DC fans have been blown away by Colin Farrell’s performance as Oswald Cobb in The Batman and its spinoff series The Penguin – and with good reason. Farrell was appeal to disappear so completely into the character of Oz (and all the makeup to create him) that even his co-stars (like Sofia Falcone actress Cristin Milioti) didn’t get to see the “real Colin” until filming was over.
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Now, the mind-blowing change between “Colin Farrell” and “Oz Cobb” has been captured in a video that has immediately gone viral. As you can see for yourself below, hearing Colin Farrell’s Irish brogue coming out of Oz Cobb’s face is so uncanny that it’s almost unnerving:
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“Yeah he created a real person… I spent a year with “Oz”; I wouldn’t really see Colin [Farrell] out of makeup. I think I’ve seen Colin out of makeup three times,” Cristin Milioti previously told CinemaBlend. “It was so incredible to get to know this—It’s very strange when I hear his voice, it really flips me out. And certainly when I see him in his real form, because I associate those eyes and that voice with someone who I spent a year with. We would stare at each other for a year. So I feel like I know that person.”
Farrell’s performance in The Penguin has already catapulted him to the top of the (current) list for the 2025 Emmy Awards category of “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series”. The 2024 Emmy in that category was won by actor Hiroyuki Sanada, for his peformance in Disney-FX’s Shogun – a show that is probably The Penguin’s biggest rival for the crown of “Best TV Show of 2024.” The fact that the conversation is about a culturally-rich series based on an acclaimed novel, and another that’s based on a lower-tier comic book character, only proves that quality, prestige-level television can come in a wide variety of forms.
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The Penguin stars Colin Farrell (Oz Cobb), Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo), and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush). The series is now streaming on Max.