So far this season on Gotham, we’ve been introduced to heroes like Detective James Gordon and young Bruce Wayne, as well as villains such as the up-and-coming Penguin and the psychotic Victor Zsasz. But in tonight’s all new episode, we’ll be introduced to a character who’s known for being both—Harvey Dent. Embodied by actor Nicholas D’Agosto, Gotham’s Harvey is an idealistic young assistant district attorney who helps Ben McKenzie’s Detective Gordon in building a case that can unearth the truth about who murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne. In a city where an honest cop like Gordon isn’t exactly popular, Harvey becomes an all-too-rare friend to the good detective.
“I think Jim needs some help, at this point,” D’Agosto explains. “The thing about Harvey Dent is you’ll see that he’s not the moral center that Jim Gordon is, but I do think that he’ll be a breath of fresh air. Gordon needs a teammate that he can trust, and I think he needs somebody else on his side. I hope that people will enjoy the idea of seeing these two guys in their different ways of approaching it, but creating this kind of alignment.”
While we likely won’t be seeing Harvey Dent become his more infamous alter-ego, the iconic Bat-villain Two-Face, for quite some time, many of the elements that will ultimately send him down that path are already in place. It’s right there in his infatuation—one could call it an obsession—with luck, as well as in the character’s dark past.
“One of the things that really kept standing out to me is that his father—they talk about him being abused as a child and that he had these, maybe, psychotic episodes as a child that foreshadow his capacity to become someone like Two-Face later,” D’Agosto says. “That drives him to want to eradicate this type of behavior, and also why he has the potential to have such a visceral response to when he’s threatened or when he sees someone that he thinks is also abusive.”
The challenge, of course, is to keep Harvey’s darker aspects in check. After all, he’s not Two-Face yet.
“I think it’s tempting to want to play up the areas where we are going to be,” explains D’Agosto. “Sometimes I think the challenge is to be patient. I think it’s going to be important for me to remember to be Harvey Dent right now, and to be Two-Face when it’s time to be Two-Face, if I get the chance to be Two-Face. Hopefully I will.”
While D’Agosto shares some similarities with his character, particularly a kindness and genuineness that he admits is offset by ambition, he definitely doesn’t share Harvey’s devotion to luck and chance.
“I don’t know anything else I could be doing that would be more filled with the element of chance than this job,” he shares. “I think because of that I’m pretty methodical in a lot of other parts of my life. I really try to put down anchors in a lot of other areas, and that’s with my relationship, that’s with my friends, that’s with my family. I really try to keep those things as constants in my life, and I plan a lot. I make lists all the time. I’m one of those guys. So I think I try to limit much of the chaos in my life because there’s just so much with my work.”
Talking to Gotham’s newest resident, it becomes very clear that the man playing Dent is very much a fan of Dent’s world. He’s a comic book reader, and understands the protectiveness fans have regarding Batman and his cast of characters.
“I’m a fan of Batman,” he says. “I’m a fan of these franchises and I read comics, and so I definitely am sympathetic to people that want this show to live up to their expectations. Obviously the difficult thing about expectations is that everybody has different ones, and it’s difficult to assuage everyone.”
However, he admits to being steadfast about one key Harvey Dent detail.
“I can tell you one , actually, that I really debated, but I made it because I felt like it was the real fan choice. In every version of every picture I saw of Two-Face, he’s holding the gun in his right hand and he’s flipping the coin in his left, but I’m right handed. I was a little bit intimidated by the idea of using my less dominant hand because if I ever dropped the coin, the take is ruined. But I did it. If every picture was Two-Face with the coin in his left hand, well darn it, I was going to put that coin in my left hand. So I practiced all weekend, talking and flipping the coin, and I did all right, thankfully. I feel pretty good about it!”
As another famous Harvey Dent might point out, it appears Nicholas D'Agosto makes his own luck.
Nicholas D’Agosto makes his Gotham debut in tonight’s all new episode, “Harvey Dent,” airing at 8 p.m. (9 p.m. CST) on Fox. Check out a special preview clip featuring D’Agosto by clicking here.
