to experience a great Riddler story, be sure to pick up Batman: Zero Year. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo feature the Riddler in the origin story of when Bruce Wayne become the Dark Knight in The New 52.
By Editor