Why Colin Farrell Pushed for ‘The Penguin’ Series After ‘The Batman’ Film

On a new episode of Radio Andy’s “The Jess Cagle Show with Julia Cunningham,” actor Colin Farrell opened up about what inspired him to do more with The Penguin’s character in HBO’s “The Penguin” limited series after portraying him in 2022’s “The Batman” film.

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“To be honest with you, it was the kind of profound beauty that I saw when I looked in the mirror, which I’ve never said before,” Colin told Jess and Julia. “And I saw what was looking back at me. It was so beautiful … I didn’t dread any day sitting in the makeup chair because I really just, I was in love with the makeup … I’m a lover of practical makeup.”

Colin continued, “I was a canvas. I sat down in a chair and I did nothing. These incredible artists just swarmed around me and turned me into something else. And so to do that for what I knew would be maybe six or seven minutes in the film, it just felt like short shrift. It just felt like, ‘God, this deserves more.'”

He added, “I enjoyed playing Oz in the film… I think we were just a month into the shoot when I said to Dylan Clark, ‘Come on, can we do a TV show or something else with this? Because it’s just too good. It’s just too good.'”

Regarding the sequel to “The Batman” movie, Colin said he heard The Penguin features in it but hasn’t read it yet.

“It’ll be interesting to see where we pick up from,” he said. “There’s been so much pipe laid, it’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here. But [The Penguin] would be quite different … If I see a scene from the first episode and then I see a scene from the eighth episode, even to me, it’s kind of extraordinary how different he is, how much darkness has really consumed him by the end.”