Three episodes into the HBO series “The Penguin,” it’s clear that the standout character is Sofia Falcone, played by Cristin Milioti. It’s a major departure from the roles Milioti is most commonly known for, like the charming Tracy from “How I Met Your Mother” or the underdog protagonist from one of the best episodes of “Black Mirror,” and that’s part of the fun. It’s exciting to see the Mother play a creepy, powerful, unblinking mafia killer.
But as much as Sofia might seem like a big change for Milioti, the actor has always wanted to play a Batman villain. At least, she’s wanted to ever since she saw 1995’s “Batman Forever” as a kid and fell in love with the Riddler. “I really loved Jim Carrey’s the Riddler,” Milioti explained on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” When Meyers asked her, “Do you think you were somebody who processed like, ‘Oh, that’s good acting’?” Milioti responded with a emphatic, “Yes.”
It’s some much-needed love she’s giving to “Batman Forever,” a film that’s often disparaged as a clear step down from the preceding Tim Burton “Batman” movies, but which is nevertheless appreciated by a small group of fans for its fun campiness and its killer soundtrack. Although Carrey’s take on the Riddler is very different from Paul Dano’s take on him 27 years later in “The Batman,” it was exactly the sort of performance that movie needed.
Milioti always preferred to play the male Batman villains
“I was just talking about this with our showrunner, Lauren [LeFranc],” Milioti added. “We were talking about how we would watch these movies growing up, and we would always pretend to be the male characters […] I would be in my backyard pretending to be the Riddler or Two-Face or Joker.” With the female “Batman” characters, Milioti struggled to find the appeal as a kid, even when those characters were allowed material outside the damsel-in-distress role. As she told Meyers:
“Even in ‘Batman Forever’ — and obviously she’s one of our greats — but Nicole Kidman is a psychiatrist and she’s in lingerie half the time, just being like ‘Nice nipples, Batman,’ and so I was like, you know, going home and being like, ‘Nice nipples— No.’ Like, ‘I can’t do it […] It doesn’t feel authentic to me.’ But yeah, putting on a green unitard and being like, ‘Blah!’ felt a little better.”
Tragically, Sofia Falcone doesn’t get to ham it up quite as much as the Riddler did in “Batman Forever,” but Milioti still gets to play a fun, unsettling character. Like every good Batman villain, she’s got her own specific brand of twistiness, specializing in intense eye contact and brutal, straightforward efficiency. The fact that she’s genuinely smart and clever makes her dynamic with the titular Penguin (Colin Farrell) even more compelling, as the Penguin’s constantly forced to improvise (and reveal his own intelligence) just to keep her from figuring him out.
The result is a TV show that often feels like an extended “Sopranos” homage, but which consistently sparks to life the moment Milioti’s on screen. (And thankfully, she’s on screen a lot.) Milioti may have never gotten to play the Riddler or Two-Face or Joker, but she’s got herself a role that rivals any of them.
New episodes of “The Penguin” premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.
