John Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon is impressed by how Colin Farrell changed physically in ‘The Penguin.’
“The only other time I’ve been this impressed w an actor’s physical transformation was Christian Bale in ‘Vice,'” the musician wrote in his tweet. “Colin Farrell as the Penguin is pretty mind-blowing. Even though you can see it’s make-up he just seems like a different person.”
Sean continued, “Maybe Gary Oldman in ‘True Romance,’ but you could still see it was him. I’m not talking about just acting like a different person, I mean looking AND acting like a completely different person. When you can’t tell the actor without reading the credits. Am I forgetting any other examples?”
Farrell first played The Penguin in the 2022 movie ‘The Batman.’ This role required a lot of makeup and special effects, not just a costume. The prosthetics designer Mike Marino created this look. Farrell mentioned to ET in April that the new ‘The Penguin’ series wouldn’t exist without Marino’s work.
“I have never had such less ownership for a character that I’ve played than this one,” the actor explained. “Like, straight-up, ’cause this show wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Mike Marino creating the visage of that fella.”
He added, “It was three hours in the chair every morning, which is fine ’cause I love the crew that we had. There were people that were making the eyebrows in L.A. and sending eyebrows out. And there was someone that did the teeth and there was such a collection of people who came together to create [it]. It takes a village. I loved working on it. It was amazing.”
“Just really, really bold stuff, I couldn’t believe that it got as dark as it gets. So that’s what to expect. It would be a hard R, if it was in the cinemas, you know?” Farrell also said of the ‘The Penguin’ series in a separate interview.
‘The Penguin’ TV series as a spin-off from the film ‘The Batman’ premiered on HBO on September 19. It consists of eight episodes and will continue until November 10, 2024.