‘I’m The Marionette’: Colin Farrell Credits Makeup Artists For His Incredible Transformation Into The Penguin

Irish actor Colin Farrell recently spilled the beans on how the makeup artist of his upcoming series, The Penguin, did an incredible job transforming him into the DC comic character Penguin. Farrell has reprised his role as the titular villain in this latest eight-episode series created by Lauren LeFranc. He first portrayed this character in Matt Reeves’ superhero movie The Batman (2022).

Colin Farrell praises makeup artist for his insane transformation into The Penguin

On March 22, 2024, Max unveiled the teaser trailer for the upcoming limited series The Penguin, in which Colin Farrell returns as the iconic Gotham City villain from the 2022 film The Batman. Farrell’s transformation into the Penguin is so dramatic that he appears almost unrecognizable in the teaser. He credits this insane transformation to his talented makeup artist. 

In a recent interview on The Jess Cagle Show with Julia Cunningham, the 47-year-old actor revealed how makeup artist Mike Marino did an exceptional job and transformed him into the character.

He said his makeup in the series was “extraordinary” and credited Marino’s efforts, saying, “I’ll be going on the, on the Mike Marino publicity tour.” The actor added, “Mike is the gentleman who created, devised, thought up that whole face. I mean, he created the whole character.”

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Farrell continued, “He created the puppet, and I’m the marionette, is the way I think of it, and it feels like an on-the-nose description of what happened. He created this beautiful puppet, and I got to animate it, and it was a joy.”

Colin Farrell on his experience filming The Penguin 

In a previous interview with Variety, The Batman movie actor talked about his experience reprising his role as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin and his thoughts on filming the upcoming limited series The Penguin. 

Speaking about his character, he said, “This is Oswald’s journey trying to rise to the top through extraordinary obstacles.”

Colin Farrell then shared his views on filming the upcoming series, saying, “It was a long and really wonderful experience.” The actor further shared, “It’s dark; that’s what I can tell you about it. It’s really dark. It’s really heavy, I think— it certainly was doing it.”

He continued, “Which is not to say I didn’t have fun, I had an amazing time doing it. It’s incredibly violent. It’s one man’s rise to what he’s always dreamed of inhabiting, which is a certain power or social status.”

The Penguin is scheduled to release on Max in late 2024.