Robin Lord Taylor Says Growing Up Overweight & Gay Connects Him to The Penguin in 'Gotham'

From Heath Ledger as The Joker to Jim Carey as The Riddler, there's a lot of deep digging actors need to do to successfully pull off some of the Batman's most famous nemeses. For his role as The Penguin on FOX's hit show Gotham, Robin Lord Taylor went back to his childhood to find a deeper connection with the sinister-yet-misunderstood Oswald Cobblepot. He explains:

"With The Penguin specifically, we're very fortunate in that we have about 70 years of mythology to draw upon and do research with and that's what I did when I got the role of The Penguin. That's when I learned he was bullied as a child, he was always treated as an outsider. That was my human link to the character. I learned that and I was like, 'This is something I want to show and root him down to reality.' Growing up overweight and gay in small-town Iowa in the '80s and '90s—it was much different than it is now—and I know exactly what that feels like."

The actor adds the upcoming Season 3 could include unexpected alliances between his character and others.