The Penguin star Cristin Milioti is the latest actress to suit up in a DC Comics adaptation — and she wants to hear from others in similar positions.
“I didn’t [speak with Zoë Kravitz or Crystal Reed], but I would love to chat with them,” Milioti, 39, told Us Weekly and other reporters at the Tuesday, September 17, premiere of The Penguin in New York City. “I think they’re fabulous.”
Milioti portrays Sofia Falcone on the HBO series, which serves as the origin story of the notorious Gotham villain Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell). Reed, 39, was the first actress to play Sofia Falcone in Fox’s Gotham series.
Kravitz, for her part, took on the role of Catwoman in 2022’s The Batman. Kravitz, 35, is not the only star to bring the feline character to life on the big screen as Halle Berry, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eartha Kitt and more actresses have previously played Catwoman.
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The Penguin continues where The Batman left off, this time focusing on Penguin’s rise to power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld. According to Milioti, season 1 is “unpredictable, twisted and weird.”
“Or, like, weirder than you might expect,” Milioti told Us and other reporters on Tuesday, noting her “jaw hit the floor” when she first saw Farrell, 48, in costume. “It was incredible. It was incredible up close. His moves, it’s so real. [The makeup designer] Mike Marino is a genius.”
Milioti previously revealed that her casting on the limited series was a dream-come-true.
“It was outrageous. It was like getting hit by a Mack truck in the best way,” the How I Met Your Mother alum quipped during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this month. “I’m such a huge Batman fan and I’ve been wanting to play a Batman villain my entire life. I grew up on these movies and it’s, like, wildly profound and moving to me.”
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As soon as Milioti suited up in her Arkham Asylum uniform for the first time, she freaked out.
“I was like, ‘Oh my, God, it’s canon,’” she quipped during the September 13 broadcast. “[I was] so excited. It was, like, the most fabulous adrenaline rush.”
While Milioti grew up watching different Batman films, it’s hard for her to pick a favorite.
“That’s tough because Michael Keaton is very, like, in my DNA, that was early. Also, Batman Forever is the one I saw in theaters the most because I was like 10 when that hit,” she told reporters on the Tuesday red carpet. “But then also, I did really love what Robert Patterson did and then obviously, Christian Bale. It’s very hard to choose. But Michael Keaton is like OG, I think that hits nostalgia.”
The Penguin premieres on HBO Thursday, September 19, airing weekly episodes on HBO and Max.
With reporting by Lexi Carson