Jerome first appeared in "The Blind Fortune Teller", and despite the fact that it was never firmly established, it's widely believed that he is indeed Gotham's take on The Joker. When CBR caught up with the actor recently, they asked him about his take on the iconic villain and which comic books he turned to for inspiration. "I read pretty much every comic I could get ahold of. There were the obvious ones, like "The Dark Knight Returns" or "The Killing Joke," and some older ones like "The Laughing Fish." I looked at pretty much every writer you can think of, from Grant Morrison to Brian Azzarello. I was trying to understand how the Joker is portrayed throughout the media." As for his specific take on the iconic villain, he added: "I very much adore the sadistic nature of him. There's his ability to remain cool and calm and cunning. He enjoys making other people squirm, which I think is fascinating. He enjoys pressing buttons a little bit. I only had that one scene to really show off, so I wanted to take advantage of it as much as I could. I was playing with the character's intelligence a little bit there. I was lucky to get that scene where we get the turn, where we get that last punch line, where it's revealed he's been scheming all along. That moment is great. Like any actor, I was relying on the script to carry me, and I think it works."
The big question of course is whether Monaghan's appearance was a one off or if there are plans to continue his journey to becoming The Joker (something which would likely upset fans seeing as Batman is actually the one responsible for his transformation). When the site asked the actor about a return, he said: "When I was on set, we discussed the possibly of me coming back in the second or third season. Nothing is set in stone yet. I think the producers have a firm plan for what they want to do, but I was not privy to it while I was filming. I would love to come back and do some more." As for how he feels to be partly responsible for telling an origin story which could prove to be very controversial, he had this to say. "Relating it to Jerome, I'm so curious to see where they take him. Batman is so integral to the Joker's origin, and we don't have that right now. However, Jerome is a person who existed in some capacity before that. There's no reason he couldn't have been that person before all of this happened. It will also be interesting to see if they want to go the route of the vat of chemicals. In Christopher Nolan's films, he was a man who chose to simply put on make-up. Perhaps that's even scarier, since he made the decision to be this creature."
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