Colin Farrell And His ‘The Penguin’ Team Discuss His Transformation

Yes, we were all quite blessed with the opportunity to get a decent glimpse at Colin Farrell’s impressive acting abilities and physical transformation in becoming Oswald “Oz” Cobb in 2022’s The Batman film - but now, we get to take an even deeper and darker look into the layers (and I’m not just talking about the incredible makeup prosthetics) of this rather enigmatic character in the new HBO original limited series, The Penguin.

With Gotham City mob boss Carmine Falcone killed in The Batman from filmmaker Matt Reeves, The Penguin series picks up a week after the chaos and destruction done by The Riddler. With now a vacancy to become the next kingpin of Gotham, Oz navigates through the underbelly of the crime world, sometimes cleverly and other times recklessly, as he strives for power.

Continuing to be played by Farrell, I sat down with the actor and executive producer on this new project (alongside The Batman and The Penguin prosthetic makeup designer Mike Marino), wondering first what it was about Oz that compelled Farrell to want to keep playing this character and expand upon his story on-screen.

Farrell said, “I mean, the biggest was the amount time, effort and true brilliance that I saw go into the design of Penguin physically, and I’m referring to this fella on my right. What Mike did in designing the visage, which of course was inspired by Matt creating the world and talking to Mike and myself, and how the character was designed for the first film, I just got greedy early. I remember being on the set - it was maybe the fifth week or the sixth week that we were shooting The Batman film and I said to [producer] Dylan Clark, ‘We should do more with this. Can we do more? Can we do a show or something?’”

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Farrell added: “About a year later, I got a call from Dylan that said, “Look, myself and Matt are talking to HBO. We’re thinking of doing a Penguin show. They’re kind of onboard, so we’re going to hire a writer. They hired Lauren LeFranc and I was doing The Banshees [of Inisherin] on the west coast of Ireland and I had a Zoom with Lauren and Dylan and Matt, and she took me for half an hour through this trajectory of this eight hours of television and I actually could not believe what she was cooking up. It was just so tasty and it was so wicked and it was so deranged by the end, but all felt honest and felt like it came from a place of love and agitation.”

When it came to the process of getting Farrell back into Oz’s look from The Batman and building even further in The Penguin, Marino said, “On the technical end, we really developed a new kind of a silicone, which varies in densities and thickness. It was like many different variables of skin, like it was created by God. As a designer, I have to think of, How do I get close to that? It’s not just one material - one thing. How can I have Colin’s face move the most realistic? It’s one thing to do a cool character, but then if it becomes a distraction and something strange, it doesn’t work - it falls out of place. It’s a real constant effort to bring this character to life.”

LeFranc, who is the showrunner, writer and executive producer on The Penguin, also spoke with me about her experiences working beside Farrell and Marino on this series.

She said, “Mike Marino and his entire team are incredibly talented. I’ve never seen anything like it - it’s really just impeccable work. It’s really exquisite. Colin is a great, great person. Like beyond just being a great actor, which he is, he’s just a really lovely collaborator, so it’s been a joy. We would constantly have conversations about Oz’s character arc, different scenes before he shot them - we talked a lot in editing. He was a part of everything, so that was really fun, honestly.”

Being an executive producer with Farrell on the series, Clark said, “He’s a special artist. He’s one of the most generous people I know. He really goes on creative searches with his writers and his directors. Certainly, he and Matt are very close in their explorations. Mike Marino, who designed the prosthetics - Colin was able to shape that face of his to really like transform himself into this character.”

Even The Penguin director Craig Zobel noticed on-set the extra layer (literally and figuratively) that made this production truly unique. He said, “One of the things that was a challenge that made me excited to take this on in any way and raise my hand was that the lead actor [Farrell] has to be in four hours of makeup everyday. It was a challenge and it was an interesting kind of thing to learn how to have the rhythm of the shoot - work around that. I was directing Oz - a different [person]. I would call [Colin] Oz - he was Oz.”

Farrell’s co-stars also expressed their fascination and adoration for his rather complete transformation into Oz. Cristin Milioti, who plays Sofia Falcone, the daughter of the recently slain mob boss, said of her regular scene partner, “Colin as an actor - obviously, he’s extraordinary. He’s also an extraordinary human being, like he’s so present and game and ego-less and everything you would hope for. Because of that, I felt like I could do anything. I felt like I had such a good partner and those characters [Oz and Sofia] are so kindred, actually. That’s one of the sad elements of it - they’re both the smartest person in the room. They’re both disregarded - they’re both underestimated. They’re both pushed to the side and the idea of like that wouldn’t unite them is kind of sad, but then also, it’s so great to see them become foes.”

Rhenzy Feliz, who plays Victor Aguilar, Oz’s new right-hand man, said of working alongside Farrell on The Penguin series in all of his prosthetics, “It’s the coolest thing in the world. You get to see it - you get this front row view. I mean, I was excited enough getting the gig, to begin with. To then see what was actually going on in front of me - I thought it was going to be a great performance and then it turns into this legendary performance. I think he’s so incredible in the show and it’s an honor for me to even be next to him for it.”

Deirdre O’Connell, who plays Oz’s mother Francis Cobb, said of her experiences on-set with Farrell, “The guy that I knew, who was by the way, not Colin Farrell at all. I never even had to think about the Colin Farrell-ness of it all because I only ever saw him in his prosthetic. I met Colin Farrell like for 10 minutes one day, way before we started shooting - had a very pleasant conversation with the fella. He’s Irish, he’s very handsome - but from the minute we showed up for camera test, it was always just Oswald.”

Knowing that Reeves directed and was a co-writer on The Batman film and is now helping guide The Penguin series as an executive producer, as these eight episodes lead up to The Batman Part II (scheduled for a theatrical release in 2026), I wondered how Reeves would describe his close collaboration with Farrell over these two Gotham universe projects so far.

Reeves said, “He’s just such an extraordinary person. It’s interesting because the character is so incredibly dark and Colin is such a beautiful, soulful, amazing person. I’m not really interested in villainy that gives you the safe kind of distance. I’m interested in villainy, where you can see yourself in that character and I think one of the things that’s so remarkable about Colin is he has such empathy. I think that as dark as this guy [Oz] is, he really dug deep to find the empathy - to understand how this guy could be so broken that he would go to these dark places and he takes the audience with them on that journey. I think that is an extraordinary gift that [Farrell] has. And so, to have him as a producer on this show and all of us to have those kind of aims, it’s been a really, really special experience. I’m grateful to him for his friendship and for his artistry, and just to be able to do things with him. I just think he’s incredible.”

As I concluded my conversations with this elaborate group of creatives working on The Penguin series, I was curious what Farrell would say to Oz, after understanding the character better and embodying him in such great detail so far for the screen.

Farrell said, “I wouldn’t tell him sh—. I wouldn’t trust him to respond in any kind of socially appropriate way. I wouldn’t tell him sh—. I’d just leave the room. I don’t trust that guy.”