Colin Farrell is returning to the silver screen, portraying iconic Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. The Penguin, in the franchise’s newest instalment, The Batman.
For his role, the Dublin native required a complete makeover to transform in The Penguin, which included intense facial prosthetics. Something that required hours and a team of people to complete.
As The Northwater star explained to Collider, “the first day we tried the whole thing out, we took it for a drive, a spin metaphorically speaking. We did it in Burbank. It took about six or eight hours. It was a team of ten or fifteen people.”
While it was hard work, Colin enjoyed his transformation and even pulled a little stunt while decked out as a supervillain. Deciding to grab a coffee, in his Penguin look, “It was really fun. I went into Starbucks and ordered myself a very un-Oswald drink, an oat milk latte with two stevia sweeteners.”
Incredible work! Chapeau! Feel free to follow prorenfx on Instagram for more amazing prosthetic make up! https://t.co/IkVGG1eMUi
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Colin Farrell • The Penguin • The Batman 2022 • On Set • Liverpool Oct 12th pic.twitter.com/PoSPqUomzI— Colin Farrell ⍟ GER (@CFarrellGermany) October 12, 2020
While most people would find it quite shocking to see The Penguin ordering a latte, this particular crowd didn’t seem all that excited. As Colin explained, “I got a couple of stares but only because it’s such an imposing look.”
For his portrayal of The Penguin, the actor had one wish, hoping to smoke Ozwald’s iconic cigar. With the prop being featured in the original comics and the 1992 film Batman Returns. But despite his efforts, this modern rendition of The Penguin will be smoke-free.
As Colin revealed to Jake’s Takes, “I fought valiantly for a cigar, I even said at one stage, ‘Can I have it unlit,’ and they were like no.”
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As for why not, he explained how different this version of the character will be. Saying, “The Oz that we meet hasn’t embodied the energy of the Penguin that we recognise from the source comics and from previous films, so I’ll see if it goes again.”
“I’d love to explore it because he’s not an underboss, he’s not a boss, he’s just a soldier of Falcone at this stage. But he has great ambition and dreams of doing big big things.”
Colin is starring alongside Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz, with Robert playing the iconic caped crusader himself, and Zoe portraying the iconic Catwomen. The film premiered last night in London, and will be available in cinemas on the 4th of March.
The film is the longest Batman movie to date, at nearly 3 hours long.
Words by Slaine McKenna
