Jeffrey Wright discusses the influences he looked to while preparing for The Batman, including the mayor of New York City. The latest entry in the Caped Crusader franchise, The Batman is the first film to feature Robert Pattinson as the vigilante. With a new Batman leading the revamped franchise, the new installment follows the nascent hero’s early days as a crime fighter. After months of COVID-related production delays, Matt Reeves’ gritty thriller finally hits theaters on March 4.
In addition to Pattinson, The Batman’s impressive ensemble cast includes Paul Dano, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, and Peter Sarsgaard. Jeffrey Wright stars as the Gotham City Police Department’s James Gordon. As Christopher Nolan did with Gary Oldman in The Dark Knight Trilogy, the character starts out as a lieutenant, leaving the possibility for him to graduate to Commissioner in future films.
In an interview with THR, Wright opened up about his preparation for the role of Lieutenant Gordon. The actor confirms that rather than poring over past Gordon performances, he preferred to take inspiration from Gotham’s real-life analog: New York City. He specifically cites Mayor Eric Adams, who is a former cop himself, “as a touchstone.” Check out Wright’s full quote below:
“Of course, Gotham is fashioned after New York City, so I looked at the current mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, who is a former cop I admired. He first came to my attention back in the ’90s during these major police brutality cases in the city. So I used him as a touchstone. And now, the current police commissioner of the NYPD is a Black woman named Keechant Sewell. So I looked for real-life references to justify my place in this role, but I largely relied on the comics for the underlying psychology and emotional journey that the character undergoes and for the relationship with the Batman.”
Wright is the seventh actor to play Gordon in live action, and the first Black actor to do so ever. Adams, meanwhile, is only the second Black mayor of New York City, after David Dinkins served from 1990 to 1993. If Gotham is a stand-in for New York, then Adams–a former law enforcement officer who has made crime a central focus of his mayorship–is a logical reference for Wright.
The Batman isn’t the only cultural event to reference Mayor Adams. No politico is safe from the talents of SNL’s crackerjack impersonators, and the mayor got his at the hands of Chris Redd. In any case, Wright says he only looked to Adams to “justify [his] place in this role.” For the inner workings of Gordon’s psychology and motivations, Wright “largely relied on the comics,” which demonstrate the relationship between Gordon and Batman going back to 1939. Still, even Wright wasn’t immune to the pull of the Batman films, though he blames quarantine-induced boredom. “It was during the third quarantine that I experienced over there,” says Wright amid laughter, “so I dipped into some of the older films just out of curiosity.” The Batman is now in theaters.
Source: THR