‘The Batman’: Why Colin Farrell Wasn’t Supposed to Be So Unrecognizable as the Penguin
Matt Reeves never meant for Colin Farrell to look unrecognizable in “The Batman.”In the finished film, Farrell’s appearance is utterly obliterated in the role of Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, the scarred and dumpy mid-level Gotham City gangster with the (unwelcome) nickname of “the Penguin.” But when the 55-year-old director — who co-wrote “The Batman” with Peter Craig — first approached Farrell for the role, he was focused on Farrell’s ability to bring grit and sensitivity in the same performance.“He could have that mix of being incredibly, incredibly scary and volatile, and then all of a sudden, you’d see this vulnerable side that really made you feel for that guy,” Reeves tells Variety. “So I really wanted him to play the character.” When they met, however, Reeves noticed that Farrell had recently gained weight for a different movie, which fit into his conception of the longstanding Batman villain as a mobster akin to John Cazale’s Fredo in “The Godfather” films.“I thought John Cazale has a kind of Penguin nose,” Reeves says.