Bird Of Prey

In this exclusive interview, Colin Farrell, star of the new miniseries, The Penguin, and makeup designer Michael Marino detail the finer points of the latest entry into the DC universe.

- INDRAN PARAMASIVAM

“WE’RE VERY PRECIOUS of this fella,” Colin Farrell muses, during a private press session. He is referring to the titular protagonist of The Penguin, a role he inhabits and steers with the combination of passion, commitment and verve that has made him one of the greatest living actors in modern cinema. His Penguin, born Oswald “Oz” Cobb, inhabits the thrillingly bleak, crime-infested Gotham exquisitely rendered by Matt Reeves in the 2022 film The Batman, a still-resounding big-screen inflection of Batman’s origin story.

Released into the ether last month, the first episode—absent of Gotham’s longstanding hero—is a magnificently grimy, noir-soaked canvas of Farrell’s gravitas, which peaks when he reveals that the violence he’s capable of bursts forth from the same tumult as the tenderness he allows fleeting yet undeniable glimpses of.

With its first salvo, The Penguin has established itself as essential viewing amidst the ongoing glut of content. Its charms testify to the dramatic feats possible when storyboarding, writing, makeup, and acting converge with singularly world-building intent into a whole that transcends its parts.

Colin, how did you approach portraying Oz and what aspects of the character did you find most intriguing to explore?

As simple as it sounds, you go off what’s on the page. In The Batman, I had five or six scenes, and the makeup Mike designed was an extraordinary opportunity that wasn’t really allowed to be fully realised in the film. The character in the film was broad: he was a cocky nightclub impresario, who appeared to be being in control more than he was.