Colin Farrell’s The Penguin journey has been rather winding as he seems to have some reservations with going back to the ‘arduous prosthetics tasks’ which are part of his portrayal in the HBO series. As much as Farrell seemed to enjoy the experience of playing Oswald Cobblepot, he did admit that the long sessions of wearing prosthetics, by the end of shooting, prove to be a strain both mentally and physically.
When speaking about the actual process of filming to Total Film, Farrell explained how the accumulated hours spent in a makeup chair slowly got to him. He regrets though that in the end, his enthusiasm was overcome by the weight of the chunks of prosthetic face he had to put on. Though he maximized the use of the creative license during the filming, Farrell reflected on his frustrations during the course of the shooting as he was eager to finish it all.
He told the outlet, “I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was b***hing and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f***ing wanted it to be finished.”
Farrell was indeed appreciative of the positive challenges posed by the series, including the people that brought it to life, Lauren LeFranc, the showrunner, and Mike Marino who was in charge of prosthetics. Although he acknowledged the creativity in their execution of the work aimed at giving the audience a good experience, he confessed that he was worn out by the process of getting the makeup on repeatedly.
He could still appreciate how lucky he was to be in that character, yet the strain of the makeup work led him to wonder if he would ever want to do this again. He said to the outlet, “I was still grateful, and still honored – I grew up watching Burgess Meredith, and then Danny DeVito was my Penguin – so being a part of the lineage of that storytelling, I really did feel privileged.”
When reflecting on whether he would return as The Penguin for another season or perhaps a movie, he said, “Maybe in a year I would. But when I finished I was like, ‘I never want to put that f—ing suit and that f—ing head on again.'”
The Penguin takes place one week after Robert Pattinson’s The Batman (2022). The focus in now on Oz Cobblepot and how he became a master operator of the Gotham criminal empire. Farrell expressed a willingness to consider it but needed time to recover from the exhausting makeup process of the first.
The eight episode series airs on HBO, 19 September 2024 to 10 November 2024. Cristin Milioti and Rhenzy Feliz are among the stars of the show and in addition to Colin Farrell who takes the lead as the titular character the Penguin.
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