Cristin Milioti unpacks her Globe-nominated role in ‘The Penguin’: ‘This has been a lifelong dream’
Before she squared off against the Penguin, Batman superfan Cristin Milioti cosplayed as another member of the Caped Crusader’s iconic rogues gallery.
“I’ve seen every single movie, some of them multiple times,” the actress reveals to Gold Derby. “I was Catwoman for Halloween when I was little. Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns, I saw when I was seven. It was a deeply seminal film for me. This has been a lifelong dream. I love this universe.”
Her Bat fandom paid off big time. Milioti not only received raved reviews for her role as Sofia Falcone in HBO’s limited series The Penguin but she is a newly minted nominee for both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.
“I’ve been deeply overwhelmed and honored,” she says. “I can’t wait to be with the cast again, put on some nice clothes, and toast to this thing that we made. It’s sort of strange. You get together for the premiere and then you don’t see each other outside of press events. It’s nice to be able to spend a night together.”
The Penguin serves as a spin-off series to Matt Reeves‘ 2022 film, The Batman, with Oscar nominee Colin Farrell reprising his role as the titular villain. Sofia is his former boss-turned-adversary, a presumed psychopathic killer recently released from Arkham State Hospital.
The series’ fourth episode, titled “Cent’Anni,” tells Sofia’s story through a series of flashbacks. Framed for murder by her own father, Sofia is determined to be unfit for trial. After several family members write letters to to declare her mentally unstable, Sofia’s sentence at Arkham State Hospital is increased from six months to a decade, causing the her to unravel and take a dark turn. Upon being set free, Sofia returns to home and seeks vengeance on her family, poisoning them with carbon monoxide while they sleep at Falcone mansion.
Milioti, whose credits include How I Met Your Mother and the time-look comedy Palm Springs, says she was “overwhelmed in the best way” upon reading The Penguin script. “I knew how special that was as a piece of writing,” she explains. “I was so excited because there were so many things that I had always dreamed that I would get to explore — just to track somebody for that many years of their life. Thrilled is an understatement.”
But the role also took a physical toll. “I’m not a stunt person,” she jokes. “I’m really getting slammed and dragged! There were also very specific emotional states that I had to stay in for hours at a time. I’m even reticent to call that a challenge because I was so excited to be asked to do that. If anything, the challenge was wanting to make sure that I really landed her story. I really wanted to calibrate everything so that you see how she’s driven mad.”
Sofia eventually assumes her rightful place as a mob boss, and the actress embraced her power move. “It was the best,” Milioti says. “Once Episode 4 happens and she really comes into her own, yes, she’s doing things that are morally reprehensible, but you understand why. She does have some sort of ‘Batman villain’ moral code of ethics. They don’t totally make sense, except to her. She spares the child [in the episode Sofia protects her niece Gia from the carbon monoxide], even though it’s horrible what she’s done. In her brain, ‘I’ve saved her. This is a good deed that I’ve done.’ She’s been without for so long, that for her to get to step into that was so much fun.”
Milioti also extols her costar Farrell. “He’s fabulous. Even though we’re adversaries on the show, we were real partners in life. I felt so safe with him. We could go to very far places together. He’s delightful. His talent is extraordinary. We both really love acting and digging as deep as you can, but we also love a good giggle. He was lovely to work with.”
In the end, Penguin (whose real name on the show is Oz Cobb, an abbreviated form of the DC Comics’ Oswald Cobblepot) threatens to kill Sofia. Instead, he unleashes the Gotham City police on her, and she winds up behind bars. “That’s what is so interesting about their dynamic. Because they know each other so well, they’re able to sentence the other to a fate worse than death.”