Colin Farrell talked The Penguin with 'super supportive' Danny DeVito
Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito - who played The Penguin in 'Batman Returns' - had several chats about the Irishman's new TV show, in which he plays the comic book villain.
Colin Farrell has praised Danny DeVito for being "super supportive" of 'The Penguin'.
The 'Banshees of Inisherin' actor plays the titular villain , aka Oswald Cobblepot, in the new HBO series and while he's enjoyed some friendly chat with the 79-year-old star - who portrayed the character in 1992's 'Batman Returns' - about the role, his pal insisted his own portrayal was "better".
Colin told 'Extra': “Me and Danny shared a couple of texts back and forth, nothing serious about talking about the character, just little slags. He’s super supportive, Devito? He’s magic man, he’s super cool.
“He still thinks his Penguin is better than mine. Thank God we can’t concretise an answer on that.”
But Colin may agree with Danny as he was always a massive fan.
He gushed: “I grew up watching his Penguin… as a cinema going youngster Danny DeVito’s Oswald Cobblepot was so amazing.”
“Danny was just amazing, he was just so otherworldly [but showed] human frailty and feeling of insignificance and feeling like you’re on the outside, but having this ambition and drive and having this darkness at the heart of the man.”
While the Irishman saw similarities with his own depiction of Penguin, he noted that the show allows viewers to "really get into the psychology of the character and ask why he is the way he is.”
Colin spoke about how intense the world and the character are, which left him feeling a bit grumpy by the end of shooting!
The 48-year-old actor spent three hours in the make-up chair every morning getting transformed for the role but he "loved" the experience.
He said: “I just loved it… we listened to music in the trailer, I’d hit the script, thought about the upcoming scenes of the day.
“Everything from Puccini to White Snake… everything from every decade.”
So dramatic was Colin's transformation, many people on the set never got to see his real self.
He said: "Plenty of crew members on the last day who said that they never met me… I worked with them for a year and never got to meet like this. Which was so strange.”
The "dark" material in the show left Colin feeling "grumpy" by the end of shooting.
He said: "It is a dark world, and dark character and… Matt [Reeves] created the template for what Oz was going to ever become if it was ever revisited, which we did with this show.
"And Matt created an extraordinary world of Gotham and then Lauren just took Matt’s template and just delved into the psychology of the character and created really complex relationships, particularly between Oz and his mother.
“I was kind of grumpy by the end… still very aware of the good fortune I had to play the character.”
