“Normally I’m just filled with insecurity and self-doubt and despise everything I see.”

That’s an interesting statement from Colin Farrell, but when talking about his new series, The Penguin spurs him to this revelation.

The theme of the series is the transformation that accompanies Oswald Cobblepot from a disfigured nobody to a well-known Gotham gangster.

Starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka the Penguin), DC Studios’ eight-part HBO original series continues the epic crime saga that filmmaker Matt Reeves began with the global blockbuster. The Batman.

With Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Michael Zegen, Carmen Ejogo and Theo Rossi.

The fact that Farrell is barely recognizable as the title character helped him, he says.

He explains that he had an epiphany when he put on the prosthetics and looked at himself in the mirror. “(Seeing yourself like that) is a little confusing at first. It’s a little bit weird, but it’s really, really powerful, and so I just went with it.”

Farrell explains the complicated makeup process like this: The first test took place months before filming and lasted eight hours, but was then shortened to about three hours.

When filming began, every morning when he entered the mask truck, it seemed to him as if “the circus was in town.”

“It was a complete process with ten or eleven artists. It was one of the most magical days I have had in 25 years of acting. I was so excited. I thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m being made up like this, that I The Penguin. This is crazy.'”

As for his influences, Farrell says: “I was a fan of Burgess Meredith when I was six or seven years old. I watched the whole episode (the original version Batman TV series) and then Danny DeVito in Tim Burton’s film.”

He says he and DeVito even exchanged text messages, but he admits they were more about jokes than about the character.

There are comparisons between his penguin and other film characters, but as Farrell explains: “I have seen The Incorruptibles I have seen twice Midnight Cowboy four times. As an actor, everything you see, every piece of music you hear, somehow comes to you inside, in a place that is used and filtered to a greater or lesser extent through every single character you play.”

Executive producer Matt Reeves explains the development of the series as follows: “When we The Batmanthe idea was not to do an origin story, but to do the early days of young Batman. And with that idea, the characters around him, because in the comics, those characters are inspired by Batman’s presence in that place. And when it came about, it was, in a weird way, an origin story for those characters. So we were very excited about the idea of ​​not just making movies, but making a show that could focus not on Batman, but on one of those Rogues Gallery characters, and seeing their creation, their origins.”

Writer Lauren LeFranc says telling this story is also about the community’s support for Oz. She explains, “We want all the characters to be fully fleshed out. That’s what every single person working on the show wanted. And it’s about executing that and how you do that. (So) it’s also about tone and finding that sweet spot where it’s not too big, but big enough.”

What does The Penguin What’s so fascinating, says LeFranc, “is the fact that we’re following Oz, which makes our show fundamentally different in that respect. It makes it a little wilder, a little more energetic. There’s also some darker humor in it.”

Farrell agrees, adding: “It’s not just The Penguin Oz show. It’s all these people who are so complex and layered, and we were able to get a glimpse into this man’s personality in an interesting way. All of the characters and their journeys were so well drawn. It’s about the rise to power of someone like Oz, but it also coincides with his descent into madness and psychopathy.”

Farrell is personally excited about all of this, but especially about being part of an elite group. “Just being part of this canon was a great honor.”

“The Penguin” will be available to stream on HBO Max starting Thursday, September 19^th.