Few expected “The Penguin,” HBO’s spinoff from movie “The Batman,” to be a superhero-free mob drama with “Godfather”-worthy machinations and pathological behavior that would scare even Tony Soprano.
And although many figured Colin Farrell’s makeup-encased title mobster, a.k.a. Oz Cobb, would be fascinating, Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone unexpectedly stole the show. Familiar from her title role on “How I Met Your Mother” and “Black Mirror’s” funniest episode, “USS Callister,” the New York-based actor from Cherry Hill, N.J., is deadly serious business here.
The treasured daughter of Gotham City’s top mob don, Sofia was framed by her dad — with Oz’s help — to take the fall for his serial-killing side hobby, then traumatized in Arkham Asylum for a decade. Upon her release, she competes with Oz and her own family for control of her late father’s empire, only to be betrayed again and again — and ruthlessly emboldened.
Told during a Zoom interview that Sofia seemed more like Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine de’ Medici than a comic book character, Milioti matter-of-factly says, “That’s certainly incredible company to be in.”
We don’t often see a role with so many facets in a comic book show.
It was not lost on me how special the complexity of this character was. Once I started working with [showrunner] Lauren LeFranc, I fell in love with every single thing about Sofia. Obviously, my job is to understand why she does the things that she does, so I’m naturally going to be empathetic, whether or not I condone those actions. But it was just as much her villain origin story as it was Oz’s.
If not the psychopath everyone thinks she is, Sofia is undeniably unhinged, gleefully sadistic and doesn’t care who she kills. Can this mafia princess-turned-mob queen be viewed as some kind of role model?
That’s tricky to answer because I’m so inside of it. Yes, the fact that she’s a woman pushing against and destroying this patriarchal society is there, but she’s also her own creature. She’s like an animal that exists in her own realm.
I have such an allergy to when I read a script and it describes a role as “a strong female role.” I’m like, enough! Can it just be a role? I know there need to be more roles like the very thing we’re talking about, but I don’t like when it’s boxed inside of a trope. I like when it’s a full-spectrum human being. That’s what Sofia is. So yes, I do think that she’s a feminist icon. I don’t know if that’s the first phrase that would come to my mind when describing her, but she levels the playing field, to say the least.
Sofia’s relationship with Oz is as tortured as can be. So how did you get along with the actor who played him?
Colin’s a dreamboat. He is such an incredible partner; kind, gracious, amazingly present, and that’s not even to mention his extraordinary talent. I felt like I had a partner in madness with Colin, like we could go to endless limits with each other. I don’t want to speak for him, but I felt like we really supported each other too because it’s a dark world. We did a lot of intense stuff, and we also really giggled together.
He was completely covered in latex and a fat suit. Was performing against that a big adjustment?
You kind of just get used to the prosthetics right away. I mean, obviously, I know it’s Colin’s voice and eyes — I know those eyes so well after staring into them! — but it was incredibly helpful that he became this complete other person. It never affected the work, but I will say that the sets were freezing cold in order to preserve the makeup. That was certainly a challenge, but it kept us awake. The days that he wasn’t there we would crank the heat up!
Sofia’s increasingly impactful fashion statements are almost their own kind of special effect.
Me and [costume designer] Helen Huang knew we were going to get to build the look of a villain. How rare is that? Given what she goes through in Arkham and who she becomes, how does Sofia continue to express herself and how does she become free of her family? Her clothes become her armor in this world — and her persona. They really let us experiment. There were hundreds of fittings.
Any favorite outfits?
We probably had eight to 10 fittings just to find that yellow dress. It was so important how that was going to look walking down a hall, how is it going to look with a gas mask. … It was so, so cool to get into all that stuff. The ways she imbues her mother’s fur coats with her own energy when she takes over the family … I felt like a kid in a candy store.
You’ve worked on “The Sopranos,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Good Wife,” yet until “Penguin” many of us thought of you as a deft comic actress.
I’ve done a lot of comedy, but there’s always been a dark streak through things like “Palm Springs,” “Black Mirror,” even “Fargo 2,” which I loved being a part of. I got my start in theater and was doing all types of dramatic roles for years, but no one saw them [laughs]. I feel comfortable in this genre as well, I just haven’t had the opportunity to show it on the scale that I’m able to with this show. I love to toggle back and forth. That’s my dream; I love both and I think both are necessary.
