Without a doubt, the part of The Penguin that has everyone who has seen the show talking, is the brilliant portrayal of Sofia Falcone by Cristin Milioti. She has been stealing the show since episode one of the MAX series. Directly following the very packed The Penguin panel at New York Comic Con 2024, I had the chance to sit down with Cristin Milioti on what makes Sofia Falcone tick.
Penguin star Cristin Milioti.My first question Cristin Milioti was when comparing how different Sofia is to other characters she’s played, like Betsy Solverson in Fargo, Sarah in Palm Springs or Girl in Once, if that attracted her to the role. She responded, “Certainly the opportunity to do something different, but also everything about this role appealed to me. She’s so complex.” Milioti is a big Batman fan, which also had her jumping at the role. She explained, “I’m such a huge Batman fan, so to even be in this universe, was a thrill. To be play a villain, this multilayered a villian. It was a dream. There was no world where I wasn’t going to jump to be a part of this.”
Milioti recounted how she was cast as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin. “They contacted me and I met with them. We talked for many hours. I screen tested with Colin Farrell for the DC gods. It worked out, so it was good.”
In pre production, there were “Endless discussions. It was something we found together. You know, I can’t sing (showrunner/executive producer) Lauren’s (Lefranc) praises enough. I think her brain and heart are so special that she created this world, created this character. I had a lot of strong feelings about her knowing about where she goes, and it was really collaborative between her and I. It felt like a very open discussion at all times.”
Episode four of The Penguin, focused mostly on Sofia’s tragic origin. I was glad it aired before this interview, as it let Cristin Milioti delve into her character without giving away any spoilers. The actress said, “Sofia is such a brilliant example of you get to see how she’s driven mad, how the world can drive someone mad, and how pain can drive people to do terrible things. That’s the world we’re living in. That’s why i’ve always loved Batman. I’ve kind of always felt that the villains of the world, and Batman himself, are all recovering, they’re actually not recovering. They are actively not recovering, but they are attempting to make sense of the horrible things that happened to them. It comes out in these larger than life ways. There’s a fine line between Bruce Wayne sewing a leather cape in his giant garage and the Riddler making his costume. They’re the same. Obviously that’s been explored in all the films. But what she does so brilliantly is show how someone can be broken and put into that. And yes, in different iterations of Batman, we don’t totally know. Well, I guess in the Keaton (Batman) Joker, you see him go slowly mad. With Heath Ledger, his past is a mystery, which is what is delightful about it. It kind of shifts around a bit, but I love that we have the opportunity in this to show someone’s full descent. You understand the villainy, which is so exciting.”
To Cristin Milioti, the realness of Gotham is what makes separates it from other superhero cities. Milioti added, “I think that’s one of the things I love about it. Because it’s the villains, and it is the world, but you get to see their origin story. I feel like origin story in thrown around a lot, but you really do, and it’s thrilling. I really liked Batman because it’s always been a sort of stand-in for New York. Everything is possible. Even as a superhero, he doesn’t have powers. None of them have powers. It’s the madness that powers them, him too. To me, it sort of felt like it’s so in the world of the movie that it felt present without needing to see someone fly or whatever. I love that aspect of it.
What went into this depiction of Sofia Falcone? She’s certainly different while being a bit the same, as when she first appeared in Batman: Dark Victory. Milioti said, “Early on, even in my initial meeting with Matt Reeves and Lauren, when I’d met with them, I had done some preliminary internet research, and I went “Who is this?” and I read a ton about her. But I didn’t go out and buy the comics, because I wanted to be like “What should I attach myself to or shouldn’t?” And they both were like “Just so you know, we’re taking this in a different direction. You can read the comics if you like, but we’re doing something very different.” So I decided not to, and really focus on what Lauren wrote. I know there are shared elements and some are subverted, but I really just tried to focus on this world as much as I could. That’s another brilliant aspect of getting to do something long form like this. You do get to explore all these different levels to her that you wouldn’t get to in a film.”
Cristin Milioti encourages viewers to rewatch the first three episodes of The Penguin after watching episode four. The actress continued, “You get to see, one of my favorite parts of (episode) four, is you get to see who she was before this happened. It’s a hope of mine that if you were to go back and watch episodes one through three knowing what’s coming, that you’ll see the ways in which it informs how she speaks and moves, little things that she says where people were like “What is that? I don’t know what that is yet.” Even when they’re smoking outside the club and she says, “I’m not the Hangman.” A friend of mine the other night was like, “When I heard that, I was like “What? Okay. I guess I’ll figure that out.” I love stuff like that. Or that she wakes up in her closet every day clawing at her neck. You don’t know why she does that until four. I got chills thinking about it. it’s so rare that you get to plant those seeds and see them flower.”
Something that’s on my mind every time I see a mafia movie or show is if the actors, when considering accepting the role, worry that they’re continuing a negative Italian stereotype. Milioti laughed this off, saying, “Sorry, but no, it didn’t even cross my mind until just now. I was just so excited.”
Cristin Milioti sang the praises of showrunner Lauren LeFranc. “We have such a brilliant showrunner. You never know how things are going to be received. I’ve been working long enough now, that you can never tell. You can never tell what people will respond to and what will move people. And I certainly felt reading these scripts this is so unbelievably special. It’s just like chaos. You just don’t know what will connect. You get nervous when you care about something; you want other people to care about it. There’s certainly that. If you’re lucky, there will be a lot of eyes on it, but that also comes with it’s own set of pressures. You don’t want to let people down or not live up to expectations. In terms of navigating that day to day when you’re filming it, you just have to ignore it. Or I did. I tried my best to. But that’s always, you think about it sometimes.”
Have we seen the last of Sofia after The Penguin wraps? Milioti responded, “I hope not, because I love her. I would also have a laser pointer on my head if I say anything. I love her and I selfishly love her.”
You can catch Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone on The Penguin. New episodes drop every Sunday night.
Stay tuned for more NYCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.
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