One of Gotham’s most terrifying villains surfaced last week when Professor Pyg made his presence known. Played by two-time Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris, the demented villain sported a fleshy pig mask and killed crooked cops, but what proved truly unnerving was his predilection for slapping a disembodied pig’s head on the corpses.

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In a move that demonstrated just how dangerous he truly is, Pyg managed to get the drop on both Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock. And while Pyg believed Gordon was a kindred spirit, he almost added Bullock to his growing list of victims. Pyg ultimately eluded capture, which means his reign of terror has only begun.

In the wake of his character's television debut, Cerveris spoke with CBR about Pyg’s unsettling appearance and his adversarial relationship with Gordon. The actor also opened up about Pyg's true identity, and the villain's inevitable collision course with Penguin.

CBR: Your character's co-creator Grant Morrison once described Professor Pyg as “one of the weirdest, most insane characters that has ever been in Batman.” Do you feel his Gotham incarnation captures the spirit of that statement?

Michael Cerveris: I remember reading that statement when I was preparing for the role. I went and bought all of the Grant Morrison comics, and all the others Pyg appeared in. I knew that was the bar we were hoping to clear, and that fans would be expecting to see something like that. I have to say, at every level, I’ve been amazed to see how the Gotham team have met or exceeded that challenge. I kept saying to the producers, directors and writers, “Are you sure you can do this on network television? This is on at 8 p.m. Are you sure I can do this?” “They were like, “Yep. That’s what we do here.”

For instance, the pig mask itself was a more comic-y, fun house-y sort of mask. That was the direction the mask maker went initially. Then, our executive producer, Danny Cannon said, “No. That looks great and I know that’s what it looks like in the comic books, but I want it to look like he cut a pig’s head off and stitched it together, so he could wear it and put them on people.”

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It’s that extra step to make a world where the world we know can include the reality of the characters. That’s one of the things that makes Gotham so special, because it has enormous respect and reverence for the comic books, but it’s also putting them in a world where human beings and the audience live everyday. If anything, Professor Pyg is even more disconcerting because he seems like somebody we could actually know.

Pyg gives off a Leatherface/Hannibal Lecter vibe. How intentional was that?

It was not anything discussed, but I absolutely agree with you. He has that classic, psychotic serial killer vibe to him. There are little touches. He has a Hannibal Lecter-ish quality. The mask itself and the straps and the apron are very Leatherface. I don’t know that it was ever discussed -- it was just something that felt right.

Outside of the mask, can you talk about developing his voice and mannerisms, which are equally important to the character?

Some of that comes from the original comics. You can see and feel, even in two dimensions, the flair that he has. The way he speaks and the words he chooses give you a sense that this is somebody with an extroverted, flamboyant type of personality. In my explorations beforehand, I looked at some of the Arkham video games, and the fantastic voices from those appearances. They were also very character-y and slightly unhinged, and this odd combination of fanciful and disturbing. Those were the templates.

Then, it was a question for me, as it always is with any script, is hearing the writers’ voices and seeing what’s on the page and trying to flesh out what I’m seeing in the dialogue. With Gotham’s version of Professor Pyg, he’s clearly a highly literate person, and a very intelligent and well-read individual. We get the idea pretty quickly that he is a lover of opera and performance. He has a very theatrical bent. And, I think once they hired me, they thought, “Oh, well. We can’t resist taking advantage of his background and giving him more scenery to choose.

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Besides the obvious answer of his creepy appearance, what separates Pyg from Jim Gordon’s other opponents?

It might be the bizarre connection he believes he has with Jim. Pyg really sees him as mirror sides of each other, as opposed to other adversaries. I think Pyg believes he is getting inside Jim’s head a little more. In Pyg’s mind, he’s not really an adversary of Jim. He thinks he understands things about Jim that Jim doesn’t understand about himself, and Pyg’s mission in Gotham is ultimately something that he believes he’s going to bring Jim around to. It’s just a matter of time. That’s not really the case with the other villains that Jim has had to contend with.

RELATED: Gotham Introduces DC’s Professor Pyg in Chilling Promo

The lengths to which Pyg is willing to go are pretty extreme. He doesn’t seem to have much compassion for anyone if he feels like they are impending what he believes needs to be done.

Obviously, there are motives behind Pyg’s actions. How much are we going to learn about what drives him?

Bit by bit, we learn a great deal. It’s one of those terrific arcs where, in later episodes, you’ll be able to go back and go, “Oh, now I understand why he said that or why he was acting this way.” For the very astute viewer, you might be able to read into some things and where they are going.

But! You’ll also be wrong. There’s a lot of misdirection and diverting of attention to Pyg. He’s not a completely unexplained character. As we go along, we learn quite a bit about who he is and his backstory and what his reasons are for doing the things he does and the way he does them.

When we meet Pyg next, what is he up to?

He’s picking up where he left off and continuing his grand plan to improve the city, with Jim’s help, whether he wants to offer it or not.

Jim isn’t the only one on Pyg’s radar. What can audiences expect from Pyg’s run-in with the Penguin?

They are on an inevitable collision course. Pyg is seeking to clean up the problems that Penguin wants to keep in place. It’s pretty safe to say there’s going to be a face off at some point.

I’m excited for the slow revealing of all of the aspects of Pyg, including his motivations and the broad canvass of his performance. He’s a terrific character. We’ve yet to see who is under the mask. That’s kind of the entire arc for the character in some sense, is uncovering who is underneath the mask. That’s going to be the most entertaining and amusing thing every week, to see just what we learn.

Along the way, Pyg’s story involves more and more characters, and more and more storylines that we might think are not related, but turn out to be.


Airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox, Gotham stars Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin, Cameron Bicondova as Selina Kyle, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean and Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth.