Paul Reubens on 'Gotham': 'Everyone's About to Go Berserk'
Sometimes, casting decisions are just a gimme. Tim Burton knew that Paul Reubens — known mostly as the wickedly gleeful Pee-Wee Herman — had the perfect balance of whimsy and horror to play the father of the Penguin in Batman Returns. And now, almost 25 years later, he returns to the role on Gotham, cast as Elijah Van Dahl, long-lost father of Oswald Cobbelpot.
Originally, Reubens thought bringing him onto the show was Penguin actor Robin Lord Taylor’s idea. Reubens is close friends with Carol Kane — who played Penguin’s mother — and she brought Taylor to meet him for lunch while he was in town to film The Blacklist. “Halfway through lunch, they said they’re thinking about bringing the father into the story,” recalls Reubens. “And would [I] ever consider it? I said yes immediately.” When he talked to the producers, they said they had already been thinking of him when Taylor brought up the idea.
Gotham‘s blend of over-the-top theatrics and genuine physical menace is a difficult tone to achieve, and the show spent much of its first season struggling to maintain it. But now the drama has found its groove, and it was easy for Reubens to slide into place like he had been there from day one.
“We had an immediate rapport and an immediate ability to draw deep emotion out of each other,” says Reubens of his onscreen son. “I would have to be careful not to look at him the wrong way and burst into tears.” The strangeness of the father/son relationship only added to the heightened nature of their scenes. “It was so heavy and emotional — just this incredibly crazy experience of not realizing you have a son or not knowing your father… It’s so strong and so intense that, in a lot of ways, it took on its own life. We didn’t have to do much because the situation was so charged.”
Of course, that won’t last for long. While suspicious viewers might think there’s something amiss about Elijah Van Dahl and his welcoming family, Reubens dismisses the notion: “My character’s not a bad guy. I wish he was.” But in Gotham, just because you’re not bad, doesn’t necessarily mean bad things won’t happen to you. “Everyone’s about to go berserk,” says Reubens. “Which, I guess isn’t really much of a shock to fans of the show.”
Reubens was impressed by what he discovered about the set and he equated it to working on his own recently released Netflix project, Pee Wee’s Big Holiday. “It’s a whole group of people who genuinely care deeply about the quality of what they’re doing. They bring this edge to it that’s remarkable,” he says. “You really look forward to coming there every day and making art.”
One area in which he’s singularly qualified to give advice is what to when confronted with a plush version of yourself. “Somebody once signed a doll of themselves to me and wrote on it, ‘You’re a doll — me too!’ and I feel like that’s what I would write if I were to sign Robin’s doll,” says Reubens. “It’s fun to be two people, both who have action figures.”
He refuses to give any more details as to Elijah’s fate beyond this: “It’s unexpected, what happens. And I’m not around for very long.” Indeed, Reubens is only booked for one more episode — tonight’s. But Reubens is game for more episodes if the story demands it: “I’ll have to come back as a ghost,” he says with a laugh.
Gotham airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
