Trans Actor Tyler DiChiara Feels at Home in ‘Gotham Knights’ TV Series
06.04.2023 - 21:29
/ thegavoice.com
Tyler DiChiara was working his nine-to-five job, auditioning for acting gigs on the side, when he got word from his agent about a potential new gig. When he saw it was a DC project, it caught his attention.
“I don’t care what my character is, I want to do this,” he remembers saying to himself. The project was TV’s new series, “Gotham Knights,” and when he read the character description, he connected on a deep level with Cullen Row, who is — like DiChiara — transgender.
In the series, which was filmed in and around Atlanta, Bruce Wayne has been murdered, and his adopted son Hunter bands together with the children of Batman’s enemies, including Cullen (DiChiara) and his twin sister Harper (Fallon Smythe).
DiChiara was familiar with Batman in his various incarnations and feels in this multiverse “you’re a whole new world away from the normal villains you see in Gotham.”
He loved the idea of a Batman struggling.
“He is just a man who is taking on too much after figuring out who his parent’s murderer was,” DiChiara said. “He takes on such a bigger role than figuring out the murder. He takes on being Gotham City’s protector and I think he needs help, someone to lean on and a family to back him up. [The series] is diving down the Bat family a bit more.”
Cullen is definitely an underestimated character. In the comic books, he was largely a victim.
“He got his butt whooped all the time and was largely a background actor, never really part of the action,” DiChiara said.
In “Gotham Knights,” that all changes, though.
“The writers on the team did a great job of creating a character that is the same but much stronger onscreen,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I be fighting back? My sister is doing all of this, and I want to be part of it. I