Colin Farrell Was ‘Grumpy’ by the End of ‘The Penguin’ Production: I ‘Wanted It to Be Finished’

Colin Farrell wants to take a breather — literally. It can’t possibly be easy to inhale and exhale when buried under prosthetics for an entire season of TV.

The star of HBO’s upcoming “The Batman” spinoff show “The Penguin” told Total Film that his only hesitation to a possible Season 2 would be what happens in the makeup chair. Farrell reprised his “The Batman” character of Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot for the “Scarface”-esque villain’s origin story, and is unrecognizable in the role.

More from IndieWire

“I don’t know, man. Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit,” Farrell said when asked about returning to “The Penguin” for a possible second installment. “By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I fucking wanted it to be finished.”

The “Banshees of Inisherin” Oscar nominee continued, “I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’ I was still grateful, and still honored – I grew up watching Burgess Meredith [who played the role in the ’60s TV series], and then Danny DeVito [in Tim Burton’s 1992 film ‘Batman Returns’] was my Penguin – so being a part of the lineage of that storytelling, I really did feel privileged. But by the end of it…”

Farrell explained that any more “The Penguin” would be in part up to showrunner Lauren LeFranc. And even then, Farrell would require some time outside of his Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot costume to regroup.

“Lauren said, ‘Look, if I could find a way that makes sense, would you talk about it?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And maybe in a year I would,” Farrell said. “But when I finished I was like, ‘I never want to put that fucking suit and that fucking head on again.'”

The actor added, “It’s not like I didn’t know who I was and I was going out and burning cars and shit, but…if you take what [‘The Batman’ writer/director] Matt Reeves created and then what Lauren [LeFranc, showrunner] did and what Mike [Marino, prosthetics and make-up designer] did and put them all together, it was a really powerful experience.”

Farrell previously told MovieZine that the series is “really dark” and was a “heavy” experience as an actor.

“Which is not to say I didn’t have fun, I had an amazing time doing it,” he said. “It’s incredibly violent. It’s one man’s rise to what he’s always dreamed of inhabiting, which is a certain power or social status.”

Farrell will definitely be back as The Penguin for “The Batman 2,” regardless of what HBO decides for the series.

“The Batman” writer/director Reeves confirmed to SFX magazine that Farrell’s character will be part of the movie, with Robert Pattinson back as the titular superhero. Reeves added that “The Penguin” series serves as the “entry point” for “The Batman 2.”

“There are details that actually connect right into the way the next movie begins, and the way that Oz enters that world as we hand the baton back to Batman, and Batman is on another case,” Reeves said. “[‘The Batman 2’] is going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places that he couldn’t anticipate in the first one. The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie. It expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see.”

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.