He made his debut appearance as the character in the 2022 film, The Batman, and now returns in the eponymously named spinoff series. In doing so, he dons 50 pounds of latex and wears layers of prosthetics that render him completely unrecognisable.
The gangster saga with The Penguin at the helm, whose motivation, other than creating havoc and chaos in the world, is to become King Pin and run the local drug business, is every bit as menacing as any villain from The Sopranos or Goodfellas. The Penguin, also known as Oswald Cobblepot, is a classic Batman villain known for his cunning and ruthlessness. Farrell’s portrayal of this character is a departure from his usual roles, showcasing his versatility as an actor.
Farrell found his way into the psyche of this crazed bad guy from the outside in.
“Once we put the makeup on, it was instantaneous. It was like when you see a cat seeing themselves in the mirror for the first time; they’ll recoil,” he laughs. “Looking back at my reflection, it was not what I’ve seen for 45 years, so it’s really really powerful.”
The process took three hours every day in the makeup chair, and the studio was set to freezing temperatures so the makeup would remain in place. “We called it ‘the igloo’,” he nods. “And actually, it never felt like three hours in makeup. It always felt like two hours and 57 minutes, so it flew,” he quips. He drew the line at gaining the required weight to give him that hulking silhouette. He explains, “I met with Matt Reeves [executive producer], and I had just come off [an upcoming TV series called] The North Water where I had to put on 50 or 60 pounds, and he looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God! You look great! The body is great!’” He laughs. “And I was like, ‘Well, tough shit! Say goodbye to it because I’m dropping pounds now. I’ve got to get healthy again. I just finished being bigger for like six months.’”
A team came together to construct a suit that took several hours a day to put on that looked believable. “If you put something on that one hundred percent changes everything you are – you begin to feel differently. It’s confusing at first, but there’s a stirring inside you. And it’s a little bit strange, but it’s really powerful,” he says. “And based on the writing and the makeup, you just give yourself over to it.”
He says he spent a lot of the three hours in the chair texting with his kids and calling their voicemails with messages in The Penguin’s New York gangster dialect. “You do anything to stave off the boredom,” he explains. “I also shared a few texts back and forth with Danny Devito, but that was more about taking the piss out of each other about who’s the best Penguin,” he laughs. Devito starred as The Penguin in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns in 1992. “We’d send each other pictures of our action heroes and argue over who had the better paint job, nothing too serious or weighty.”
Having to remain suspended in the grim world created for The Penguin must have taken an emotional toll to a certain degree, particularly given his descent into madness and psychopathy.
“I was knackered at the end of every day, but taking the makeup off every day was helpful. It was a 45-minute removal process, and it was a huge relief after being in it for 15 hours. It also helped to go back to the hotel and watch Finding Nemo,” he smiles. “But don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying, ‘Poor me.’ I’m not f***ing feeling sorry for myself. But every day was like a birth, and then you come back to yourself after the makeup is taken off. It was really significant. But also, by the end of the shoot I was grumpy because it’s so dark and he’s such a remorselessly cruel character by the end – I say that with affection and not judgment – but I was in a bit of a funk by the end,” he admits. “I was glad to be done.”
Interestingly, his good looks have always distracted from being regarded as the gifted actor he is, with the exception of 2023’s The Banshees of Inisherin, for which he earned a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards. Similarly, it took the talented Charlize Theron to completely transform herself under prosthetics to play the lead in Monster, a role that earned her the Oscar for Best Actress in 2004.
Farrell, modest to a fault, worries about how The Penguin will be received, though when it comes to watching his own performances, evidently his assessment can’t be relied upon. He admits when he watched the Banshees of Inisherin for the first time at a screening, he turned to his sister, who works as his personal assistant, and said, “What work have I got lined up because I’m f***ed! I’m never going to work again!” Judging by early reviews deeming this performance as his best, Farrell has nothing to fear.
