Colin Farrell was destined to earn the Best Actor (male) award at the 2025 Golden Globes after his epic performance in the limited series The Penguin. His transformation of the DC villain, Oz Cobb, blew away viewers' minds, critics and the Golden Globes judges unconditionally.
How Colin Farrell became Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, one of the most enduring villains of Batman, ranked #51 by IGN’s list of Top 100 comic book villains of all time, is a long imperishable story in itself.
First, he joked when he said, “No one to thank on this one. I did it all by myself”, but later he attributed it all to the prosthetics. He could not thank his makeup artist, Michael Marino, enough who made it all so clean with his mastery.
Farrell explained that he had to endure three hours daily in the makeup chair for the electrifying transformation. All he had to do was just sit in the chair, drink coffee and watch the transmutation take place with his own eyes.
Winning a third Golden Globe award was not easy. Earlier, he mentioned in one of his interviews that he was covered in prosthetics from “wrist to ankle.” He mainly wore a bodysuit each day, and the only parts of his body he could show were his hands and feet.
The iconic limp Farrell created for the role was commendable. The Penguin was meant to waddle due to his congenital foot deformity, commonly known as the clubfoot. The showrunner for the high-profile HBO series, Lauren LeFranc elucidated that it is one of the foot disorders which could be treated. However, according to Oz Cobb’s story, he was poor when he grew up and his mother couldn’t afford a surgery, forcing him to limp all his life, and rightfully earning him the name Penguin.
He felt an honour to win the Golden Globe, following in the footsteps of the legends who played Batman villains; Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix forThe Dark Knight (2009) and The Joker (2020) respectively.
Colin Farrell had a tough competition with his fellow nominees, in which viewers were speculating Cooper Koch (Monster: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story) to be the possible winner. Other nominees included Ewan McGregor (A Gentleman in Moscow), Kevin Kline (Disclaimer), Andrew Scott (Ripley) and Richard Gadd (Baby Reindeer).
Farrell particularly commented on Richard Gadd’s work in Baby Reindeer by saying, “Richard, man you broke my heart this year”. Baby Reindeer took Emmy Awards by storm, winning four trophies last year.
Colin Farrell did not forget his crew members as he specifically mentioned a woman named Carolina who kept the cast hydrated and warm during the cold nights in New York City.
There is a reason The Penguin is considered a limited series as it has no plans for a second one. LeFranc clarified that the spin-off series was meant to be a “bridge between the first film and the second film”. There is no future plan, at the moment, to come back with a second season.