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For years — a decade, almost — Cristin Milioti was simply known as The Mother to fans of How I Met Your Mother, a role with which she broke hearts and had audiences clamouring for a rewrite of her character to keep her alive.
Then in 2020, her life changed after starring in the dazzling time-loop rom-com Palm Springs that was a surprise Sundance darling and captivated audiences globally, and Cristin quickly became one of Hollywood’s hottest properties. After striking further gold with two back-to-back shows, Made for Love and The Resort, the New Jersey native is poised to take on her biggest challenge yet: enter the world of TheBatman.
This week, she stars in the role of the villainous Sofia Falcone (Carmine Falcone’s daughter) in The Penguin, a spin-off miniseries that follows the events of Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s The Batman (2022), opposite none other than Colin Farrell.
Battle of the Bat-villains
Cristin, a self-confessed Batman fangirl, is ecstatic as she talks about her character of Sofia facing off against another iconic foe from the Gotham universe. “Sofia and the Penguin are adversaries for sure, but I think what we also get to explore a little bit is how kindred they are and how they’re pretty connected. Yes, they are also very different, but there are ways in which they have this similar level of hunger for power; they are excellent adversaries for each other because they know each other so well.”
Carmen Ejogo, from left, Rhenzy Feliz, Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, and Deirdre O’Connell attend the premiere of ‘The Penguin’
| Photo Credit:
Evan Agostini
“The comic book world is what is so intriguing about Batman. That’s why I’m such a huge fan and that’s not lip service — I’ve genuinely wanted to play a Batman villain since I was like six. One of the things I really like about it is that no one has superpowers; it’s just an extremely heightened version of our world. Regardless of whether you’re talking about the Tim Burton ones or the Christopher Nolan ones, they’re all heightened,” she adds.
Entering a dark American dream
Meanwhile, Matt Reeves, who took on the mantle of helming the Batman films from Christopher Nolan in 2022, comes on as executive producer for The Penguin. The visionary filmmaker behind titles such as Cloverfield and War for the Planet of the Apes, says that what they were trying to do was tell the story of “a dark American dream” of somebody possessing tremendous ambition with no bounds, and willing to do anything to get it. “This is not just a narrative about how Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin’s original name) begins that path toward becoming the kingpin that we all know, but also about the internal parts of that character. Who is he? What is his rage inside and what are his wounds? What kind of void does he need to fill?” Matt shares.
He continues, “But he’s always going to be unhappy, angry and raging no matter what. This kind of crime story relates to a very broken male character like Oz; a lot of times, when you see a character who has a lot of that hyper-testosterone aspect, it comes from a feeling of great inadequacy and weakness. In a way, the most illuminating part of this guy grabbing for power is the weakness within, and the tragedy of that.”
Robert Pattinson and director Matt Reeves on the sets of ‘The Batman’
Colin Farrell’s extraordinary transformation
Matt also wagers that Colin Farrell’s performance in the show could do to the Penguin — already a popular fictional villain in Batman’s rogues’ gallery — what actors like Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix accomplished towards cementing the legendary legacy of the Joker: “Colin Farrell is an absolute force of nature; it’s a transportive, special performance, and people will feel that they have had an experience with this character that they’ve never had before. It certainly also comes from what showrunner Lauren LeFranc did in writing the show.”
“Colin is an incredibly handsome man, but after putting on all that makeup, he was suddenly freed of all his physical reality, and was born again at that moment. It’s funny because I know Colin more as Oz, than the warm, beautiful person he is outside of that costume and character!” Matt laughs.
Cristin agrees, saying, “Colin is an extraordinary actor and human being, and it was such a pleasure to work with him and to witness the physical transformation. I mean, that makeup is so real. I had only met him a couple of times before we started shooting in his actual vessel of a costume, so I really felt like I got to know that other person because that’s who I was with every day for nine months. It’s still quite strange to see him out of that because I’m so familiar with those eyes and that voice belonging to someone else.”
“Getting used to him now is very surreal and that’s such a testament to not only him but also Mike Marino, who did an extraordinary job with the makeup.”
Colin Farrell in ‘The Penguin’
Sofia Falcone’s descent into madness
There’s a new level of villainy in The Penguin, so what is the feminist rage that drives Sofia Falcone? The actor explains that “the tragedy” behind her character’s lore is so compelling that it will make people understand the reason behind the madness. “You get to see this whole back story with her. Her actions aren’t justifiable, but you understand why she goes in the direction she goes. It was so thrilling to play someone who stops caring what people think and does exactly what they want to do even though it is villainous and hyper-violent. Once the gloves are off, she becomes twisted with that level of freedom, and fully leans into this part of herself that was coaxed out in Arkham Asylum for sure, but maybe was always there inside her…”
Matt Reeves on how ‘The Penguin’ with to the upcoming ‘The Batman 2’ with Robert Pattinson
The entire Batman epic crime saga is a meditation about this place called Gotham, how corrupt it is, and what draws people to it. How does this place persist? No matter the efforts people take, it doesn’t get better, right? It’s always a terrible place to be in. Which, thank goodness is the case, or you wouldn’t need Batman and we wouldn’t get to tell these stories!
