What’s it like to work with Robin Lord Taylor, with his take on the Penguin?
McKENZIE: He’s a phenomenally talented guy and an incredibly nice person. One story that would illustrate that is the scene where I’m walking him to the end of the pier, and I end up almost putting a bullet in his head, but instead push him off. We had to do take, after take, after take, to get it exactly right, and I kept grabbing him by the shirt collar, roughly, to make it look real. And after four hours of that, he finally very, very politely said, “Um, could you possibly get the collar a little bit more?” He opened up his shirt and his chest was just bright red from scratches everywhere. He’s the sweetest villain I’ve ever possibly worked with, and I think that comes alive on screen. Obviously, he’s playing more of a demented guy, but he’s charming. I don’t even know how to describe it. His charm comes through on screen, and you end up loving this little weasely henchman and almost root for him. I think it’s a brilliant turn and it’s largely unlike anything you’ve seen from the Penguin before. That’s exactly what we’d like to do with all of the villains in this, is give them latitude to make it their own and to not feel as though they’re doing some imitation of some other actor who’s played a villain before.

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