Like the film that spawned it, Matt Reeves’ 2022 The Batmannew HBO series The Penguin invites the viewer to delve into the dark and seedy underworld of Gotham City. There’s nothing shiny or glossy about Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) and his life on the streets – it may have comic book origins, but authenticity is the key word here. That commitment even extends to the character’s prosthetic makeup. Sure, there are facial layers that render Farrell largely unrecognizable, but The Penguin It also goes below the belt when necessary.
In the spinoff series’ opening episode, Cobb and his nemesis Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) share a scene in which he’s tied up and tortured by his henchwoman as she berates him for his role in the death of her brother, Alberto. It’s a tense interrogation, but the scene is made all the more agonizing by the fact that Cobb is completely naked. The audience only sees his fleshy body from the side, but care was apparently taken to transform him. all of Farrell in the character.
Talking with VarietyFarrell explained how the show’s prosthetics designer, Michael Marino, who also made the facial and body additions he wears while in character, designed an “anatomically correct” device for him to wear… down there. “It had a piece of Velcro to stick on and a cute retro pubic hair,” the actor said, calling the prosthetic a source of “surreal discomfort.” Though he was technically fully covered, he felt so vulnerable that he covered himself with a towel between takes.
“It was a strange sort of psychological no-man’s land that you could find yourself in when you were the canvas for something as powerful as the makeup designed for it,” he explained. “I felt incredibly exposed, even though I wasn’t at all. I was totally covered, but I was covered by a naked man. And it’s not that I thought I was him, but it had a very strange effect on my ego.”
The Penguin The series runs for a total of eight episodes, with new installments arriving Sundays on HBO and Max. In addition to Farrell and Milioti, it stars Rhenzy Feliz (as Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo) and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush). It was developed by showrunner Lauren LeFranc.
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