'The Penguin' Episode 6 Features One of Cristin Milioti's Favorite Scenes

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The Penguin

[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Penguin, Episode 6]

The Big Picture

Collider's Perri Nemiroff sits down with The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc, stars Cristin Milioti and Rhenzy Feliz, and Oscar-nominated makeup artist Mike Marino at New York Comic Con 2024.
Episode 6, "Gold Summit," marks a turning point for Victor and Sofia as tensions and stakes rise after two very crucial confrontations.
During this interview, LeFranc explains the importance of the time jump between Episodes 5 and 6, Milioti and Feliz share insights on their characters in Episode 6, and Marino reveals what it takes to transform Colin Farrell.

At their New York Comic Con panel, the cast and crew of Max's The Penguin celebrated their acclaimed series with a mid-season trailer drop and teases about what fans could expect from the coming episodes. While at the con, Collider's Perri Nemiroff also had the opportunity to sit down with the creatives, including showrunner and executive producer Lauren LeFranc, to talk spoilers about the tense confrontations in Episode 6, "Gold Summit," that pushed Cristin Milioti's Sofia Gigante and Rhenzy Feliz's Victor Aguilar into all-new territories.

The spin-off of Matt Reeves' turn on the DC comics follows the events after the 2022 film from the perspective of Oz Cobb, played by Academy Award-nominee Colin Farrell, more notoriously known as The Penguin, a criminal with endless schemes to seize power over Gotham City's underworld. As we near the Season 1 finale, Episode 6, "Gold Summit," marks a turning point for Victor, who has his final confrontation with Squid (Jared Abrahamson), as well as Sofia, who winds up in a high-pressure situation with Carmen Ejogo's Eve while trying to glean information out of Oz's trusted confidante.

In addition to LeFranc, Milioti, and Feliz, Oscar-nominated makeup artist Mike Marino joins the conversation. Marino is the man behind the astonishing makeup that completely transforms Farrell into the Gotham gangster. He discusses the attention to detail work like that requires, as well as which movie was the most challenging, second only to The Penguin, throughout his entire career. You can watch the full conversation in the video above or in the transcript below.

'The Penguin' Showrunner Lauren LeFranc Explains the Time Jump

PERRI NEMIROFF: Lauren, what was it like making the decision that you needed a time jump going from Episode 5 to 6? Why did it suit the story best to have Oz's operation semi-up and running then?

LAUREN LEFRANC: The way we ended [Episode] 5, where Oz and Victor go down and Oz tells Victor about the tunnels, and we see this meaningful, potential underground lair for him, it felt right to then jump ahead and see it in action. Then, also, it just gives, story-wise, all of our characters some breathing room.

Squid's Death Isn't So "Black and White"

"He feels like he has to do this thing."

Rhenzy Feliz as Victor in the driver's seat looking over at someone with a surprised expression in The Penguin

Rhenzy, I'll jump to you now for a standout scene of the episode, the Squid kill. When do you think he realizes that he is willing to kill Squid? Is that something he's reckoned with before, or is it in the heat of the moment?

RHENZY FELIZ: That was something that I thought about a bit. I think he goes into it totally thinking that the money play is gonna work, and then I think it's a heat-of-the-moment thing where there's not much time to make a decision, but you know what the consequences could be if you let him come back, so without really having much time to think, you gotta make a decision. I think before he knows what he's doing, he's doing it, which I thought was really exciting. When I read it, I thought it was really cool because you kind of get to do it all on camera. That was always fun, that idea.

Paul Dano as a masked version of the Riddler

After he shoots Squid, there's a multitude of different reactions he could have had, and I think you capture quite a few in your reaction shot. What was it like figuring out the right way for him to respond after realizing what he had just done?

FELIZ: That was something Lauren and I talked about from the very first time that we'd even met in Los Angeles before we went and shot the show, knowing that huge moment was going to happen for Victor and what that was going to feel like and be. It's one of those things that you're thinking about the entire shoot because it's a big moment. You are thinking about it a lot. One of the things that I found, and maybe it isn't good for my psyche in general, but I started looking up some videos of horrific things that happened to human beings — I shouldn't have said all that out loud.

LEFRANC: Oh, Rhenzy ...

