Gotham: Julian Sands Talks Dr. Crane!
Tonight we were introduced to Gotham’s original Scarecrow, Dr. Crane, Dr. Gerald Crane, the father of Jonathon Crane. Before the episode aired, Julian Sands, who plays Dr. Crane, talked with Comicbook.com about the role.
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"I don’t think he’s in the comics. I think he’s a creation of Bruno’s team and therefore, the model I used — you know, it’s the anniversary of the Auschwitz release and there’s been a certain amount in the press over the last month about Dr. Mengele. He strikes me as someone who was compellingly evil, utterly evil — But I wonder if he believed he was simply a humanitarian, pursuing a pure path for the betterment of mankind through science. I don’t know; he may have done.For me, the Dr. Crane I present is a person who quite genuinely believes that the lot of mankind can be improved if only I’m allowed to do my work. Yes, it may mean one or two people have to be sacrificed. Yes, there is a body count, but I am doing my work for the good of mankind. And when my son Jonathan is observing some of my work and I see him look tentative and unsure, I say, “Jonathan, we’ve talked about this. What I’m doing is for the good of mankind. It will make things better for everyone.”Well, of course, not everyone because the person who is the subject of my experimentation is very quickly no longer with us, but I don’t see it that way. I mean, maybe I see it that way once it’s too late to reconsider. And I bring my son into my experimentation because I’ve run out of victims and I still haven’t found the elixir I’m looking for.Crane is motivated by this desire to overcome fear. He believes fear is an evolutionary throwback to primordial times. He thinks it belongs with the three-celled slugs in the Andalusian oceans. He thinks that if mankind can conquer fear, then everybody will have a better life. What it really is, what he’s really trying to work out, is that he experienced personal trauma himself because he was afraid. That’s something, I think, that he never forgave himself for but was motivated to keep pursuing a cure.Whereas I’m a mountain climber when I’m not acting and let me tell you: fear keeps you safe in life. Fear is a very good thing; it gets your antennae alert."
Check out the rest of the interview where Julian Sands talks about his work as Jor-El on Smallville and who he’d like to see Dr. Crane team up with on Gotham and keep watching Gotham Mondays on Fox!
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