Cristin Milioti on her no-BS ‘Penguin’ villainStephanie Diani
Spoilers below.
The final scene between The penguinWarring mafia bosses Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) and Sofia Gigante (formerly Falcone, played by Cristin Milioti) end up with flashing police lights instead of a smoking gun. Sofia, kidnapped by Oz and lured to a secluded spot by the river, turns and accepts her fate. She had been fighting all season: for the legacy of her late mother and brother, the only real family she felt she had; because of her reputation, which her father marred by sending her to Arkham Asylum for the Hangman murders he committed; and for respect from an extended family who believed her false belief. She feels the end and finally lets go.
But Oz has other plans. A close-up of Sofia waiting for the bullet in her back is suddenly illuminated by a spotlight. The score drops and the police sirens go off, and before she even realizes what’s going on, Sofia is handcuffed. She goes back to Arkham. “It’s a fate worse than death,” Milioti tells ELLE.com in a phone interview, referring to the decade her character spent in the Gotham City mental institution depicted in the excellent fourth episode “Cent’anni. ” “As someone who is obsessed with Sofia, it is a horrifying twist that this is happening to her.”
The self-described “huge Batman fan” – Milioti has been Catwoman for Halloween in recent years – was waiting for a role like this. “It was such a wonderful onion to peel off,” she recalls of her first reaction to the pilot script, the only one she received when she first auditioned. “There were a lot of unanswered questions about who Sofia is, but I was already hooked.” After a Zoom interview with showrunner Lauren LeFranc and executive producers Matt Reeves and Craig Zobel, Milioti heard nothing for weeks. They then flew her to a screening test with Farrell, after which she officially got the part.
Her subsequent performance is the undeniable highlight of HBO’s latest limited series, even as she shares the screen with a dynamic Farrell, clad in an array of prosthetics. As an artist known for vibrant roles in shows like How I met your mother And Made for love and movies like Palm SpringsMilioti’s turn as livewire scene stealer and unpredictable antihero is surprising, but it’s part of what made the role so appealing to her. “I really try to choose as many different types of roles and genres as I can control,” she says. “This was definitely very different, and I was very aware and excited about that.”
Sofia’s arc, from wounded and obedient heiress to devious and vengeful mafia boss, is kicked off by the death of her brother Alberto. His death (at Oz’s hands, she finds out halfway through the season) awakens a dormant sense of sadism within her as she seeks revenge on both Oz and her remaining surviving family who stood by her side as life as she knew it was torn away from her. . “What I really like about Batman, and especially the villains, is that it really explores what happens to people’s pain when it’s not handled with care. Sofia becomes who she becomes because she is completely fueled by sadness, anger and loneliness,” Milioti explains. ‘I think that’s such an interesting allegory for our world too. That’s what drives people to do terrible things.”
Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone.HBO
In addition to sadness, Sofia is also fueled by justice and a need for the truth: an understandable reaction to her plight. “It’s one of my favorite parts of her,” Milioti reveals. ‘She doesn’t tolerate nonsense. She just wants the truth because she has been under fire for so long.” The irony is that she condemns her niece Gia to the same fate by orphaning her, perpetuating the cycle that damned Sofia herself. “She has a code of ethics for villains: I will not kill a child. I will spare a child even if I condemn this child to a life that, one might say, is even worse,” Milioti explains. “Until that final moment (with Gia at the orphanage in the seventh episode “Top Hat”), she doesn’t see that she is repeating her father’s actions, and that she has become the person she hates most. in this world.” When I ask if she thinks her father would be proud of the person Sofia has become, Milioti laughs and says, “Probably. They are so connected and she is completely furious.”
The “A Great or Little Thing” finale, which aired Sunday, gives Sofia a long-awaited moment of catharsis involving her family. She sets Falcone’s house on fire, burning everything it stood for. “There’s nihilism there, like why would she want to live there? Her life was destroyed in that house, her mother was murdered in that house. It is like a cleansing,” Milioti reasons. “She is like a phoenix rising from the ashes.”
Throughout the season, Sofia’s origins are noticeably marked by her styling: her hair becomes rougher and more mulleted, her eyeliner becomes thicker and sharper, and her costumes feature bold pops of color that reflect her volatility. Milioti’s two favorite outfits are the yellow dress paired with the gas mask that concludes ‘Cent’Anni’ and the red number that she wears from head to toe in the final confrontation with Oz that sends her back to Arkham. “I feel like she’s grown into a dark flower,” she says of those outfits.
But the way Milioti behaves also plays a role in telling that story. When she first appears as Sofia Gigante in “Homecoming,” she is wrapped in a thick fur coat that falls just off her shoulders to ensure her scars are visible. “That was something we discussed: What are the ways she will now wear these scars to remind everyone of where she came from?” says Milioti, though she is reluctant to share her process for further monitoring Sofia’s changes, hoping the work will stand alone.
Milioti as Sofia and Colin Farrell as Oz The penguin final.HBO
The penguin is titled in reference to Oz, but it’s actually about the relationship between Oz and Sofia. The changing power dynamics between them: Oz was Sofia’s driver when he worked for her father; he also talked about her encounter with a journalist, which led to her father accusing her of the Hangman murders – which came to a head in the series. What’s clear is that the duo, now engaged in a cat-and-mouse game to seize power and control of Gotham, are more alike than they are different.
In the flashback that begins the seventh episode “Top Hat,” we learn that Oz is responsible for the disappearance and death of his brothers after they teased him. It is no different than Sofia turning her parental home into a gas chamber and locking her entire family in it. “They are kindred spirits. They are so smart and so rejected and overlooked, and they are both looking for power,” Milioti says of their parallel journeys. “I think that’s what makes them such brilliant opponents.” With so much history, they know how to hit each other where it hurts most: before Oz orchestrates Sofia’s arrest, she twists the knife by telling Oz’s mother the truth about her two other dead sons.
Milioti isn’t focused on the buzz about awards — she says she stays off the internet and doesn’t read reviews, though friends and family keep her informed — but her turn in the eight-episode limited series is undoubtedly worth an award. She plans to return to Black mirror in a follow-up episode to ‘USS Callister’, but otherwise she is picky about her roles and wants to try a genre she has never done before, such as a western or period piece. The penguin has also not been officially renewed for another season, even though the finale makes two ties to the larger Batman franchise: the Bat-Signal and a letter to Sofia from Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, who claims to be her half-sister (Milioti calls the letter a “pinprick of hope” for Sofia).
Until then, Milioti is happy to sit with the success and love for Sofia Falcone Gigante. “It’s so rare that you make something you love and people love it,” she says. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams. (Sofia) is my absolute favorite.”
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