First of all, RIP Paul Reubens. He had some weird moments, but he’s an important part of cinematic history nonetheless. One of his more visible roles (besides Pee-wee) was that of Tucker Cobblepot in the 1992 film Batman Returns. That role, which he reprised in the show Gotham years later, almost didn’t happen.
Tucker Cobblepot is the father of Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot in the movie, and he appears in the prologue of the film as a very rich man who along with his wife rejects his deformed baby, who ends up living in the sewer and becomes the super villain Penguin.
The role was originally supposed to go to Burgess Meredith, an actor who played the role in the 1960s TV show. Meredith was too ill to do it, unfortunately, so director Tim Burton went to Reubens, with whom he worked very closely on Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
That might’ve been it, but almost 25 years later Reubens back in the role, something that wouldn’t have happened had Burgess (who died in 1997, RIP) been able to fill the role. Weird how things work out like that.
Here’s Reubens talking to TV insider about the role.
“This is a completely different character,” he said. “The history is different and he is not as dark, really.” Getting called back to do the character was also “a really cool surprise.”
He said the experience made him really close with Robin Lord Taylor, who plays Oswald on the show.
“Oh yeah, Robin and I really bonded; it was really a lovely experience,” he said. “I thought he was great when I met him and then working with him was just like a dream. It was just amazing.”
There was a real familial feel on the set because it turns out Reubens also knew Carol Kane, who played his mother.
“I’m friends with Carol! When I was working on The Blacklist, we had lunch and she asked if she could bring someone she was working with along and that was Robin,” he said. “So Robin discussed it with me and then I think Robin mentioned it to Danny [Cannon, Gotham executive producer]. And I think that Danny actually told Robin, ‘Oh, we’re already doing that,’ so I don’t really know whose idea it was!”
If that’s not serendipitous, I don’t know what is. Regardless, Reubens brought a lot of joy to a lot of people despite his pretty apparent so-called shortcomings, which I won’t get into here.
