crime, and takes it upon himself to take on criminals headfirst. And no, he does not appreciate someone like a Batman, or The
Batman as he calls him, coming in here and solving problems.
Empire: One of the things we got to learn about the mayor in the last movie is that it seems he's above all the
corruption. Is that still true?
Nester: Yeah, I think he is above that. I think this is a man... I mean, look. Politics is always give and take, but I
think with a man like this, from his point-of-view he's absolutely against corruption. And if he's done anything within his
tenure here as mayor, it's to fight the Mob head-on. Now you have these lunatics running around doing their own thing, they're
essentially terrorists, and that's a different thing altogether. But in terms of handling organized crime, this is a man who's
dead-set against it existing, and he makes it part of his campaign.
Empire: Is Mayor Garcia based on any real political figures?
Nester: I didn't base [my performance] on any one person, but I wanted him to be his own person. He can't be a complete
do-gooder. I think it's pretty hard to find that in any politician. You have to make deals in some groups, and concessions. But I
wanted him to definitely have
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an edge, and obviously I worked with Chris on what his idea of the mayor would be like. I remember in The Dark Knight I came in
with him a little bit softer, and [Nolan] wanted me to play him a little bit harder, and now I see why. It's always interesting for
me to find something human about the character, and not make him sort of a standard, stock politician. Maybe someone with a slight
sense of humor. I definitely had some fun in London, with what I did. [laughs] That's about as cryptic as I can get.
But I think it's always interesting for a dramatic role to find humour in it, and vice versa, in comedy to try and ground it. And
this is what I love about The Dark Knight, and just about everything Chris Nolan has done, is that he takes on the psychological
thriller genre and he grounds it. This is a cartoon, a comic book, but it feels like this is as real as it can get. And obviously,
all of the villains are portrayed so amazingly, with Heath Ledger and now with Tom Hardy. Every role, you look at Gary Oldman, and
what he does with his character, and obviously Christian Bale. Everyone is really grounded, and it allows you to suspend disbelief
that much more.
Empire: How does this movie compare with The Dark Knight?
The stakes have been raised. I mean, as big as Dark Knight was, this is monumental. This is a
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