Colin Farrell has a very distinctive face, so it was kind of crazy to think that they would be burying him under a lot of make-up for The Penguin. Either way, he pulls off a fantastic performance, and a new featurette for the series talks about how the Penguin’s look informs his character in this continuity.
Check this out:
It takes about three hours of work to make transform Farrell into Oz Cobb. Besides the heavy facial scarring—especially the nasty gash that Oz has near his mouth—the shape of the nose was actually meant to resemble a beak. What’s also cool is that the eyebrows were also changes to resemble that of an actual bird—and also make Oz look angrier even when he’s neutral.
A huge difference in the make-up was that Farrell actually shaved his head bald for The Batman, saving the make-up artists a lot of time with the wig. For the series though, Farrell needed to keep his hair long for projects, so the team had to hid his hair under a bald cap—which still looks fine when you see the final product.
Farrell absolutely disappears with the full look, and everyone is still pretty amazed that it’s actually him playing the part of Oz. The Penguin may only run for one season, but so far, everyone is loving this ride.
It should be some consolation for the fans who didn’t like Joker: Folie a Deux too much.
Catch new episodes of The Penguin every Sunday night on Max.
