‘The Batman’ Star Jeffrey Wright Says His Jim Gordon Character Was Inspired by NYC Mayor Eric Adams

Actor Jeffrey Wright says he was inspired by controversial former police officer and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) for his role in The Batman.

“Of course, Gotham is fashioned after New York City, so I looked at the current mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, who is a former cop I admired,” Wright told the Hollywood Reporter of preparing for his role as Lieutenant James Gordon in Matt Reeves’ The Batman.

“He first came to my attention back in the ’90s during these major police brutality cases in the city,” the actor continued. “So I used him as a touchstone. And now, the current police commissioner of the NYPD is a black woman named Keechant Sewell.”

“So I looked for real-life references to justify my place in this role, but I largely relied on the comics for the underlying psychology and emotional journey that the character undergoes and for the relationship with the Batman,” Wright said.

While Wright draws his inspiration from Adams, not everyone might agree that the New York City mayor is someone to emulate.

Last month, Adams asked social media companies to censor rap videos in which artists display, glorify guns. Before that, the New York City mayor fired 1,430 unvaccinated employees.

Adams has also appeared maskless with a group of people during a meeting in the city roughly two weeks after he vowed to “follow the science” and keep mask mandates in the city’s public schools. That followed a New York Supreme Court judge striking down Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) mandate as “unconstitutional.”

Moreover, an unearthed video from late 2019 showed Adams calling his white colleagues at the New York Police Department (NYPD) “crackers,” stating, “Every day in the Police Department, I kicked those crackers’ ass.”

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