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Fox continues with Wrath of the Villains in Season 2 of Gotham. In an exclusive interview with MStars News, actor B.D. Wong talks about playing Dr. Hugo Strange in the Batman prequel and adapting the super villain from the popular comic books and animated series into live-action form.
In our recent recap, Wrath of the Villains began with Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) being incarcerated at Arkham Asylum, meeting Dr. Strange. Elsewhere, Victor Fries (Nathan Darrow) finds himself racing against the clock, working on his experiments to save his dying wife. Now that he stumbled upon a possible cure, Victor has to somehow free his wife, who has been taken into custody by detectives Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue). Hugo Strange though is very eager to meet the mysterious man the newspapers have nicknamed "Mister Freeze."
Before an all-new episode, The Ball of Mud and Meanness, airs Monday at 8pm on Fox, the Tony Award winning Gotham actor dishes on playing the Dark Knight's most iconic and fearsome adversary, capturing the right look from the comics, and becoming the deadliest hacker in the Dark Army.
MStars News: Tell me about what interested you about the role of Hugo Strange.
BD Wong: Well, I think what I'm most interested in is that he has the potential to play a very major part in the dynamics, the plot dynamics of the show, of Gotham, and of Gotham City. Because he is in this position, in this particular place, and all of the villains come through that place, he is the type of person that can manipulate, or rehabilitate, or alter these people's minds and their bodies. The possibilities are endless as to what can actually happen with him as an agent of all that change. He takes the people, he treats them, or deals with them in lots of different ways. And then, he puts them back out into Gotham City. And so, there is lots of very dramatic and juicy things that happen as a result.
In our recent recap, Jim's plan of using Victor's dying wife as bait backfired on him when Leslie Thompkins (Morena Baccarin) was taken hostage. Elsewhere, Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) continues his vengeful search for Matches Malone. After his cure failed to save Nora, Victor committed suicide and froze himself to death. While Leslie and Jim's relationship is on the rocks, Mr. Freeze rises from the dead in Indian Hill as Dr. Strange's latest experiment.
MS: Because the character originated from a comic book, did you use the source material as research?
BDW: Not a lot you know. I did some. I wanted to know what he looked like and what his vibe was. And his vibe has been somewhat consistent over the years since the '40s. When we began, his look is has been somewhat consistent.
So I did not research. I was never really a big comic book nerd. But I got of into it once this happened. I was mostly interested in how he looked and how that would relate to how I look, and how we could bridge the differences between the way he looks, and the way I look, and find the right personality that works for the show.
MS: Because comic books are all about crossovers, how would White Rose, your character from Mr. Robot, react to Dr. Hugo Strange? Would they get along?
BDW: Ah, I think they would really like each other! I think they are both people who are, aggressive and very intellectual. And they have their own idiosyncrasies. They are impatient. They're feared by people. They are both very similar, even though they are very different of course. So how would she react to him? Well I think, she would think he was very intense. She would probably be like 'Oh my gosh!' Because she doesn't deal with life or death issues, as much as she's dealing with politics of all of the things that are happening in the show; not as much as life or death as he is. So I think she might be a little bit weary of that.
Season 2 of Gotham continues Mondays at 8pm on Fox.
