Colin Farrell responds after being compared to ‘one of TV’s best performances ever’

Colin Farrell has reacted to his performance in The Penguin being compared to one of the greatest characters ever in TV history, saying that it’s a ‘lovely’ parallel to make.

The Hollywood megastar – who’s appeared in classic movies including The Recruit, Saving Mr Banks, The Lobster, Total Recall and In Bruges – made his debut as Oz Cobb in the 2022 film The Batman, which starred Robert Pattinson as the titular DC superhero.

The actor’s transformation to become the iconic gangster was almost too incredible to be believed, thanks to the mass of prosthetics that completely changed his appearance, his thick accent and the mannerisms that he adopted.

Metro.co.uk recently spoke to Colin about reprising the role in his new TV series The Penguin, in which viewers find out what happened to Oz after the events of The Batman with the Riddler, and how he embarks on a treacherous rise to power through Gotham’s underworld.

After watching the first two episodes of the gritty drama, several viewers pointed out the unmistakable similarities between Colin’s Oz and James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano from The Sopranos, which has been hailed as one of the best TV performances of all time.

While the 48-year-old hasn’t watched the series in full, which aired from 1999 to 2007, he explained how he was aware of the late James’ critically-acclaimed performance, and did not mind the comparison one bit.

‘I’ve only seen two episodes of The Sopranos. But I know, well, I know from those two episodes, I know from Gandolfini’s work and a slew of films through the years – James Gandolfini’s work, that’s fine. That’s totally fine. I mean, God, I’ve been compared to worse in my time,’ he said graciously.

‘I know that The Sopranos was kind of a turning point in the history of the evolution of television as well, and what was capable in regards to dramatic narrative in television.’

The Irish actor continued: ‘I haven’t seen Breaking Bad either. I’ve seen all Game of Thrones. I feel they’re kind of the three – Game of Thrones, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, two of them I’m yet to see. But, yeah, that’s a lovely comparison. That’s cool, because I know the show is extraordinary.’

Over the past few weeks, there’s been plenty of chatter about Colin’s physical transformation to become Oz for his eight-hour TV show, with sensational prosthetics designed by makeup artist Mike Marino, including a detachable ‘pecker’ for a nude scene.

We were intrigued to find out how he also prepared to play the Penguin mentally for the show, given viewers witness the lead character committing atrocious acts during the power struggle for Gotham.

Bringing up the director of Matt Reeves, the director of The Batman who also executive produced The Penguin, he recalled: ‘I was doing a film on the west coast of Ireland when Matt Reeves and Dylan Clark, Matt’s producing partner, told me that they hired Lauren LeFranc to be the showrunner and the primary writer, and Lauren was amassing a team of writers, her writer’s room.

‘They arranged for us to have a Zoom – me and Matt and Dylan and Lauren – and she pitched me, shared with me what the eight hours was going to be about, what the story entailed, and how she was going to explore Oz’s journey. It was all there. It was all down the page. There wasn’t that much research to do.

‘It was just a case of taking, really what there was, 450 or 500 pages of drama that they wrote, and it was all extraordinary, and it was twisting and turning, and it was full of regret, and it was full of vengeance, and it was full of sorrow and pain, and it was full of nefarious activities and violence and longings and disappointments.’

Colin outlined how it was ‘Greek’ in ‘its kind of tragedy and elements’, and so he took the material presented to him and ‘just let the imagination have free reign’.

‘What was written, mixed with what Mike Marino created, was kind of an extraordinary source of inspiration for me,’ he stated.

During filming, the leading man explained how staying in a hotel room while being 3,000 miles away from his children and his family resulted in him becoming ‘obsessed’ by the project, as ‘this is your purpose in life for three or five months’.

‘So you lean into that, and you spend most of your waking hours going over it and thinking about it, and thinking about backstory, and thinking about certain scenarios and situations the character might find themselves in that aren’t in the script or are. All of a sudden it begins to have a life’s energy of itself. So it’s of you, but outside of you, you know?’ he shared.

While it’s currently uncertain if The Penguin will return for a second season or if it’s a standalone series, we do know that Oz will be coming back for the sequel to The Batman alongside Robert, 38, as the brooding billionaire Bruce Wayne.

So what could Colin share, or what are his hopes, for Oz’s future in the franchise?

‘No clue. No hopes. Hopes in life, but in relation to this, no. This all seems very fresh. We only wrapped in February. It seems fresh and yet, so long ago,’ he acknowledged.

‘But I have no idea what the second film is going to hold. I know Matt’s been head down, bent over trying to figure it out.’

He continued: ‘This whole world, this eight hours of television called The Penguin, it had to fit in with Matt’s universe. Matt is the wizard of the whole thing, this universe is all his creation, obviously sourcing it from all the material and filtering all the material that’s gone on before, since The Penguin first appeared in 1941 in Batman.

‘Matt’s an extraordinary writer, an extraordinary artist, and he cares so much about the material and the fans and this world. So I’m really excited to see what the second film holds.’

The Penguin is available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW, with new episodes released on Mondays.

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