Current:Home > InvestColin Farrell's 'Penguin' makeup fooled his co-stars: 'You would never know' -Momentum Wealth Path
Colin Farrell's 'Penguin' makeup fooled his co-stars: 'You would never know'
View
Date:2025-04-14 02:16:31
Colin Farrell’s title character in the new gangster drama “The Penguin” is a Batman villain come to life in dangerous fashion, heavy-set, scarred and unforgettable. So much that you forget that the handsome Irish actor is under there somewhere.
Farrell is acting his fine feathered posterior off, obviously, but a major part of what redefines "The Penguin" (streaming now on Max) is the work of prosthetic makeup designer Mike Marino, which completely turns Farrell into ambitious mobster Oz Cobb. It’s so effective that it fooled co-stars like Cristin Milioti, who filmed with him for eight months. “I saw (Farrell) one time out of makeup. I would hear that voice and it was like someone had Freaky Friday'd. It was so strange,” she says. “You would never, ever know up close that there was makeup. It's incredible.”
Adds Farrell: “To move your face and see this face responding to your movements and it not look like you in any way, shape or form was a very powerful thing.”
Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
Marino, 47, has a pair of Oscar nominations: for "Coming 2 America," where he worked with Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, and for director Matt Reeves' “The Batman," in which he first turned Farrell into the Penguin and also Barry Keoghan into a disfigured Joker. The makeup artist's varied resume over three decades also includes the new dark comedy “A Different Man” (in select theaters now, nationwide Oct. 4), “Black Swan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” The Weeknd music videos and Heidi Klum’s Halloween costumes.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
“It's been a constant creative life,” says the New York native, who started his three-decade career on “Saturday Night Live” when he was 19. “I’m grateful to still be able to do this and create characters."
Gangsters and birds influenced Colin Farrell's look in 'The Penguin'
The main thing Marino kept in mind in designing the Penguin was “no matter how human he may appear and how charming and charismatic, he is a Batman villain. Someone who is operating in a very dangerous underworld and it is ruthless,” he says. And Oz’s personality is reflected in his face: “There's one side that really is fairly natural and the other side is completely violent. His teeth are broken (and) flesh maybe hung off of his face at one point, stitched back together,” adds Marino. (The bad leg and foot that give Oz his limp are also on his scarred right side.)
Reeves had the idea that psychologically Oz was akin to John Cazale’s Fredo in “The Godfather” movies (“He was left behind and he wanted more,” Marino says), so this Penguin has a receding hairline in addition to a facade inspired by birds (but not past Penguins). Marino saw that penguins from the front have a V-shape to their face, which influenced Oz’s nose and angled, “animal-like” eyebrows.
When Farrell saw his Penguin look for the first time, “it just spoke volumes to me about him as a man, about his toughness but also a certain vulnerability, what it would be like to carry yourself through the world looking like that all pockmarked and scarred up,” the actor says. “The Penguin” series is “a descent into his madness and into his ultimate psychopathy,” and transformed by Marino’s prosthetics, “I felt like I was free to throw paint at the wall as aggressively as I could. And some of that was the liberation that was afforded me by not seeing myself.”
Makeup artist Mike Marino makes Sebastian Stan 'A Different Man'
Marino’s work is also essential to “A Different Man,” which stars Stan as a lonely New Yorker named Edward who has facial tumors caused by the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis. He undergoes an experimental treatment that fixes him superficially but not emotionally. Edward learns a play is being made of his life, desperately wants to star in it, and becomes jealous of the gregarious man who’s ultimately cast in the role – played by Adam Pearson, a British actor who lives with the condition.
Stan’s prosthetics are a “little variation” of Pearson’s actual face because the two characters had to play against each other in “this very layered psychological view of the inner self,” Marino says. “Adam Pearson's personality in the film is so charismatic and positive. He's embracing who he is and everyone loves him. And Sebastian's character is so shy and ashamed and he wants to get rid of the way he looks and to become fairly normal in a sense. And once he does, he doesn't know who he is anymore.”
Marino's work informed Stan "physically and internally," he says. "Being able to walk down the street in New York and not have anyone doubt that's how I looked, it changed everything.
“There are people who think when they see Edward in the movie, it's Adam and not me. It was transformative. It was immersive. It was all of it."
veryGood! (47593)
Related
- Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
- Christina Hall and Josh Hall Do Not Agree on Date of Separation in Their Divorce
- College pals, national champs, now MLB All-Stars: Adley Rutschman and Steven Kwan reunite
- Nearly 7,000 pounds of hot dogs shipped to restaurants, hotels in 2 states recalled
- Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
- Unveiling the Builders Legacy Advance Investment Education Foundation: Empowering Investors for Financial Mastery
- Residents evacuated in Nashville, Illinois after dam overtops and floods amid heavy rainfall
- Cody Johnson sings anthem smoothly at All-Star Game a night after Ingris Andress’ panned rendition
- Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
- Webcam monitors hundreds of rattlesnakes at a Colorado ‘mega den’ for citizen science
Ranking
- Gen. Mark Milley's security detail and security clearance revoked, Pentagon says
- Understanding Options Trading with Bertram Charlton: Premiums, Put and Call Options, and Strategic Insights
- Stock market today: Asian stocks slip, while Australian index tracks Wall St rally to hit record
- Secure Your Future: Why Invest in an IRA with Quantum Prosperity Consortium Investment Education Foundation
- Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
- California gender-identity law elicits praise from LGBTQ+ advocates, backlash from parent groups
- Johnny Depp Is Dating Model Yulia Vlasova
- Christina Hall and Josh Hall Do Not Agree on Date of Separation in Their Divorce
Recommendation
Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
See Alix Earle's Sister Ashtin Earle Keep the Party Going With John Summit in Las Vegas
Colombia soccer president facing charges after Copa America arrest in Miami
Mastering Investment: Bertram Charlton's Journey and Legacy
Woman dies after Singapore family of 3 gets into accident in Taiwan
Plain old bad luck? New Jersey sports betting revenue fell 24% in June from a year ago
Wildfire in Hawaii that threatened 200 homes, prompted evacuations, contained
This Amika Hair Mask is So Good My Brother Steals It from Me, & It's on Sale for 34% Off on Amazon