Colin Farrell pulls off his biggest chameleon act yet, disappearing beneath makeup and prosthetics to become almost unrecognizable in HBO's The Penguin.
“It wasn't restrictive, quite the opposite,” Pharrell, 48, told The Washington Post exclusively.
“It was such a liberating experience to be immersed in all of that. It felt like I had permission to just throw paint at the wall.”
He added: “However, Was It was a strange feeling to look in the mirror for the first time and see myself reflected.”
The crime drama, which premieres on HBO on Sept. 19 (9 p.m.) and is available to stream on Max, is a spinoff of the 2022 film “The Batman.” It's directed by Matt Reeves (who is an executive producer on that show) and stars Robert Pattinson in the title role, with Farrell reprising the famous Batman villain.
“The Penguin” picks up immediately after “Batman” and follows the story of an underappreciated small-time criminal – balding, overweight, clubfooted and limping – Oswald “Oz” Cobb, aka “The Penguin” – as he hatches his sprawling schemes and rises to the top of the criminal underworld.
The Irish star, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the 2022 film “The Banshees of Inisherin,” is no stranger to changing up his look for roles – Farrell Weight gain From the 2015 film “The Lobster” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
But he says he was reluctant to go full method acting for “Penguins.”
“I put on a lot of weight for this show, The North Water, so I'm a lot beefier than I normally am,” Farrell said.
“When I met Matt [Reeves]I'd just finished shooting The North Water and I was desperate to get healthy because I'd put on a lot of weight in a short amount of time and messed myself up like everyone does. That happens sometimes. I met Matt in a hotel in London and he was like, 'This is amazing!'”
Farrell recalled that after the director complimented him on his muscular build, “I said, 'Well, it's tough, but it's really tough!'”
The “Miami Vice” star said that when he pitched the idea, he asked, “What about a really skinny penguin?” [Reeves] I said, 'Oh, I don't think so.'”
“I saw that thanks to the technology and the artists who make these bodysuits, they could make something amazing, so I also didn't have to put in any extra effort and put my health at risk,” the “In Brugge” star explained.
For the role of Oz, Farrell wore a two-piece bodysuit, “and the makeup was in seven or eight pieces,” he explained, “and all I had to do physically was figure out how to walk as Oz.”
He said it takes three hours each day to assemble the entire beautiful piece and 40 minutes to take it down.
“We had to take away his good looks… that doesn't work in Gotham,” Oscar-nominated special effects makeup designer Mike Marino told The Washington Post.
“He's amazing,” he added of Pharrell, “because he let us do it. Not everybody gets to this extent to forgive us for what we did to him.”
While Marino and his team worked on his physical makeover, Pharrell said he passed the time listening to “all kinds of music, all kinds of genres,” citing bands like New Order, Whitesnake and Duran Duran.
“And we chatted and watched interviews. [legendary makeup artist] Dick Smith and John Carpenter.”
Farrell admitted, “I got tired of wearing makeup at the end of the day. I remember at one point during filming I read something about Jim Carrey being furious about 'The Grinch,' so I remember looking up Jim Carrey's 'Grinch' interviews and seeing what he said, because it was kind of starting to bother me.”
“So I remember feeling like I needed a support group, but I knew it was a cottage industry,” Farrell recalled.
But he added: “I love Mike. [Marino]and his team of artists is amazing, and we all became very close… For the first time, I [on set] I left before the whole crew and left after the whole crew. It was a magical time.”
