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
Entertainment
‘I’m shocked at how fragile I am still’: Cumberbatch and Colman on protecting their sanity from perils of social media
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch says he’s shocked at how “fragile” he still is – despite years in the spotlight and success in the industry.
It might seem like the Doctor Strange star and The Crown actress Olivia Colman have it all when it comes to money and success – but they are also human like the rest of us.
The pair lead the cast of new satirical black comedy The Roses, which sees picture-perfect couple Ivy and Theo Rose – a rising star chef and ambitious architect – raise their two children in California, while chasing their own dreams.
‘I am shocked at how fragile I am’
But behind its dark humour and comic language, the film also looks at the realities of power imbalance, insecurity and wounded pride – in even the strongest of relationships.
And 49-year-old Cumberbatch – whose character faces a major setback in his career – tells Sky News that in real life the glare of social media only intensifies those type of situations.
“I am shocked at how fragile I am still.
“I don’t go anywhere near it [social media] because of that.
“It’s like walking into a place where people want to marry you or kill you. Those extremes.
“I think we will get to a stage, a corporate culture that’s now manifested around it where people are obliged to do that in order to sell their lives, and therefore their brand and what they do for a living.”
Co-star Colman – who’s long-shunned the online world – agrees.
Cumberbatch and Colman in The Roses. Pic: Jaap Buitendijk/ Searchlight Pictures
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“I’m afraid I am very thin-skinned.
“I don’t look at any of it. My husband will look at a review and if it’s nice he’ll show me – but if it’s anything mean he knows to just go ‘don’t look – don’t look.’
“You just have to learn to be thicker-skinned.
“But actually, I think we need people who are sensitive and kind.”
‘Don’t do it… delete it all’
Colman – now 51, and whose leading role in The Favourite bagged her an Academy Award in 2019 – says no amount of experience and success can shield her from criticism.
“My advice to a young’un – sort of dipping their toe into the world of social media for the first time is absolutely don’t do it.
“Delete it all. If you want a happy life, don’t have any of it. I’ve never had it.”
The movie – directed by Meet The Parents’ Jay Roach with The Favourite screenwriter Tony McNamara – also calls into question the notion of success – asking, is it really possible to have it all?
Or is sacrifice inevitable when it comes to spinning the plates of a high-flying career, marriage and parenthood?
Cumberbatch admits “you can’t do it all without there being a cost”.
“You just have to weigh up what those balances are,” he adds.
Colman says “there are I suppose little sacrifices along the way” – from both sides of a relationship.
The comedy drama offers a fresh take on Warren Adler’s novel The War Of The Roses – and the 1989 hit film adaptation- starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
Colman and Cumberbatch – both producers on the film – insist they weren’t daunted by that though.
“We wanted to find a project to do together, and we have utter respect for the iconic status of the film and book,” explains Cumberbatch.
“Hopefully this will have its own place in the culture – it’s very different, it’s not a remake – it’s a reimagined jumping-on point.”
“But beyond that, it’s very different,” adds Colman.
Former Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa and Barbie’s Kate McKinnon also form the cast.
The Roses is out in UK cinemas now.
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