Gotham’s Donal Logue Sheds Light on the Final Episodes at Fan Fest Chicago
When Gotham’s Donal Logue entered the live stage at Fan Fest Chicago, he needed no introduction. The crowd’s cheers welcomed him warmly as he sat down next to the moderator with a smile. Although these two were the only ones on stage, Mr. Logue repeatedly spoke with much respect and reverence about his castmates, friends, and other celebrities he has worked with.
First off, the moderator points out the several Harvey Bullock cosplayers in the audience. Donal Logue responded to them all kindly saying, “It is extremely flattering. Comic cons are the best. The cosplaying, the fandom, and the celebration of the world we all love so much is the coolest development.”
It is always great when an actor embraces their fans and the lengths they go to honor their favorite characters. I’m sure he wasn’t just playing lip service to these people, as he seemed to be genuinely touched.
Of course, soon after that, the subject of Gotham’s last episodes came up.
Donal Logue had much to say about the wrapping of the series and the last goodbyes. “It was a strange one, because they promised we were going to do 98 episodes. 10 this season — the last season — for sure. Set your clock to it; set your leases to it,” he said.
“Then they added two episodes at the last-minute — the one where Ben and Morena got married was shot after the finale. In the way they changed the schedule, everything became very harried. It felt very horrible in a way, to just suddenly be done — and not to be able to say goodbye properly,” he continued.
After working with many of the same people over a 5 year period, it must be heartbreaking to just give a head nod or a handshake to them. These people had to feel like family at that point.
The moderator suggested conventions could be a sort of reunion for them all. Logue related to that and replied, “Garret Dillahunt is somebody who is an old friend of mine. I haven’t seen him or Bryan Hurst from Sons of Anarchy. We say we will see each at some point, and then we don’t.”
“It’s a win, win, win, win, win for us to meet people, and see each other and all that,” Logue concluded about the conventions.
Donal Logue was then asked if there was any actor from Gotham that he wished that he could have spent more time onscreen with. He didn’t skip a beat before mentioning Sean Pertwee.
Logue reminisced, “Stylistically, the person I had the most in common with on the show was Sean Pertwee, who played Alfred. Other people were a little cooler, but we worked more spastic and all over the place. So when Sean and I got to do scenes together it was like — Yes!”
Donal Logue then addressed the audience asking them if any of them ever met Sean Pertwee. “He is awesome — a force of nature. He has the energy of a 12-year-old,” Logue said fondly of his friend.
As he continued talking about Mr. Pertwee, someone mentioned the last scene in which he interacted with David Mazouz, young Bruce Wayne. “On television series — when you have a kid on the show — they are like your kid,” Donal Logue mused, “You work like 12 hours a day with them, more than you have with your own family.”
He continued, “David was 12 when the show started and Cameron was 14. Now David is going off to Stanford. We kind of watched them grow up with us. It was really amazing — it was really emotional for those two to be done.”
To lighten the mood a bit, the moderator changed the subject to “parting gifts” from the set. Mr. Logue took the bait and sort of admitted to making off with a couple of gems.
“I may or may not have made out with one of the Wayne Manor couches,” he confessed. “If someone says it, I will deny it — prove it! I took some paintings from Wayne Manor too.”
Everyone got a good chuckle out of that one. No one can fault him too much for that either. Who wouldn’t want a special memento that would speak volumes about how you spent your last five years.
Quickly sliding past confessional, Donal Logue began speaking about the physical nature of the last few seasons of Gotham.
“We had this guy named Norman Douglas who was our stunt coordinator — he was amazing! We had a lot of great stunt doubles. If people say that they don’t, then they are liars — because if someone is going down a set of marble stairs — it ain’t you! It is somebody in a wig with a glued on beard,” Logue explained.
As the panel on the live stage began to wind down, Donal Logue focused on the many guest stars the show had and how he related to many of them.
He mentioned Paul Reubens personally, “Paul and I were really good friends. We hung out a lot — Pee Wee Herman was one of the most brilliant things ever invented. It was great to meet Paul and Carol, who played Penguin’s mom.”
This evolved into complimenting his co-worker Robin Lord Taylor. “I thought when we did Gotham, whoever they got for the Penguin, if he is great, the show will be amazing. If he is not, then the show won’t be that great. We got the best!”
On Corey Michael Smith, he said, “When the show started, we would do scenes with Ed Nygma. He would come in and say something and I would be mean to him. I’m lucky Bullock lived, right?“
“I knew how good of an actor Corey was, and that was an amazing thing how they did that slow roll on Nygma. Because when Corey finally loses it, he is such a brilliant actor. We were really lucky — you cannot take your eyes off him when he is doing his thing,” Logue said.
In the closing moments, Donal Logue commented on future projects and people he would like to work with. He said he would like to work with more women in the director’s chair.
“Erin Richards, when she was Barbara the wealthy fiance, it wasn’t really working out. There was concern that the character wasn’t going to make the cut. Erin went to the bosses and said, give me something more — change this character.”
“Erin went not only from just doing a few episodes and being gone, she became an incredibly integral part of not only the show, but she also directed the very last episode. To watch this was incredible! She was one of the greatest directors I ever worked with,” he finished.
It speaks volumes when a person has the spotlight shining on them, yet they refuse to be the lone star in the sky. By Donal Logue repeatedly pointing out the great attributes of his co-stars, it shows that not only is he an amazing actor, but also a wonderful friend.
Catch the final episode of Gotham on Thursday, April 25 at 8/7c on Fox.
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Charles E Henning
Charles E. Henning lives in a quaint town of Illinois with his ever-loving wife since 1998. He is new to writing reviews, but has over thirty years of fictitious writing for his own personal fulfillment. His interests range from science fiction to character-based dramas, but he is a sucker for anyone in a cape.