Colin Farrell Created A Backstory For Each Of The Penguin's Scars

In Matt Reeves' 2022 film "The Batman" and Lauren LeFranc's 2024 series "The Penguin," Irish actor Colin Farrell gives one of his very best performances as Oz Cobb, a drug-dealing, gnashing criminal nicknamed the Penguin after his taste in suits, thick-necked visage, bird-like nose, and trademark waddle. In the film, we see him as the lieutenant of Gotham City's biggest crime lord, and across the course of the eight-episode HBO series, we watch him become the cutthroat king of the underworld.

In a 2021 interview with Far Out Magazine, Reeves compared the Penguin to Fredo, the character played by John Cazale in "The Godfather." But now, he's basically Michael Corleone — albeit without Al Pacino's smooth '70s skin. The Penguin, a casual observer will immediately notice, looks nothing like Farrell, and it took prosthetic makeup designer Mike Marino and prosthetic artist Mike Fontaine hours and hours to get the star camera ready as the scarred, balding, rough-skinned Cobb. 

In James Field's "The Art of the Batman," a sourcebook that collects the inspirations, designs, and painstakingly created visuals of the film, Marino and Fontaine talk about the process of creating the Penguin and how Farrell — expertly plying his craft — came up with a backstory for each one of his character's scars. As Marino said:

"Matt [Reeves] had some ideas on what he wanted the Penguin to be. He wanted something that was a little pathetic and a little sympathetic. He was referencing Fredo from 'The Godfather,' and the look of Bob Hoskins. I kind of sculpted Fredo's brow onto Colin as close as I could, and then I started tweaking it from there. It just developed into this strange mob kind of character and a scarred-up, grizzled, heavy guy with maybe an insecurity."

Depending on the rehearsal process, sometimes actors are asked to write essays and books on their characters. Giving your character a full life and backstory will, presumably, make them appear more nuanced and authentic on screen or stage. An actor may hate their character as a viewer, but no actor can hate their character when they're playing them; no one wakes up in the morning thinking "I'm the villain." 

In "The Art of the Batman," Colin Farrell talks about how seeing himself in makeup was an informative experience when it came to playing Oz: 

"You look at his face and you see some scars. It was fun creating a backstory for every single mark and every single issue that he has, because there's a wealth of a kind of information, of personal history that one can design. You would hope that from thinking about it — even subtextually or unconsciously — this information finds its way into the character and onto the screen. But certainly lends itself to much more [authenticity]."

Indeed, the makeup was so heavy on Farrell that it weighed on the musculature of his face and changed the way he spoke. Farrell, while reading lines in the Penguin makeup, found more elements of the character emerging: 

"[Mike] Marino recorded a little piece of me in the makeup. I didn't feel like I was ready, but he asked me a few questions and I answered then. And then when I saw it back, I thought 'That sounds good!' Because my voice actually sounds different. The timbre of it sounds different. It sounds like it's in a different place. It sounds heavier. It sounds like it's struggling a bit more."

According to "The Art of the Batman," Oz's makeup in "The Batman" took anywhere from three-and-a-half to four hours to apply. On "The Penguin," sometimes it was a speedy two-and-half hours or sometimes as long as five if Oz was going au naturel. After all, the Penguin get-up was made of several facial prosthetics, including cheek pieces, a false nose, a brow, and ears, not to mention the bodysuit. As Mike Marino said in "The Art of the Batman":

"Once the pieces are glued on, then we start painting it, airbrushing different tones and colors and ambers and reds and all these things to match his skin tone as close as possible. Some of the things that I wanted to get rid of were some of the signature things on Colin Farrell, like his eyebrows. I created this shape of his eyebrow like a penguin. And if you look on the side of his profile, I threw in a little subliminal bird beak, the way his nose is shaped, 'cause it looks like a chipped-up scar. So, it looks like a penguin beak from the side."

The makeup was so good, Farrell fooled his co-stars on set. For example, Zoë Kravitz, who played the catburglar Selina Kyle in "The Batman," said: 

"He walked right up to me, and I was looking for Colin in there, and I couldn't see him. Still to this day, actually, 'cause l've only met Colin a few times outside of this film, I feel like I don't know Colin Farrell. I know the Penguin." 

Similarly, in an October 2024 interview, Cristin Milioti — who played "The Penguin" villain Sofia Gigante (née Falcone) — told CinemaBlend:

"I spent a year with Oz. I wouldn't really see Colin out of makeup. I think I've seen Colin out of makeup three times. ... He created a real person, and I actually just saw the first four episodes for the first time, and I was saying that it felt like I was seeing an old friend. And it's still so strange to be like, 'Oh, that's Colin Farrell.'"