Robin Lord Taylor Shares How His Edward Snowden-Like Character Expands the Scope of 'Law & Order: Organized Crime' (Exclusive)

01/12/2022 09:55 pm EST

Law & Order: Organized Crime brought another villain to the table in the first episode of 2022 in the guise of Robin Lord Taylor. The actor, who scored his breakout role as the Penguin on Gotham, stars as hacker Sebastian "Constantine" McClane, who becomes another tool for Dylan McDermott's Richard Wheatley to use against Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler. Although Sebastian does his best work behind a computer, Taylor told PopCulture.com in an exclusive interview that his Edward Snowden-inspired character helps expand the Law & Order franchise in new ways.

When producers told Taylor they saw Sebastian as a character similar to Snowden, he was immediately impressed. "That's huge. Everyone knows who that is. He's notorious. He's everywhere and nowhere at once," Taylor said of Snowden. Sebastian is similar, and that helps distinguish him from other hacker characters on television, including the one Taylor recently played on You.

"That's really the distinguishing thing about this character... The scale of what he's doing is massive, like everyone who is in that world knows his name and has some kind of respect for him," Taylor said of Sebastian. Taylor agreed that it was "really great" that Sebastian helps expand the score of Law & Order with crimes that happen far beyond New York City.

Sebastian is also a very different character than Taylor's version of the Penguin on Gotham. If his Penguin met Richard, there would probably be fireworks on the set. Instead, his Sebastian is a restrained character who is really an "anti-hero," as Taylor pointed out. "He really is a good person. He really wants to help people and he wants to do the right thing," Taylor said. "And because of tragic experiences in his past with his family, he ends up like going down road that there's no turning back from that once you go down that road. And so it's great because there's a gentle kindness there with him and again, that's for that oppositeness from Richard Wheatley that's so fun to play."

Sebastian is also a new rival for the Organized Crime Control Bureau's own tech expert, Jet (Ainsley Seiger). While Taylor wouldn't spoil how close the two characters come to directly meeting in the future, Taylor noted how much Jet respects Sebastian. "The code that he writes is something that she looks up to. So I think it's safe to say that it would be a real waste of an opportunity for these characters not to interact at least in some way," he said. "So yeah, things to look forward to."

Taylor also had plenty of kind words to say about Meloni and the rest of the Organized Crime cast. "I have worked with [Meloni] and he's so kind, and he's also just like super focused and keeping the energy up, keeping the momentum going throughout the day," he told PopCulture.com. "And at the same time he's got a twinkle in his eye. It's really inspiring to watch and he's just, yeah, he's awesome. He's amazing. I have no words. And also, everyone else, Dylan, Danielle [Monae-Truitt], Fabulous."

Coincidentally, the same night Taylor's first Organized Crime episode aired, the preceding Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode featured his old Gotham co-star Donal Logue. Taylor joked that his career always seems to have connections to Logue, calling him "one of my favorite people in the world." He even joked about "absolutely" lobbying the Law & Order team to reunite the two actors. "If I could do every job with Donal Logue, I would do it in a heartbeat," he said.

Taylor will next be seen in Law & Order: Organized Crime in the Jan. 13 episode "As Nottingham Was to Robin Hood." The show airs on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. 

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