The decision to use prosthetics to transform Colin Farrell into The Penguin surprised a lot of fans, and when we got our first look at the actor on the set of The Batman, it's fair to say we struggled to recognise him. Fans weren't the only ones fooled, though, as Farrell tells Collider he took a trip to a local Starbucks following the first round of makeup testing and was able to stay incognito.
"The first day we tried the whole thing out, we took it for a drive, a spin metaphorically speaking," he recalls. "We did it in Burbank. It took about six or eight hours. It was a team of ten or fifteen people. And it was really fun. I went into Starbucks and ordered myself a very un-Oswald drink, an oat milk latte with two stevia sweeteners."
"I got a couple of stares but only because it’s such an imposing look," Farrell added. "Mike [Marino] did so much of the work for me on this, so much of the heavy lifting."
The work done to transform Farrell is incredible, and we're not at all surprised he managed to fool the patrons of that Starbucks in Burbank. This role actually looks set to be one the Irish actor is attached to for the next several years as he'll return as the villain in "The Penguin" TV series being developed for HBO Max, and will presumably show up as a fully formed gangster in The Batman 2.
Based on what's been shown of The Penguin in this movie's trailers, we expect him to steal the show.
Check back here on Monday for our review of The Batman (the embargo lifts at 9am PT), and stay tuned for exclusive interviews with producer Dylan Clark and stars Jeffrey Wright and Paul Dano.
The Batman is set to be released in theaters on March 4.