Actor Colin Farrell recently spoke on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about his experience working on The Batman, the upcoming DC film that’ll give Robert Pattinson the mantle of The Dark Knight. Farrell is set to play the Penguin in The Batman, but by the looks of it, the classic villain won’t be at the center of the plot, as Farrell says he’s only part of “five or six scenes.”
Commenting on what we can expect from Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Farrell said that he’s just as excited as fans to see the result in movie theaters. From what he could grasp on set, the movie has a unique take on the Dark Knight mythology, and Reeves has been cautiously crafting his own version of Gotham City that Farrell is sure will please fans. While talking about the upcoming film, Farrell jokingly said that The Batman could be more successful since it’ll have less of him in it. In Farrell’s words:
“I’m only in it for five or six scenes, so I can’t wait to see the film because it won’t be ruined by my presence. Really, it’s a freebie to me. I’ll get a little bit uncomfortable for the f-ing nine minutes I have, and then the rest of it, I cannot wait to see how he [Reeves] brought this world to life.”
During the podcast, Farrell also discussed his transformation into The Penguin for The Batman. The actor is barely recognizable in the movie’s first trailer, as makeup artist Mike Marino did one hell of a job creating a fat suit that resembles Richard Kind a lot. As Farrell reveals, the crew chose to use the fat suit to circumvent health issues, as the actor was still dealing with the weight changes he had to undergo for The North Water series. As Farrell explains it:
“Mike Marino is a genius. He’s an absolute and veritable genius. And that word gets thrown out a lot, but he is a drawing, sculpting, shaping genius. And he created this visage for the Penguin. I mean he and Matt talked about what physically the character stature would be, and I had been quite big for The North Water and I didn’t want to naturally go big again cause I had a few little health things as a result of The North Water and I was just like, f-ck, this acting thing ain’t this important. I know the top actors that go up and down, and God bless them, I wish them good health. But for me, I think The North Water is the last time I’ll go up that much. So, we decided on a fat suit.”
Farrell claims Marino’s work is so good that it defined The Penguin character a lot more than his own acting work. As Farrell puts it:
“Look, I only had, as I said, five or six scenes, or seven scenes, and I wasn’t quite… I was up here early stages, looking at what I felt, what I could do, what I could bring to it. I was a bit lost. And then, when I saw what Mike did, the whole character made sense to me. I swear to God, I saw what he did, and I just went ‘Ok,’ and I got really excited about it. All that to say that if anyone ever thinks what I do at The Batman is a decent performance, I’ll gladly take 49% of the credits.”
The Batman wrapped filming last March, which gives Reeves plenty of post-production time before the movie hits theaters on March 4, 2022.
via Collider