Colin Farrell was freakin’ great as Penguin in The Batman, and it looks like he’s going to deliver another awesome performance in The Penguin series. But, playing this character is not easy for him.
While Farrell loved the opportunity to play this character, he also hated it, and he’s not sure if he’s ready to do it again because of the toll that playing the character takes on him.
During a recent interview with Total Film, the actor was asked if he was prepared to climb back in the make-up chair again and he replied: “I don’t know, man,” as he grimaces.
He continued: “Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f*cking wanted it to be finished.
“I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’ I was still grateful, and still honored – I grew up watching Burgess Meredith [who played the role in the ’60s TV series], and then Danny DeVito [in Tim Burton’s 1992 film Batman Returns] was my Penguin – so being a part of the lineage of that storytelling, I really did feel privileged. But by the end of it…”
He went on to say: “It’s not like I didn’t know who I was and I was going out and burning cars and shit, but… if you take what Matt Reeves created and then what Lauren [LeFranc, showrunner] did and what Mike [Marino, prosthetics and make-up designer] did and put them all together, it was a really powerful experience.”
So to do it again, Farrell would have to be willing to goe through the physical changes and well as getting back into the headspace of the character.
The actor said: “Lauren said, ‘Look, if I could find a way that makes sense, would you talk about it?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And maybe in a year I would. But when I finished I was like, ‘I never want to put that f–king suit and that f–king head on again.'”
Farrell obviously just needs some time not playing Penguin for awhile. But, I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him in this role.
