Cristin Milioti Thought She’d Be Fired from ‘The Penguin’

There were days on the set of “The Penguin” when Cristin Milioti would have to eat alone.

The actor who plays Sofia Falcone in the HBO series never went method (unlike some Batman villains), but the part required tapping into a character who has been gaslit, manipulated, and isolated from society in every way. It also required taking care of her body for the more physical scenes.

“I had to lay down and stretch a lot, because I was in those chains where you can’t move, and when you’re getting dragged your muscles are doing weird things,” Milioti told IndieWire. “I would spend my lunch stretching my back out and stuff like that.”

Milioti always dreamed of being a Batman villain, a dream that seemed far out of sight even as superhero stories ballooned into the content machine they are now. She was shocked in the best way to tackle Sofia, that too with female showrunner Lauren LeFranc and collaboration with every department. The result — the “moving and exciting and exhilarating” response to the show — speaks for itself.

“It’s just been wild,” Milioti said. “It’s not often that you work on something that you really believe in and love, and then it’s also received with love. It’s just been such a joy.”

And as morally gray as Sofia can be — or sometimes outright wrong — Milioti found as much release in playing the character as viewers did in watching her.

“There’s so many things that Sofia does in the show where, of course they are morally reprehensible, but I’ve been stopped by a lot of women being like ‘This part was so cool,’ or cathartic to see her go through this, and I felt that way as well. It’s incredible.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

IndieWire: I read that you only had the pilot script when you auditioned. When and how did Lauren and the EPs tell you about the greater arc and backstory for Sofia?

Cristin Milioti: It’s all a little bit of a blur now, but pretty much as soon as I signed on. I had an hours-long phone call with Lauren where she walked me through everything, and then I got the first four scripts in. I think I signed on in October, I got the first four scripts in November, and we started prep in February. So I had some time, and I had time to call her and talk to her and really sit with them and study them, and she sort of walked me through the last four in terms of what happens, the big events there, but so I got them pretty soon after I signed on.

What did that prep look like on your end? It’s very dense character work.

Yeah, I mean, I still don’t know. It’s different with every job and every collaborator, but I just dove in, and I just studied the scripts endlessly and worked on them and thought about things and watched a bunch of documentaries, and read a bunch of material about government run mental institutions and the trauma from long term incarceration. You just kind of dive in. I was very grateful that I got two months with it.

What’s a previous piece of training that you felt like really prepped you for this role?

I can’t point to one, but I think having started in theater, I’m used to — even though it’s been a second since I’ve done a play — you sort of just have to do it. Yes, you get rehearsal, but it’s so strange. The difference is — it’s incredible that you get a rehearsal period with theater, which you don’t ever with film and TV, or, like, maybe, Mike Lee, end of list — but I think once you’re up on your feet after rehearsal, you just have to do it. You have to dive in. There’s no second guessing yourself. It’s just you against the music, pretty much, if I’m using that phrase correctly. That does help for when you’re shooting things so quickly, things that require intense emotional states or physical states: you just dive in. All those years doing theater have really helped me with that.

Was there a temptation to go method?

No… I’m still not entirely clear on, like, what method is. There are certainly days on set and when I have to maybe be a little quieter just to retain focus. To each their own, but I also really like the experience of making things with people and collaborating all day long. so I would feel weird.

Can you think of any specific days or scenes for which you had to do that?

In terms of just like, eating lunch alone? [laughs] Certainly a lot of the Arkham stuff, also because we shot that so quickly, and I was really aware of, because those things were so physical, I had to sort of keep myself — it was almost like stamina… that episode certainly there was sitting there with a heating pack or an ice pack or something.

That episode was directed by Helen Shaver. I know she directed a few of them, what was it like working with her specifically for those big set pieces?

She is the most incredible force of nature. I can’t sing her praises enough, and I felt so empowered and protected and supported and encouraged by her. She’s just brilliant. She is a brilliant director, and also because she was an actor first, that really is so helpful inside of scene work. The best way to describe her is a complete force of nature. She was such a lighthouse for me throughout that entire episode and I felt in such lockstep with her and with Lauren and the three of us also love this character so much. Working with Helen was was absolutely thrilling, she’s the best.

I will admit I was skeptical about this series, because I didn’t feel the need for more Penguin — but then it was not only run by so many amazing women but also had so many amazing female characters. Was it a similar experience for you?

It was thrilling. I’m such a huge Batman fan, it’s lifelong dream of mine to be a Batman villain and to get to really show her entire story. For that to come from a woman’s brain — you can just like sense it, you can feel it. Especially for that episode to be shepherded by Helen, that certainly was an added element to it. There’s so many things that Sofia does in the show where, of course they are morally reprehensible, but I’ve been stopped by a lot of women being like “This part was so cool,” or cathartic to see her go through this, and I felt that way as well. It’s incredible.

What was something that you were maybe most like nervous about going into it?

Everything. All of it. I was nervous about doing the character justice. I was nervous about what it would be like to work in a giant franchise, because I’ve never experienced that before. I was nervous about being bad. I was nervous that the swings I was taking would be embarrassing, sort of your run-of-the-mill shame tornado, kind of everything and anything.

I was going to say, “At what point did you feel like you got over it?” But did you? Because that’s sometimes a thing that actors have to just compartmentalize.

I experience this with a lot of what I work on, and I know other actors do too. I definitely calm down once I know there’s a certain amount of footage that they have. And I know that, like, at this point, it would be hard for them to fire me because they shot so much of it. I usually am like, “I think they would tell me by now if I were fired,” but so always in the beginning, it’s nerve wracking. So by the time we got to 4, I was like, “I think they would have let me go by now.”

