Can Barbara get any crazier?
Erin Richards: (Laughing) “Where is the lid on this craziness? She could get a different kind of crazy. Yeah, there’s a lot of different crazies, so I think we could maybe see her evolve into a different aspect of that.”
Is that something you want to see happen?
Erin Richards: “Absolutely. I mean, I think in order to keep characters fresh and keep people interested in characters, you have to change them. They have to develop, so I think I’ve been incredibly lucky in that each season has seen a huge development in Barbara, and I view it a little bit like the development of somebody over their lifespan. So, she goes from being very kind of young and immature to then developing through like a teenager where she was just wild. And now she’s more of like a woman where she has her game plan and she wants to take over. The next stage in the evolution of Barbara we’ll see potentially…I don’t know…an old woman (laughing), I guess. Or maybe kind of like all-knowing being, potentially.”
Is there anyone she would never turn on and go against?
Erin Richards: “No. I don’t think so. I mean, she hasn’t really turned on Jim, I guess, in that way. Well…she did try and kill him. But, Jim is always her very core goodness. It’s like the thing that she holds in her heart. It’s so repressed right now but maybe that’s the shining light that could always potentially save her. So, I don’t think that would ever change. But she’s ruthless.”
What’s her ultimate goal?
Erin Richards: “I think to find a place in the world because she’s never had it. She was born into a family that was really uninterested in her. Even though she had everything, all the riches, she didn’t feel like she belonged. She just wants to belong somewhere and she thought she could belong to Jim. That didn’t work and then she thought she could belong in the Maniacs. She’s had all these different incarnations of herself where she’s just fought really hard for something and then she gets it, and then she’s like, ‘Oh no, this isn’t it either,’ so then she goes to the next thing. I think the ultimate goal is to find out who she is.”
How would you describe the remainder of season three?
Erin Richards: “You’re going to see a big power struggle between her, Nygma, Tabitha, and Butch where Tabitha is getting pulled in two different directions because Butch is in one of her ears saying, ‘Barbara is out of control. She’s bad. She’s not good for you. She’s going to bring us all down.’ And then she’s got Barbara in her other ear saying, ‘I know what I’m doing. I have this plan. We can use Nygma and then after that we’ll kill him. Stick with me and we’ll get there.’ We’re going to see that develop and that’s like the whole arc, basically, culminating in this huge battle that happens with this massive consequence. That’s for my stuff anyway.
We see the virus, the Alice Tetch’s blood virus, is the bigger picture kind of thing that’s happening where that’s going to be released on Gotham by the Court of Owls which will cause mayhem. Jim will be fighting that whilst at the same time fighting for Lee who’s also involved in that storyline with Alice Tetch’s blood. We’re going to see a big battle between Penguin and his freaks who he’s gathered over here and Barbara, Nygma, Tabitha, and Butch over here. That kind of explodes with a brief but fabulous showing from Fish Mooney.”
Is there anyone Barbara’s going to be teaming up with that we might not expect?
Erin Richards: “I don’t think so, no. She’s kind of got her little gang. But, there’s lots of twists and turns within that.”
