What could possibly get Duela, the daughter of the Joker, absolutely rattled?
Finding out she’s not actually the daughter of the Joker.
That startling revelation was at the heart of last week’s chilling episode of Gotham Knights, “Daddy Issues,” in which Duela learned that her father wasn’t actually the Clown Prince of Crime, but Harvey Dent, Gotham’s troubled District Attorney. Even more shocking? The truth prompted Duela to follow her mom’s seriously questionable advice and shoot her newly discovered dad point blank in the chest. Fortunately, Harvey survived thanks to a bit of luck and his signature silver dollar, but the real damage is likely to be to Duela and her relationship with the Gotham Knights—which wouldn’t be quite so tragic if she hadn’t just allowed herself to open up to Turner Hayes (in, it must be said, what’s perhaps the hottest use of a library ever put to camera).
In short, things are about to turn seriously messy, even by Duela’s typically chaotic standards. So, to help us sort through it all, we got on the phone with Olivia Rose Keegan to discuss what this fateful gunshot means for Duela going forward. She also shared a few thoughts on whether Harvey would make an even worse father than the Joker, how serious Duela is about Turner and what exactly offends this young woman who claims she can’t be offended.
When the Gotham Knights aren’t trying to clear their names, they sure act an awful lot like heroes. Certainly the people of Gotham seem to see them that way, but does Duela see herself that way?
I think you see that evolve through the season and it’ll continue to evolve. At the beginning, hell no. She’s an absolute lone ranger, out for herself, which is why her relationship with her mother in “Daddy Issues” is so fascinating to me and also her relationship with Turner. She goes from zero to 100 really fast. She doesn’t care, doesn’t care, doesn’t care…until she does. Then she would die for you. Then she’s the most loyal person ever.
She grew up not being able to afford to care about anyone but herself, so it’s definitely not high on her priority list to watch out for the citizens of Gotham. They’re the same people who have literally screwed her over since she was born.
Were you at all familiar with Duela as a character before you started playing her? Most people aren’t, but she has quite a history.
She does have quite a niche little history. I was not aware of her before, but I had a very fun time becoming aware of her. There are some crazy, really intense versions of her in the comics. There’s no stereotypical Duela really, so there was a lot to pull from if I wanted to, but also a lot of room for originality, which was very fun.
Duela has a connection to the Joker, but she isn’t the Joker. How did you find that balance of danger and vulnerability that Duela seems to have?
Up until “Daddy Issues,” Duela has 100% believed that the Joker is her father, even though she wasn’t able to sustain a very close relationship with him for obvious serial killer reasons. At the same time, the world assigned this villainous reputation to her for being the Joker’s daughter and she took it on. First, it was in order to survive. But eventually, I think if you play the role in life for long enough, especially if you have to, you can end up forgetting what’s you and what’s put on. So, a lot of her personality and life choices, the way she presents herself to the world and believes herself to be, are based off of being the Joker’s daughter.
In any case, finding out as an adult that your father is not your real father is going to cause a lot of confusion and an identity crisis. So much of her personality and life choices are just instantly devalued, and then we think, “Okay, good, maybe this void can be replaced with something better. Maybe Duela has more good in her blood than she thinks because it’s hard to out-crazy the Joker.”
Unfortunately, we find out that her actual father may be just as screwed up as the previous one, and maybe even more so.
You’ve mentioned it a few times, but episode 11 of Gotham Knights, “Daddy Issues,” was Duela’s most significant episode yet. What sort of fallout can we expect it to have on the rest of the season? There are only two episodes left.
There’s a line that just came to my mind from episode 11, where Jane, her mother, says, “Be your mother’s daughter, Duela.”
I think that’s so heartbreaking and reflective of her current situation because that’s all she has left in that moment. That’s the only thing she can tie her identity to. She’s no longer her father’s daughter. She’s been betrayed. She’s simultaneously grieving the loss of a parent she never had while also unraveling this lifetime of lies. She’s extremely lost in that moment, and there’s someone right in front of her that she can blame for this lifetime of pain—Harvey. So, the consequences of “Daddy Issues” are catastrophic and will play out for the rest of the season.
In light of all that’s happening with Harvey on the show, do you think having him in her life would be a good thing for Duela?
I don’t know if Duela’s thought that far ahead. I think there’s so much betrayal and so many lies right in front of her that she has to work through. She’s going to have to deal with the truth before she can begin to even think about that.
Okay, we need to talk about Duela and Turner. I had no interest in them as a couple until I had ALL THE INTEREST in them as a couple.
I love to hear that! I want to know when that happened.
I can tell you exactly when. For me, it happened when they went undercover at the Court of Owls. It all clicked and suddenly I saw it and was 100% invested. Obviously, you and Oscar Morgan had to know things were heading in that direction, but did you expect people to be as into it as they are?
I’m really happy they are. I try not to go into something expecting the fans to love or hate it. I’m really happy that most of them do love it, though, because I certainly do too. Oscar and I were so excited by the time we hit episode 11 because we had been fans of the storyline, but it’s such a slow burn through most of the season. We’re both so genuinely passionate about our characters and our storylines that it was just so fun to play around with. Oscar and I are really close and we trust each other so much that we can just experiment and play without any hesitance and it’s been lovely.
How do you personally see the relationship? Do you think there’s actually something honest and real there, or is it probably just a flash in the pan? It’s clear that the rest of the Knights think that it’s a fling on Turner’s part.
Yeah, they’re annoyed because who wouldn’t be annoyed when you’re literally bound to these people? You’re hiding in this small belfry with them, and then two of them start banging each other—it’s annoying. But my opinion is sort of Duela’s opinion. I do think there’s a lot of genuineness in that relationship. Duela is someone who doesn’t let many people in. The only other person that we know about who she does have a close relationship with and has let in is her mother. I think Duela didn’t even realize how much she cared about Turner until she realized there was a risk of losing him, and then she was like, “Oh shit!”
Duela memorably tells Turner that he can’t offend her, but we discover that’s not exactly true. What do you think offends Duela?
It depends on who it is. Normally, I don’t think anyone can offend her, except maybe her mother, because I don’t think it’s possible to offend her unless you have a piece of her heart. So, in that library scene in episode 10, I think she’s trying to convince herself that she’s not really offended, and then Turner says, “You clearly can’t tell when you’re not wanted.”
I think she’s surprised at the crack in her armor that appears then, but it’s because now Turner has a piece of her heart, whether she likes it or not.
Gotham Knights airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. CT) on The CW.
