‘The Penguin’s’ Sofia Falcone, Cristin Milioti, Discusses Her Obssession with Catwoman and Her Approach to the Role

If you’re watching HBO’s The Penguin – and almost everyone is – you’ll probably know that aside from Colin Farrell’s brilliant performance as The Penguin, the absolutely best part of the series is Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone.

She is the female lead and also the scene-stealer whenever she appears. Milioti has been praised for her performance as Sofia and is one of the series’ most intriguing characters.

The fans love her dark and twisted take on the character, with Sofia looking like a character that could fit into any A-level mafia show, like The Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire, for example.

In light of that, we aren’t surprised that interest in Milioti’s character is great, and we have found a very interesting interview to report on.

Namely, in a talk with Entertainment Weekly, Cristin Milioti discussed her role in The Penguin, as well as her earlier obsession with Catwoman; we also have some comments by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, who had only words of praise for the actress and her approach.

Whatever you might think of her, Cristin Milioti is actually a big comic book fan. Looking at her acting background, you might think this is not true, but the actress herself said that she had auditioned for several comic book projects before The Penguin, but was rejected:

“I tested for a bunch of different ones. They weren’t interested,” Milioti remarks. “I was never precious about it. I think that’s also what’s maybe such a pleasure about getting older is that I am so glad I didn’t get any of those. I got to do it eventually and in a way that feels right for me. I know that I wasn’t right for those other ones.”

In light of that, she continued to explain that her love for comic books started in 1992 when she saw Michelle Pfeiffer in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns:

“I’m sure that performance is always somewhere [in my head] in the way that all those performances that you watch as a kid, that are so meaningful for you, take up permanent residence. I was 7 when Batman Returns came out and I saw it in theaters. It terrified me, but I also wanted to put it directly into my veins.”

She also revealed that she dressed up as Catwoman for Halloween one year when she was a child, further confirming how obsessed she was with the character:

“I remember the costume came with these little push-on plastic, very flimsy nails. I would wait at the bottom of my driveway every day just rocking [back and forth] being like, ‘Is it today?’ I wore it for Halloween, yes, but then I wore it constantly. I would come home from school and put it on and just freak out.”

And of course, that translated to the role of Sofia Falcone, a role that Milioti is very attached to:

“I have been obsessed with this role since the moment I signed on. hey shared the first four episodes with me before we started filming. (…) For sure when I read that [Episode 4], my heart exploded. (…) You fully get to see her go from who she used to be to a full-blown villain. To get to do all that in one hour, I was beside myself. It’s like a movie. You get to see her in all those different stages of how she’s pushed to madness.”

And if you think this is just Milioti speaking, the same information was confirmed by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, who praised Milioti and her work approach:

She’s so charming, so it makes sense that she gets a lot of romantic-comedy-esque roles or a quirky version of them, but she’s such a tremendous dramatic actress, too. I really think she transformed Sofia in my head. I never pictured anyone when I was writing her, and then once Cristin came in and had her first scenes, I was like, ‘Oh, this is completely correct.’

Sofia starts as a character who is a little bit of a cipher. You don’t understand what happened to her. You don’t understand what her agenda fully is. You just know that she throws Oz off, and there’s power in throwing a guy like Oz off because he’s not easily thrown.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!