Colin Farrell on The Penguin – and going incognito in public
Colin Farrell has said he went undercover in his prosthetic make-up playing Penguin in the early days of production on The Batman.
The Irish actor stars once again as the infamous DC villain Oswald Cobb in the new Sky Original series The Penguin, recreating his version of the character viewers first met in Matt Reeves’ 2022 film starring Robert Pattinson.
After three hours a day in the make-up chair, he is unrecognisable as the star best known for films including In Bruges and The Banshees Of Inisherin.
“I’m left alone most of the time anyway,” Farrell told Sky News about being out in public – but said curiosity got the better of him when he first wore the prosthetics.
“I went to Starbucks once after we did the first make-up test, about six months before the film, the original Batman film,” he said. “I got a few side glances, but not nobody had any context or reference for it. But you couldn’t notice, I mean really, up-close and personal.”
Colin Farrell is unrecognisable in The Penguin. Pic: Sky/HBO/Macall Polay/ Warner Bros
For the Oscar nominee, playing Penguin had been on his bucket list.
Previously depicted by Danny DeVito in the 1992 film Batman Returns, Farrell said he appreciated that Reeves allowed space for him to put his own stamp on the comic book character.
“I mean when I heard that Matt Reeves wanted to talk to me about playing the Penguin – honest to God, for the film, I was so tickled,” he said. “Then I read it and I was kind of pissed off because it was only five scenes.”
Referring to the film’s other villain, played by Paul Dano, Farrell joked: “I got really greedy, and I thought, who is this Riddler fella?”
However, he has now “been spoiled with this eight-hour” series.
The series continues with the darker Batman theme. Pic: Sky/HBO/Macall Polay/ Warner Bros
The Penguin moves away from the animated characteristics of DeVito’s iteration and centres itself instead in a Soprano-esque environment of the criminal underworld.
The limited series opens in the aftermath of the events of the 2022 film, with Oz Cobb trying to find his way to succeed in a flooded Gotham.
‘I didn’t know who I was or what I was doing’
Farrell says The Penguin was a bucket list role. Pic: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
The 48-year-old actor said his motivations behind choosing roles have changed over the years.
“It’s probably gotten purer… In a way, you would be forgiven for thinking that it would be the other way around,” he said.
“You would start from a place of purity and then it would get a little obfuscated with money and ambition and trying to maintain the idea of a career and all that stuff that we should be deeply suspicious of. And as essential as money is… it’s probably gotten purer.”
Farrell added: “I started off in a very playful place when I was 16, acting, and then I had a lot of success really young and it was very noisy. No complaints, I was very fortunate, but it was very noisy and I didn’t quite know who I was or what I was doing or why I was doing it.”
The actor said money came flooding in but his career hit a hurdle “very dramatically”.
“I was given the opportunity through whatever grace to kind of relocate the 16-year-old’s love and curiosity for just telling stories.
“I just want to do different things – not because I want to have this varied career, I don’t have a macro look at it like that, it’s just staying in the present.”
The actor said the arts have a special ability to help people deal with emotions and sort through real-world issues.
“It’s why drama is such an extraordinary tool for young kids who might be struggling in life in their early or mid-teens, to get together and tell stories,” he said. “You get to access certain emotions.
“You could ask certain questions of a character, but you’re always asking them of yourself as well, because you are essentially the filter that every character has to be born through. It’s more fun now than ever before, which is cool.”
The first two episodes of The Penguin are available to watch on Sky and streaming service NOW, with new episodes out every Monday
A woman who saw a man falling from an upper tier at Wembley Stadium says a similar incident at an Oasis concert over the weekend in which a fan died makes her wonder whether lessons have been learned.
Stephanie Good, 39, said a man fell during a Euro 2020 match between England and Croatia at Wembley in June 2021.
He landed “right next to where we were” on the “stairwell between rows of seats”, she said.
Named as Jon, he reportedly survived but suffered two broken ankles, a fractured femur and fractured pelvis just before kick-off.
Ms Good said she tried to give feedback but was unable to and felt the “emergency response was really lacking”.
Oasis, meanwhile, said they were “shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic death of a fan” at their Wembley concert on Saturday.
The man reportedly fell from the stadium’s upper tier.
