SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 1, Episode 4 of “The Penguin,” currently streaming on HBO and streaming on Max.
Cristin Milioti has become very accustomed to the music and dance of superheroes. After launching her career in 2011 with her Tony-nominated role in “As Soon as” and in 2013 as Mom in the final season of “How I Met Your Mom,” the New Jersey native began making the rounds for a handful of roles. accessible to women in comic book versions.
“Oh my God, if there’s someone my age in this… I auditioned for, like, you to name them,” the 39-year-old says, rolling his eyes. “I just couldn’t get in there – not for lack of trying.”
So in 2022, when Milioti was approached about playing unhinged mobster Sofia Falcone in “The Penguin” — starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, the role he originated in Matt Reeves’ 2022 blockbuster “The Batman” — she was understandably wary of further disappointments. . “I was trying to keep my expectations in the basement,” she says Selection. “I’ve dreamed of playing a villain my whole life.”
Milioti not only got the role, but also received some of her best reviews for her fierce performance as Sofia, who was released just days after being released from Arkham Asylum, where she spent 10 years for serial murders that earned her the nickname Executioner . While “The Penguin” largely followed Oz’s attempt to take control of Gotham City’s underworld, Sofia comes to the fore in its fourth episode, titled “Cent’Anni,” which debuted on October 13. , and eventually reveals the true story behind the Executioner’s crimes – and what happened to Sofia in Arkham.
It appears that Sofia’s father, Carmine (Mark Sturdy), is the real Executioner, and one of his victims was Sofia’s mother – a revelation that Sofia receives after being confronted by a hard-nosed reporter with proof that several women who worked at Carmine’s house the only member, 44 Below, was strangled to death. Oz, who was currently working as Sofia’s driver, tells Carmine about Sofia’s meeting with the reporter; when Carmine confronts her about this, she starts asking fallacious questions about how her mother died.
For a penny, Carmine – who has begun to see Sofia as his obvious true heir rather than his ineffectual son, Alberto (Michael Zegen) – activates his daughter. He has the reporter assassinated, collects evidence from corrupt officers of the Gotham Police Department to border Sofia for the Executioner’s murders, and forces the rest of Sofia’s family, except Alberto, to provide false testimony that Sofia is mentally ill and dangerous. . In a single day, Sofia’s chic, privileged life is turned upside down: after becoming a tabloid sensation as a serial killer, she is sent to Arkham, where she is brutalized by both her fellow inmates and the doctors in charge. of your care. regardless of his fixed and panicked protests of his innocence.
Throughout the episode, Milioti meticulously charts not only Sofia’s descent into madness, but how it transforms her from harmless (at least as much as the law boss’s daughter can be) into the homicidal psychopath she was wrongly accused of being. . At the end of the episode, in the present day, Sofia calmly waits for her family to fall asleep in the Carmine mansion, and then channels carbon monoxide throughout the house, gassing them all to death – save her niece and Falcone’s underboss, Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly).
Suffice to say, even with her high-profile work on projects like 2017’s acclaimed “Black Mirror” episode “USS Callister” and 2020’s sci-fi romantic comedy “Palm Springs,” “Cent’Anni” provides Milioti A tour-de-force showcase isn’t like anything she’s ever bought before.
“Selfishly, as an actress, I learned that episode and thought, ‘I can’t imagine I’m going to play all of this,’” she says. “It’s a complete meal and that’s why they don’t show up regularly. I definitely felt an unlimited duty – and the pressure I put on myself – to want to do that justice.”
To fulfill this ambition, she collaborated with movement coach Julia Crockett to discover how Sofia’s years in Arkham affected her physique. “She goes from one horrible place to another horrible place,” says Milioti, referring to Sofia’s return to her home after leaving Arkham. “What does it do to you when you have to be continually on guard and not have a single second of breath?”
She also wanted to see how Sofia’s look transmutes from quiet pre-Arkham luxury to an intentionally extravagant veneer after she’s released. “The women in that family identify themselves only through clothes, hair and makeup,” says Milioti. “If you follow that kind of reading and then put it in Arkham, how does that happen? I really wanted her hair to be wild, but it would be hidden when she was home. I wanted her to continue on this journey where she became more and more wild.”
Although Sofia’s post-Arkham look evokes Talia Shire’s performance as Connie Corleone in “The Godfather,” Milioti says it wasn’t a conscious choice. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, we have a similar hairstyle,’” she says with a laugh. But she and “The Penguin” showrunner Lauren LeFranc talked about Sofia’s similarities to a special character from the movie classic, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino).
“Michael is that golden young man who is healthier (in organized crime) than maybe he thought he was,” she says. “But this is totally different from Sofia. In fact, she was the apple of her father’s eye until she wasn’t, but I think she always realized she was good at it, even when she had doubts about it. And obviously Arkham brought that even more.”
The biggest problem for Milioti, however, was giving himself permission to make the kind of brazen decisions mentioned in the script. Her co-star Deirdre O’Connell, who plays Oz’s mother, introduced Milioti to the practice of watching other performances not for inspiration but “for courage” — like Gena Rowlands in the 1980 crime thriller “Gloria,” in which she plays the role of a gangster. ex-girlfriend running away with a younger boy.
“I had never seen this performance,” says Milioti. “That’s not Sofia, but just watching someone swing for the fences, just going for it, (helped me) just say, ‘OK, see what you can do.’”
Milioti also credits Helen Shaver, who directed Episode 4, for fostering an unusually collaborative atmosphere on set among the background actors playing the other Arkham inmates. “She sat down with all of us and said, ‘I would like everyone here to give you a character. When Sofia passes by, I wish to see a person. I would like us all to make this world collectively,’” Milioti says with a shudder. “I’m getting goose bumps with anticipation about this. When I’m walking down these cafeteria halls, I meet completely different and terrifying people.”
That kind of immersion made the moment when Sofia finally violently attacks and kills another inmate, Magpie (Marié Botha), that bit more vivid and visceral. “They are all shouting and banging on tables,” says Milioti. “It really seemed like a joke. Everyone was together, so it would allow you to travel to bigger and bigger places with him.”
Milioti, however, is reluctant to delve into details about his acting process, such as the story of the scars that permeate Sofia’s body. “I had my own ideas about what they all were,” is what she will reveal. “All of this makes me seem like — I mean, I’m saying this, but it’s an eye roll,” she says with a good-natured shrug. “I don’t like examining how actors solve problems. I identical to being in factor magic. But I’m probably being overly liked – which is a very acting thing to do.”
In fact, Milioti isn’t complaining. Removed from it. “I definitely feel spoiled,” she says of playing Sofia. “I felt like I was in my backyard, a kid again.” She smiles radiantly. “Of course, there is darkness, but I had a great time.”