The idea is to be able to go down this path, tell this story and to have it gracefully lead into the next chapter of this saga. There are things we learned that we’re able to build on and draw in, but the intention was always to find these on-ramps and off-ramps that allowed us to tell unique stories.
You don’t have to have seen The Batman to enjoy The Penguin, and you won’t have to have seen those two things to fully enjoy The Batman 2. But if you’ve seen them all, there’s a big, epic sweep to the narrative. That deepens it and makes it stronger. We always knew that this story would end in a place that would put Colin in the next movie. In fact, originally the idea was that this grabbing for power narrative was going to be the beginning of the story for the next movie. Then we were like, oh wait, we can actually do this in such depth in a series, and then he can enter the next movie so that the events connect.
“She’s driven to madness and becomes the thing that everyone falsely accused her of being and sort of steps into it. She experiences power and sort of a sick freedom once she steps into that.”
“I know this phrase is overused, but hurt people hurt people. Obviously, we’re living in a world that’s dictated by that. And then also, we are in the universe of Batman, where there is always a fine line between Batman and his villains. They’re all trying to right a wrong, a perceived wrong. And we, the audience, are on the side of Batman usually, hopefully. But they (the villains) are all sort of like putting on these masks and personas to go out into the world and to make people feel the way that they feel inside,” says Cristin.
Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone in ‘The Penguin’
An epic exploration of Gotham
On that note, Matt talks about how the eight-episode DC Studios serieswill be a deeper exploration of Gotham City than ever before: “We wanted the Gotham of the Batman universe to feel like an American city, like a New York or Chicago… a city in the world of today. So that when you watch the movie, you can relate to it.”
“When we were making the first movie with Robert Pattinson, we realised that the Batman comics have this noir aspect to them. But it was an opportunity also to explore other genres; in a way, the movie is kind of a serial killer thriller, a detective story. It’s like Chinatown. It’s like Se7en. So we incorporated those elements into the series too, and we gotta follow Oz down into the alleys to understand who he is,” Matt muses.
Matt even likens his interpretation to the most iconic crime drama of them all — Scarface — and how it is sort of a commentary on the time it’s set in. “Similarly this was also an opportunity to talk about the moment that we’re in and look at it through the lens of this character.”
Cristin adds that the show kind of felt like an opera to her, as it goes to “such high highs” but they are real and grounded. “That sort of allows you to step out of your own life while also hopefully feeling the things that these people are feeling, and maybe they’re feeling them at like a 12 out of 10. God, if anything, it’s just deepened my fandom. I’ve always loved it; it just spoke to me as a kid and it continued to speak to me as an adult.”
Cristin Milioti and Colin Farrell as Sofia Falcone and Oz Cobb in ‘The Penguin’
“Each villain — no matter who plays them — has this lore, but then everyone can have their own take on it. I’ve always been enamored with that world, it’s so dark, but it’s also like there’s always a little bit of humor in it.”
So how would Cristin describe Sophia’s relationship with her father Carmine Falcone before she found out the truth about her mother? Who exactly is Carmine to her, in her opinion: a twisted role model, or rather some kind of figure that she’s meant to respect and always be frightened of?
“I thought a lot about The Godfather with respect to that relationship — before it goes awry — because she’s the unexpected apple of her father’s eye. She’s this golden child in this patriarchal construction of a crime family, but her dad sees how smart she is, and she worships him. She’s like such a daddy’s girl, but she’s also got questions and ambition, and is thrilled to be along for the ride… until she finds out what she finds out and that betrayal is so unimaginable,” Cristin says.
In conclusion, Matt admits that the story can only work if it strikes an empathetic chord with the audience: “This guy’s gonna do these unspeakable things. Why? You can see yourself in Oz, and where this darkness comes from within him; it’s something that is inside all of us. It’s just in his case, the wounds are so deep that he can’t stop himself and he goes further than he should. This was an opportunity to have this big iconic villain as the face of the story, but also to do this on HBO in a kind of long-form psychological story that becomes a much more interesting dramatic experience.”
Cristin Milioti and Colin Farrell as Sofia Falcone and Oz Cobb in ‘The Penguin’
“People don’t want you to do the lazy version where it’s just taking a beloved character and doing what’s in the comic books. The fun challenge of taking on a property like this where the characters have been around for 85 years is that now we are the custodians, and it’s an incredible opportunity to do our interpretation of them,” he smiles and signs off.
The Penguin premieres September 20 at 6:30AM IST on JioCinema, and then Mondays at 6:30AM IST starting September 30
Published – September 18, 2024 05:55 pm IST