In his 40s, he was found with “injuries consistent with a fall” and pronounced dead at the scene, the Met Police said.
Ms Good, an NHS manager from east London, said what happened at the Oasis gig was “so similar” to what she witnessed that it made her wonder “were lessons learned”?
Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage for the first Wembley night of the Oasis reunion tour. Pic: Lewis Evans
During that incident, among stadium staff “nobody seemed to know what to do”, she told the Press Association.
She thinks the man may have been trying to attach a flag to the front of a stand and “somehow managed to fall straight over”.
She said: “They (staff) didn’t seem well-trained in terms of how to respond to a really big emergency.
“Their stewards were kind of paralysed a little bit by fear, or they just weren’t well trained and didn’t know how to call for paramedics.
“It was us who were sort of shouting at them that they needed to get some paramedics.
“The first person on the scene wasn’t a stadium paramedic or St John Ambulance. It was an off-duty firefighter who had seen the guy fall and ran down to just try and offer some help.”
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Regarding the follow-up, Ms Good said staff moved spectators to other seats but did not ask for witness statements.
She added: “They didn’t seek any input from people who’d seen the incident or the aftermath of it. They didn’t seem interested in speaking to anybody about it.
“I was a bit concerned, because I felt that the emergency response was really lacking.”
She then tried to get in touch to give feedback, but was unable to do so and did not receive a response to a message on social media, she said.
A Wembley spokesperson said: “Wembley Stadium operates to a very high health and safety standard, fully meeting legal requirements for the safety of spectators and staff, and is certified to and compliant with the ISO 45001 standard.
“We work very closely and collaboratively with all relevant event delivery stakeholders – including event owners, local authorities, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and the police – to deliver events to high standards of safety, security and service for everyone attending or working in the venue.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail ahead of his sentencing on prostitution-related charges.
Judge Arun Subramanian said the hip-hop mogul had failed to show sufficient evidence he is not a flight risk and also cited admissions of previous violence made during his trial.
Combs, 55, has been in prison since his arrest in September last year.
During a two-month trial, jurors heard allegations that he had coerced former girlfriends, including singer and model Cassie Ventura, into having drug-fuelled sex marathons with male sex workers, while he watched and filmed them.
Diddy fell to his knees after the verdict was delivered last month. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
In July, he was found guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution – but cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking, which carried potential life sentences.
The rapper’s legal team hailed this a “victory” and immediately applied for bail ahead of sentencing, citing his acquittal on the top charges.
After this was denied, they submitted another application last week. Judge Subramanian has now rejected the request again.
In denying the motion for bail, the judge found Combs had failed to show sufficient evidence to counter arguments he is a flight risk, writing in a court filing: “Increasing the amount of the bond or devising additional conditions doesn’t change the calculus given the circumstances and heavy burden of proof that Combs bears.”
Read more:
How the trial unfolded
The rise and fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Judge Arun Subramanian heard Diddy’s trial and will also sentence the rapper
He also found that an argument by the music star’s legal team that the squalor and danger of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where he is being held, did not warrant release.
“The public outcry concerning these conditions has come from all corners,” the judge wrote. “But as Combs acknowledges, MDC staff has been able to keep him safe and attend to his needs, even during an incident of threatened violence from an inmate.”
As well as Combs’s bail application, his legal team has also filed a motion calling for him to be acquitted or given a new trial on the prostitution-related charges only.
The judge has not yet responded to this application.
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How the Diddy trial unfolded
How long could Diddy be jailed for?
Combs is due to be sentenced on 3 October and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Discussions on sentencing guidelines which followed the jury’s verdict suggest it is unlikely he will be jailed for this long, with an estimate of around two to five years, taking into account time already served.
However, it is ultimately up to Judge Arun Subramanian to decide the rapper’s punishment.
On Friday, Donald Trump was asked during an interview about a potential pardon for Combs following speculation about the issue.
The president said it was unlikely, adding that the rapper was “very hostile” during his presidential campaign.
Combs, who co-founded Bad Boy Records and launched the career of the late Notorious BIG, was for decades a huge figure in pop culture – a Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and business entrepreneur, who presided over an empire ranging from fashion to reality TV.
As well as the criminal conviction, he is also facing several civil lawsuits.
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