Diego Peralta
The Penguin featured plenty of fascinating characters who rounded out the Batman universe crafted by Matt Reeves. One of these personalities was Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell), the protagonist’s unpredictable mother. Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) wouldn’t be one of Gotham City’s most notorious criminals if it wasn’t for his mother, who shaped him to be ruthless.
Awards Radar had the opportunity to interview O’Connell, who was more than happy to talk about the inspirations behind her character, and how the ramifications of her actions can be felt throughout the entire series. Here are some of the highlights from the conversation with Gotham City’s most underrated player:
Awards Radar: In previous interviews, you mentioned that getting the dialect for the character right was complicated. Did working with Colin Farrell help with that experience?
Deirdre O’Connell: Colin had a dialect coach named Jessica Drake, who is pretty much a genius. He worked with her a lot on anything that wasn’t particularly Irish. He works with her all the time because they created the dialect for The Batman. It’s nothing that wasn’t heard before, but it didn’t have that exact shape. It was built around his particular voice and his particular take on the character. She had a lot of really great ideas. And they were trying to build something for a place called Gotham, which doesn’t even exist.
They had built that already and they really knew what they were doing. Before I even met with anyone, I had Zoom meetings and she’s ferocious. She had all my dialogue written in phonics. I had to learn how to read phonics. She also had everything on tapes so that I could hear it. We worked for many hours before I ever met Colin. It wasn’t that it was difficult, it was just that it was precise. I love a dialect and a good dialect coach. It was clear for me, from the beginning, that she’s one of the greats.
It was daunting. I thought it would be like from this world, but it was extremely precise. Every single aspect of it was precise, and that was scary. It was a huge relief when I got to the set and I got to know Jessica quite well. Colin and I were on the set and she’d be coming to talk to us after a take. She went over to talk to him instead of me and I went like: “Ha! I got right and you got it wrong!”. Once we were on the set together, you needed to believe that you could get away with.
There were some times in which he had to say “Nice” or “World”. And then I had to understand that it was what I needed to do. Okay, okay. If you’re going to say “nice”, I’m going to say “nice”. And then we were off to the races.
AR: Francis builds Oswald into a weapon since he’s a kid. Do you think that was Oz wanted to do with Victor (Rhenzy Feliz) because of how he was raised?
DO: Yes, I think that’s how they show love. They weaponize the people around them. (Laughs).
AR: Happy birthday, kid! Here’s a gun!
DO: Yes! Exactly! I’m going to teach you how to use it and have no feelings while you’re doing it! (Laughs). I never thought of it. But yes, in a funny way, I guess it’s true. That is for them how you love someone, you turn them into a weapon. Whether Oz would’ve been better off if Francis didn’t need to turn him into a weapon? I don’t know if she knew what he was made of as a kid. We don’t know if it was nature or nurture. If he was born with that devil in him, or if he became it doesn’t really matter. With time, she realized who he was. She had a choice, and I guess she decided to weaponize him. In a funny way, she turned Oz into someone who could kill her, and he asked him to do it.
AR: You talked about how this role was very important for you because of what your father went through with his own health. Now that some time has passed since the release of The Penguin and people reacted to it, have your feelings on the role changed?
AR: I just hope that people who are living with it themselves or living with someone struggling with it… My parents, they both suffered from different kinds of dementia. They did it with much more gentleness and class than Francis did. There’s a lot buried into the story of Oz and Francis regarding how to do it right and how to do it wrong when dealing with somebody who is (ill).
I know that, for myself, dealing with my dad, there were so many times when I felt slightly pissed at him. The way that Oz can be seen with Francis. Because he was the first person in my family to be in that situation. I’d be like “Hey, dad! Concentrate, you’re not paying attention!”. It just felt impossible. Even if he was trying hard. Because you just can’t believe it. No matter how old you are, you’re still their kid. You can’t understand how they’re losing power that quickly. So I think that can be found in our story. Oz can’t handle what’s happening to his mom.
Vic does a lot better. Vic had a lot more skill with his grandma, and he was able to bring that to Francis. It doesn’t matter if you get it right, as long as you’re dancing. That’s what you get in life. I hope that story if hidden in there in a great way. And I hope showed respect. I hope I respected the toughness and the survivor instinct of people who are going through that. That was very important for me, for her not to lose her toughness. She doesn’t play the victim card. She doesn’t buy that part of her story.
AR: The flashback sequences from The Penguin. Did you get to have fun with those, considering how it’s a different version of Francis shown on the screen?
DO: Yes, I did! It was fun! I love how you get to follow that purple dress all the way through! I went through so many things. I think they made four of them. Because one of the dresses belongs to Francis in the present, it’s been through a lot. (The one from the flashbacks) is the fresh one, when she’s still young and takes her boy to the night club!
I did like doing those. I found them to be sad and hard, because she has to face what her boy did, and that he’s made of that. The scenes that were the most fun to make were the ones where I got to fight back. The ones with everything that Oz did as a kid were just really sad.
AR: What was your reaction to finding out what Oz had done to his brothers?
DO: I think Lauren (LeFranc, showrunner of The Penguin) told me before I read it on the script. She told me before reading the story. I was shocked that that had come out of her mind. I was like “Woah, Jesus!”. I found the whole story shocking and upsetting, and the twist! This idea of what it means to love someone. The fact that she actually loved him by letting him live for so long. She seemed so tough on him. But she’s actually fighting a battle inside herself all the time because she knows what he did. I had to keep the twist going from beginning to end.
All episodes of The Penguin are now available for streaming on HBO Max.
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