‘The Penguin’ Actress Cristin Milioti Enjoyed Her Time in Arkham Asylum: ‘I Want Some Blood’
Warning! This article reveals key plot details and the conclusion of Sunday’s latest episode of “The Penguin,” so proceed with caution if you haven’t seen it.
On a particularly dangerous night, Cristin Milioti transformed into the fiercest villain in Gotham City.
Watch out, Riddler. Take that, Joker.
In the fourth episode of HBO’s crime drama “The Penguin,” which is based on Batman (streaming now on Max), Milioti’s character, the gangster queen Sofia Falcone, faced intense physical and emotional challenges in Arkham Asylum. This was a “pinch-me” experience for Milioti, a devoted Bat-fan. By the conclusion of the episode, Sofia emerges victorious in a striking yellow gown, gas mask, and gun after eliminating much of the crime family that sought her downfall.
“I’ve been waiting my whole freakin’ life” for moments like this, Milioti, 39, shares. “I’ve wanted to be part of this universe since childhood.” Her co-star Deirdre O’Connell, who portrays the Penguin’s mother, noted that Milioti radiated joy while dressed as a villain: “She even told me, ‘You looked like you were at an amusement park.’ That’s how I felt. I was over the moon. Too excited.”
However, watching her own performance is “a complete and utter nightmare,” Milioti confessed. “I tense up, shake my hands, and watch through my fingers. But I did have moments where I thought, ‘Wow. That’s one intense villain. Cool!’ ”
A spinoff from “The Batman” movie, “Penguin” follows Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) as he attempts to dominate the Gotham underworld and drug trade. The show’s premiere featured Sofia, known as “The Hangman,” being released from Arkham after ten years, and meeting Oz, her old driver with a complex past. Following her father Carmine’s death (as depicted in “The Batman”) and after Oz bumps off Sofia’s brother, Oz seeks to provoke a gang war between the Falcones and rival Maronis, leading to a strained alliance with Sofia that ultimately falls apart.
The latest episode delves into Sofia’s history through flashbacks: it reveals that she was wrongly accused of seven murders by her unscrupulous father (Mark Strong). Instead of taking control of the family business as he promised, she ends up arrested and sent to Arkham.
Within the prison hospital walls, Sofia endures shock treatments and mistreatment from other inmates until she fights back, signaling a major shift in her character. In the present, during a family gathering, she fatally poisons her relatives with gas, sparing only her young cousin and Falcone underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly), whom she allows to stay around for her own purposes.
The benefit of being in a limited series is that it allows “more time to explore how someone becomes a villain,” Milioti explained. “When I read that episode, I was ecstatic. I couldn’t believe not only that you could witness her journey over these ten years, but also that you could explore her complete origin story.
“You really get a sense of her descent into madness and why it happened.”
Milioti took great pleasure in filming her scenes at Arkham, the infamous jail featured in various movies and comic books where Batman imprisons his most notorious foes. The actress craved the complete Arkham experience.
“I want to get my hands dirty. I want some blood,” she exclaimed. “When they fastened that neck piece to me, chaining me to my waist while I wore those orange stripes with the ‘Arkham Asylum’ stamp, I was ecstatic.”
Milioti shared that her time filming at Arkham was intense, and she was “thrown around a lot” during the fight scenes shot in the prison.
But she insists it was all worth it. “I really took quite a beating and then fought back. But that’s exactly what you wish for as an actor.
“You leave at the end of the day feeling completely exhausted but accomplished, thinking, ‘Yes, I’m part of Batman.’ It’s a thrilling feeling, even if you do come away with a few bruises.”
