“I saw… six times in theatres”: Cristin Milioti’s Batman Craze Began Decades Before ‘The Penguin’

SUMMARY

• Cristin Milioti is a lifelong Batman fan. She grew up pretending to be Batman villains and watching the cartoons.
• Milioti secured the role of Sofia Falcone in The Penguin in Matt Reeves' Batman universe.
• She calls the experience of making this series "very special" and "a secret dream come true."

Cristin Milioti has ventured across a lot of genres ever since her professional career started somewhere in the 2000s, pulling diverse roles ranging from sitcoms to thrillers to action pieces to rom-coms. Her exclusive role is in the currently raging critically commended R-rated miniseries The Penguin, which features her starring as Sofia Falcone alongside Collin Farrell’s Oz Cobbs.

Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone. | Credits: HBO.

While her other roles also hold significant resonance with her, this latest one, in particular, is a bit closer to Milioti’s heart than the rest. This is because ever since she was a child, she has long been one of the greatest fanatics of the Caped Crusader and his character arcs of all time, including all the heroes and villains he allies and battles with throughout his lifetime.

Cristin Milioti’s Batman Craze Goes Back to Her Childhood

Although Cristin Milioti continues to earn prominence, fame, and love from fans worldwide through nearly every single one of her portrayals, perhaps no role has been as special to her as her role as the ruthless, vengeful, and manipulative Gotham City crimelord Sofia Falcone in The Penguin. This is because of her great history of fangirling the Dark Knight’s universe.

Milioti on TODAY. | Credits: TODAY/YouTube.

During a recent interview with TODAY, the actress confessed her reaction to securing the role in the first place, saying she “freaked” out. Milioti said:

I have been a Batman fan my whole life. I was obsessed with the movies. I grew up pretending to be Batman villains in my backyard. Like, for real. I was Catwoman for Halloween, I watched the cartoon. I was very, very into Batman. I saw Batman Forever six times in the theatres. I was just very into it.

That said, of course, getting the role was an incredible achievement for the How I Met Your Mother star. As she herself admitted: “This has been, like, a secret dream of mine for a very long time, so I was thrilled.”

But even that’s not all, as becoming a part of the show even had Milioti claiming she would watch it no matter what even though she admitted, “I don’t like to watch myself.”

Milioti in The Penguin. | Credits: HBO.

As the Palm Springs actress continued to share:

I would watch this show even if I weren’t on it. […] I love this show so much and I wanted to see the work that everyone else did because I think it’s so phenomenal.

Even without her saying it out loud, it won’t be an understatement to call Milioti one of the luckiest people alive on this planet, considering how she scored a golden ticket into the very universe she grew up watching. All of this makes even her love and commendation of the series register even more genuinely as ever.

But what’s even more fascinating than this is the fact that the series was shot in New York, and Milioti had the time of her life shooting it as she is a New Yorker at heart herself.

Cristin Milioti Had a “Very Special” Experience of Making The Penguin

Milioti and Colin Farrell in a still from the series. | Credits: HBO.

During the same interview, the Made for Love star then talked about how she has lived in New York for years, and reimagining the streets as Gotham City after that was one of the best experiences of her life. As Milioti shared:

I can’t even tell, it’s so multi-layered because, the entire time, every single day, I would be like, ‘Oh, I’m in Batman. So excited. Oh, I’m in Gotham.’ [Laughs] But also, I am such a New Yorker and I love living here. And there’s nothing like when they shut a street down, and you’re there with, like, a crew of 200.

Inevitably enough, it didn’t take long for the gravity of the situation to set in, making the entire experience of curating this series all the more memorable. “It feels like, you’re just like, ‘Oh my god. We’re doing it. We’re making a big thing! That’s so cool,'” Milioti admitted. “It makes you feel like you’re doing the thing that you read about and dreamt about as a kid, so it was very special.”

Needless to say, her being so excited about this series is more than enough to have fans bursting with exhilaration at just how the series of events would unfold in the Colin Farrell starrer.

That said, new episodes of The Penguin drop every Sunday on HBO.

Written by Mahin Sultan

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