The Oscar-nominee spoke to JOE about his excellent Batman spin-off series and the much-publicised prosthetic he sported for a key scene in the show.
Colin Farrell is earning rave reviews for his completely transformational central turn in the new Batman spin-off series The Penguin.
That said, the Irish Oscar-nominee’s reveal about a key scene in the show’s pilot episode has gotten many people talking.
The first episode sees Farrell’s mobster character Oz Cobb provoke the ire of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), his former boss’s daughter, who then strips him nude and tortures him.
And while the viewer never sees Cobb’s body in full, the Irish actor told Variety recently that Mike Marino – the prosthetics designer on The Penguin – had a fake penis made for him to wear while filming the harrowing scene.
This week, JOE caught up with Farrell to discuss the series and we had to bring up the prosthetic “penguin penis”.
We asked the actor: “Even though the viewer never sees it, was it important for you to have that to get into the headspace of Oz Cobb at that moment or was it more of a gag?”
Laughing, Farrell responded: “I thought you were going to say: ‘Even though the viewer never sees it, any chance of a look?'” He then took out his phone and pretended to show us the prosthetic.
“It’s a fair question. I just love that we’re talking dick. I’m sweating,” he joked, before adding:
“It wasn’t important for me. It was important for Mike Marino. God bless him. He just didn’t want to take any chances.
“We were told that Oz’s full body was going to be shot at an angle from the back and then anything that was front on was going to be from the waist up. We were told by production, by Craig [Zobel], our director, that we weren’t interested in the appendage.
“But Mike Marino, being the consummate artist and professional that he is, didn’t want to leave anything to chance so he gifted me with a doughnut box with a yeah, prosthetic piece – a penguin penis as it were. It wasn’t important at all but God bless Mike for leaving no stone unturned.”
You can watch a clip of this interaction below.
The first episode of The Penguin is already available to watch on Sky and streaming service NOW, with new episodes out every Monday.
