he tells us about it and we give you our opinion on the HBO Max series

The 48-year-old Irishman is aware of the privilege he had to return to his character of “Penguin”, a horrible antagonist of the Batman universe, in the series launched this September 19 on HBO Max. But the experience has worn him down!

For his 2022 film “The Batman,” writer and director Matt Reeves cast Colin Farrell as the abominable Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, aka “The Penguin,” a stocky killer with a hooked nose and a penguin-like gait who gives Gotham City’s vigilante a hard time. The Irishman was—obviously—unrecognizable in this role, which he reprised, with the prosthetics and layers of makeup that go with it, in the series “The Penguin,” which HBO Max launched on September 19. One of the fall’s “screen” events, which we owe to the same Reeves, who describes the rise in violence of this odious character, after the death of the head mobster Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). To reflect on this, Colin told us he had rewatched the performances of Dustin Hoffman in “Macadam Cowboy,” De Niro as Al Capone in “The Untouchables” and the late James Gandolfini in the series “The Sopranos.”

Colin Farrell unrecognizable as Penguin: “I worked with a coach”

“With Matt, we also talked a lot about Oz’s psychology, his paranoia and his insecurities, and his refusal to be seen as a problem guy,” the 48-year-old actor explained to us. “He wants to be able to express himself in the world of crime (…) I knew I was going to burn cars and stuff like that, but when I read the script, no thought came to me… Which was not the case with ‘The Batman’. Here, I was disconcerted at first, I wondered what I was going to be able to do and what I was going to look like. I started gaining weight and, when I had thirty kilos more, Matt cried out ‘great!’ (laughs) Then, when I found myself in makeup and all these prosthetics, it was instantaneous: I had a completely different vision of the world…”

“I was bored to death”

He is very clear about it: being part of the Batman universe is, in his eyes, an immense privilege. “And the universe of the ‘Penguin’ is particularly complex, with characters that the series develops in depth and whose different facets it shows.” Embodying this mythical villain also allowed him to pay tribute to Danny DeVito, his “favorite Penguin”, unforgettable in Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns” (1992). DeVito who was not afraid to say that he found himself better than him in the role. “I also grew up watching

Burgess Meredith as Penguin (in the series ‘Batman’, broadcast in the USA from 1966 to 1968, Ed.)”, added the man who also spoke to us about the other side of the coin. “Every night, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was tear off this mask that I had been wearing for fifteen hours. I also wanted to wash away the darkness of this story and watch ‘Finding Nemo’ in my hotel room. I needed light and bright things. Between takes, they kept me in a kind of igloo with the air conditioning on full blast. I was bored to death and I called my children in the voice of Oz. It didn’t amuse them for long! Towards the end, I really complained. I moaned and grumbled, but at the same time, I tried to remind everyone of my gratitude. I don’t know if I’ll do a second season.”

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We completely understand that Colin had a hard time shooting this series, because it is not easy to watch either. Indeed, despite its undeniable script and visual qualities, its darkness and violence are extremely heavy. In our opinion, it is therefore with a strong heart – and with a morale that can withstand anything! – that we can appreciate at its true value this fiction which, moreover, proves that the story of this “Penguin” so dark and so complex can perfectly exist independently of that of “Batman”. It is certain: purists and die-hard fans of DC Comics can only applaud the work of Matt Reeves and his entire team, including, obviously, a Colin Farrell immersed (too) deeply in his character. Something tells us that we must believe him when he says that he will not continue this experience, so we might as well take full advantage of him and his performance in the eight episodes of this first season.