You know, relatable, truly. I feel like comedy and drama are such kindred spirits, and you have so much comedy training. Do you also feel like maybe some of your more upbeat roles, for lack of a better word, prepared you for Sofia, for kind of balancing out the light and dark?

I’ve done a lot of comedy, but I’ve also done a lot of non comedic things. They just haven’t been seen as much. So for me, they kind of feel, to your point, sort of kindred. They feel the same in some way, even though I know they’re not. But I find life to be sort of like a tragic comedy, you know? Certainly, that’s one of my favorite things about Batman, the universe of Batman, is that of all the superhero things, there’s also room for humor. You think of that famous scene of Heath Ledger walking away from the hospital and the bomb isn’t working, and there’s this weird humor in this horrific thing that he’s doing. I just have always been so drawn to that.

And also to your earlier point about diving in, for either genre, you do have to be not afraid, to look a little silly and just commit to it fully.

Yeah. And acting — I’m certainly not the first person to say this — there’s so much of it that is embarrassing that you have to push through. There are certain days where you’re, like, looking at an X on a wall and pretending it’s the ghost of a loved one. It’s both incredible because it’s childhood imagination, like, “Whoa. This is so cool that this is part of our jobs,” and then sometimes you zoom out and you’re really having to put your ego down and risk embarrassing yourself — which is also the greatest part about it.

Something I’m such a big fan of in the show is a very specific detail: that yellow dress. I would love to hear about the specifics of that aspect of Sofia — the hair, makeup, costuming, and even the body language.

This was one of the one of the other elements of this job that was such a dream was that hair, makeup, wardrobe, all of our artists, all of our department heads were so open to collaboration. The yellow dress — I had a 10,000 fittings for that dress. Helen Huang, who did our costumes, who’s incredible., we were in constant conversation with Helen about what would be the most free flowing and let you see this body language — that’s the first time you see her breathe really, and experience joy, and experience lightness. So it should be something that’s light and yet we wanted it to show all the scars, and then we also knew it was going with this gas mask eventually, so I also wanted to do something with her eyes where you could see it through the viewfinder of the gas mask. And in addition to that, when she enters that space, when you see that sort of new war paint, you get the sense that there’s been a shift in her. To combine all those things was so exciting. And also knowing we were building this Batman villain, like when do you get to do that? I gotta say, they really gave us creative freedom. It was a constant conversation between our brilliant hair makeup department, and Helen and Helen shaver and Lauren, and we crafted this whole image of her. What a dream. You instantly recognize it. It’s like, a full picture of this person.

Tell me about working with your co stars. Some of my favorite scenes are of you and Michael.

Oh, I love Michael. There were so many gifts in this show, but the actors they found, like all the girls in Arkham — oh, my God, they’re also brilliant. Michael, I love working with, I cannot sing his praises enough. Everyone in my family were just brilliant and so much fun to work with; the actors on this show across the board, whether someone was in for a day or whether they were in for six episodes, or all eight, everyone was so thrilling to work with, and also really having the time of their lives. I don’t want to speak for anyone, but we all were sort of jazzed by it, because it’s such a — Colin (Farrell) and I would always refer to it as an opera. And I think everyone else felt that as well, so it was a very fun group of people.

Opera is great too, because of the people kind of moving in and out, and there’s so much momentum.

Yes, and it’s grand, too. It’s obviously also grounded in the reality of pain, and what happens to that pain if you don’t treat it with care, and generational trauma. But it’s also like a huge, grand, heightened opera.

What’s something that you learned from playing Sofia?

There are some things I’ve learned that are for me, but of what I’m comfortable sharing… I think in my life, I probably — this is an understatement — don’t take up as much space as she eventually takes up. To occupy that for a couple months was helpful.

You’ve done theater and musicals and movie musicals, have you thought about that as what’s next?

Oh I would love to. I’ve seen “Wicked” twice, I would be 100 percent in. I love how they’re making a comeback. I still need to see “Emelia Perez.” That’s next on my list to see. Yeah, I would love to, you kidding?

If you get to come back and play this character, what’s something you would like to explore with her again or in the future that you haven’t?

I don’t know. It just seemed like there are infinite possibilities of where she could go. Obviously I would want to see her get out of Arkham. That’s like number one. I don’t want her in there. So I want to see her get out there, and then exact revenge. Maybe now she would be even more of a loose cannon, because before it was pretty focused on him and gaining power, but depending on what happens to her in there, it could be an even larger target. I would love to explore that.

You as Cristin though — more scenes in Arkham?

Oh yeah. They’re fun. So maybe she stays in there for a little bit and I get to do a couple.

I know that you don’t necessarily read stuff online, but we’re now going into Golden Globes, going into Emmys, and this long award cycle. So what are you looking forward to — or dreading?

I’m not dreading any of it, honestly. I’m at a point in my life where I understand that this is sort of icing on the cake. I’m, genuinely so excited about the possibility of meeting people who I’ve admired my whole life, and that’s very exciting. I’m so excited to be reunited with the cast and get to hang out and sip champagne and be silly. And also to be able to continue the conversation around this show — we spent two years making this show between the strikes and other delays and all this stuff. It’s such a thrill to keep it going, because I’m so proud to have been a part of it, and it was such a thrill to make and such a thrill to portray her. So for me, it’s all great.

“The Penguin” is streaming on Max.