FELIZ: I know, but what I found was that it was, although awful to look at, it was hard to look away from, also, so I always thought about playing with that. There's obviously this remorse thing going on. He doesn't want to have to do this thing; he feels like he has to do this thing. He almost feels like he was forced to do this thing. Then it turns into this, “mad at you for making me do this.” It wasn't so black and white. I think that was something that we wanted to capture, how complex that kind of moment could be for Victor.

Cristin Milioti on That Exchange Between Sofia and Eve

Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone in a white dress-suit, holding up a martini glass in The Penguin.

Cristin, you get a great one-on-one scene with Carmen [Ejogo] in this particular episode. I feel like most of the show, we've seen Sofia go toe-to-toe with men in this world. This is one of the first times she has a meaty scene with another woman. How does her demeanor and her approach to parsing out a situation like that change when it is another woman?

CRISTIN MILIOTI: Obviously, she's caught off guard, as well. She goes in thinking she has all the power. There's so much that she realizes in that scene about herself and the ways in which they've both been used and overlooked and underestimated and had things put on them. It’s one of my favorite scenes. Also, the way that Sofia comes in with her own predetermined opinions of who this person would be that are from her own upbringing. I just think that the scene is so wonderfully complex and takes a lot of twists and turns.

To highlight Carmen, can you tell me something about her as a scene partner that you appreciated, maybe even something she did that helped you tap into something in Sofia in that moment?

MILIOTI: That day was -- I was about to say a "brutally scheduled day," and then I was like, "Like, all of the days ..." [Laughs] You have so much to endlessly mine in that scene, and you have, like, half a day to shoot it, which you think is a long time, but it's not. She dove in from the minute the rehearsals began. We'd only really had one interaction. We'd interacted in the hair and makeup trailer, but really just the one [scene] at the club. She, even in rehearsals, was just raw and present and there and went for it. She's an, I don't want to use the word “adversary,” but in a way, they are. There's a lot of power struggle there, and vulnerability too. She just brought it. She was just a joy to act with.

Colin Farrell's Penguin Makeup Is a "Battleground"

Academy Award-nominated makeup artist Mike Marino reveals what it takes to completely disguise an A-list actor.

Colin Farrell as The Penguin in key art for the series

Mike, I want to go a little broader with you because I was looking at another interview you did, and you mention, " The Penguin is probably the most challenging thing I've done yet in my career." That made me wonder, if this was the most challenging, what is #2 on that list?

MIKE MARINO: Oh boy, I think number two might be Eddie Murphy, and what we did for Coming 2 America, as far as job-wise. But I think this, in particular, is the hardest because it's Colin Farrell, and everyone knows what Colin Farrell looks like. To go completely unrecognizable and to have him fully embrace this character without having to be himself is the biggest challenge because everyone is scrutinizing, “Where is Colin? Can I see him?” He's gone. It's the hardest thing ever.

Given the fact that everyone is scrutinizing, are there any tiny elements of that design that you were most concerned about, whether it was because of how it wore over the course of the day, his expressions, or just something that ran the risk of falling apart?

MARINO: All the materials are sensitive, so everything affects it. A stiff collar might rub the beard color off, or if he's doing a certain expression, it might wrinkle in a strange way. If it's hot and he's sweating, there are bubbles that come up. It's a battleground. You're trying to deal with it and adapt each day of filming. But he's great in it. When I design each makeup, and in particular this, I look at the actor's face, and I see what's the most expressive part of that person. Do I wanna cover that up, or do I wanna leave that there? Because it's not like you're covering the whole face with a mask. You're leaving pieces of expressive features that you want to blend in with each other. So, Colin’s forehead is his own. He's got a very expressive forehead, but his brows are different. I wanted to change that shape. His eyes, around [them], are his own. These are things I wanted to keep. I didn't want to cover those up. So, the mobility is a factor going in, saying, “What do I wanna leave? How can I hide and disguise this person within and not have any of the tricks revealed?"

The Penguin is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

It follows the transformation of Oswald Cobblepot from a disfigured nobody to a noted Gotham gangster.

Cast Colin Farrell , Cristin Milioti , Rhenzy Feliz , Michael Kelly , Shohreh Aghdashloo , Deirdre O'Connell , Clancy Brown , James Madio , Scott Cohen , Michael Zegen , Carmen Ejogo , Theo Rossi

Writers Lauren LeFranc

Showrunner Lauren LeFranc

Stream on Max

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