Gotham’s Cameron Monaghan Discusses How He Developed His Joker Laugh

When anyone portrays a character who originated in a comic book, it’s important that the actor not only make their specific performance distinctive, but that they also retain the intrinsic qualities of whom they’re playing. Really, it’s what separates, say, Michael Rosenbaum from Jesse Eisenberg when it comes to men who’ve had the honor of being cast as Lex Luthor. (In case you’re wondering, it’s Rosenbaum whom I speaking highly of in this case.)

Similarly, we’ve seen someone else turn heads with their take on an iconic DC villain in recent years, with Cameron Monaghan raising the bar for live action Jokers over on Gotham. Well, technically, he’s played two separate characters in the form of twin brothers Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, but both have brought something distinctly different and refreshing to the table.

Like I said earlier, there are certain beats one must hit with their performance in order to maker their time in the spotlight prove successful, and maniacal laughter is something which must be perfected if your Clown Prince of Crime is going to be worth a damn.

When recently appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Monaghan had this to say about his process:

“Look, you have to drive yourself a little insane to be able to play a role like this and I think with the voice, the movement, and with the laugh specifically it’s very important that you get it right. That means a lot of repetition and so I would just sit and stare at myself in the mirror and make any face that I wanted to make and laugh, just laugh laugh laugh laugh.

I think all my neighbors were like ‘that dude has some serious problems, he needs to get on some heavy medication, we need to put this guy down.’ And I’ve continued to do that over the course of the show.”

Aside from that, it was refreshing to hear about how he’s been a lifelong lover of Batman, even having read the comics at a young age. Perhaps it was his prior knowledge of that world which allows him to put more passion into his interpretation of the Joker.

To find out what else Jeremiah has up his sleeve, be sure to check out Gotham on Thursday nights on Fox.