Colin Farrell had to wear a mask for his role as The Penguin. However, the actor claims that it gave him unexpected freedom. The mask helped the “real” side of him come through. He remarked while speaking with Jessie Buckley on Variety and CNN’s Actors on Actors series, where the two actors discussed the demands of their latest projects and how certain roles have pushed them to new places.
Colin Farrell shares his experience playing The Penguin
Colin Farrell told Variety that the physical barrier of the Penguin mask changed his work. “The last thing I want to say is that the mask allowed the real me to come out,” he said. The actor described how being behind the mask allowed him to channel another side of his personality to do justice to the role.
Farrell expressed, “Because my face was covered, I was given permission — through being obscured, I was greenlit to experience a kind of revelation.” He added that when the mask finally came off on screen, he “started to feel a sense of sympathy.”
Colin Farrell also spoke about the darker emotions the penguin mask unlocked. “But I certainly have felt ugliness in me. I can feel moments of envy, or I can feel anger,” he said, explaining that those impulses can be deep-rooted. The actor expressed, “It isn’t being born in the moment. It’s something from fucking seven generations ago.” It meant that the mask made it possible to explore those inherited feelings without a filter.
The actor framed the experience as part of the joys of acting. On the Actors on Actors episode, he and Buckley discussed how demanding roles can transform performers, and Colin Farrell described how risky, intense work can reveal new aspects of an actor’s emotional life. In his description, the Penguin role did exactly that.
