In the finale of 'The Penguin', Cristin Milioti finds some hope for Sofía

This article contains spoilers for the finale of HBO's “The Penguin.”

Cristin Milioti feels self-conscious about sounding too “actory” in interviews and explains that she usually cringes when she hears an actor refer to a character in the third person. But he can't resist doing the same when talking about Sofia Gigante, née Falcone, his villainess and crime boss on HBO's “The Penguin.”

Milioti, speaking over Zoom from his home in New York, explains that he loves Sofia. “She's my favorite character I've ever played.”

As such, when Milioti found out how the limited series was going to end for Sofia, she was “really devastated.”

In Sunday's finale of “The Penguin,” Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb, the gangster nicknamed in the title, finally wins his power game over Sofia. Take control of Gotham's criminal world and take his former boss' daughter to a remote area. For a moment, it looks like he's going to hit her and leave her for dead. But instead, he orchestrates another punishment, turning her over to the police and sending her back to Arkham, where she suffered for years after being accused of a series of murders she didn't commit.

“The horrible thing is that she discovers a fate worse than death for her,” explains Milioti.

Still, Milioti finds a ray of hope in Sofia's ending: in prison, she receives a note from Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman. Matt Reeves' 2022 film “The Batman” establishes that Selina's father is Carmine Falcone, making her Sofia's half-sister. “There's a little spark of light at the end of the tunnel,” Milioti reflects. “She could have a family.” And Milioti is driven by her own optimism: She wants to play Sofia again at some point.

“It would be my wildest dream,” he says.

Playing Sofia was already something of a dream for Milioti, who became an avid fan of the Batman universe after her father took her to see “Batman Returns” when she was 7 years old. “I remember being completely terrified and couldn't look away.” she says.

She immediately ordered a Catwoman costume, but the obsession didn't end there. He went to Blockbuster and rented Tim Burton's 1989 “Batman,” which he watched over and over again. When “Batman Forever” hit theaters in 1995, he had his father take it six times. It even had pictures of Jim Carrey's Riddler on its walls. For Milioti, his love for Batman comes from his sympathy for the characters.

“Batman, all his villains, come from a place of real pain,” he says. “They have no powers, they make all their own costumes, and it's fabulous and it can be cheesy and funny, but it's also heartbreaking.”

Growing up in New Jersey, Milioti was always drawn to complicated female characters with violent tendencies. In addition to Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in “Batman Returns,” she was obsessed with Uma Thurman's Bride in Quentin Tarantino's “Kill Bill,” her favorite movie.

“When I saw 'Wonder Woman' in theaters and all these little girls were watching it, it was very emotional, and I remember in that movie thinking, 'Oh, 'Kill Bill' was my 'Wonder Woman,'” she says.

“Batman, all of his villains, come from a place of real pain,” Milioti says.

(Victoria Will / For The Times)

After dropping out of New York University, Milioti discovered that, while she was thriving in the New York theater scene, she was not able to transform herself as she wanted into the film and television roles she was auditioning for: jobs like “Girl Found Dead.” in a trunk” or “guest to the party at Blair Waldorf’s house.” He never got a job on “Gossip Girl.”

But Milioti fans have long known his reach. She has had roles including a Czech composer in the Broadway musical “Once,” the titular “mother” in “How I Met Your Mother,” a writer with a “sexy baby” voice in an infamous episode of ” 30 Rock” and the wedding. Guest trapped in a time loop in the romantic comedy “Palm Springs.” In recent years, Milioti has been “incredibly grateful” to have been able to work on projects she believes in, even if they haven't found an audience, like the short-lived Peacock series “The Resort” or Max's surreal black comedy “Made.” . for Love,” which has since been removed from the streaming platform. (She is very frustrated by that development.)

Still, I knew I was waiting for something like “The Penguin.”

“A couple of months before this project came to me—I think this is just a part of getting older—I started thinking more about time, about how I want to spend my time,” he says. “I was always attentive and looking for a role like this. “They are really hard to find.”

Typically, he adds, those roles also result in a metaphorical bloodbath involving dozens of actors. But “The Penguin” showrunner Lauren LeFranc and executive producers Craig Zobel and Reeves wanted to Zoom with her.

Even from the first script, Milioti could sense that there was a lot to learn from Sofia, despite not knowing her full story.

“There are incredible scenes where it's like an iceberg, you only see the top, but there's a lot of turbulent stuff underneath,” he says.

In fact, Sofia transforms several times throughout the series. In a flashback episode, we see her as an innocent who learns about the murders of women committed by her father, Carmine (Mark Strong). Then they frame her for those murders. Later, she takes revenge on her entire clan, whom she sees as complicit in keeping her compromised in Arkham, by gassing them and strutting around her family's mansion in a yellow dress and a gas mask. It's a sequence that repeats itself in the finale when she burns the place down in a fabulous red coat, which was made for her by costume designer Helen Huang.

Throughout the series, Sofia transforms several times. At the end, when she's ready to burn down her family's mansion, she struts around in a fur-trimmed red coat.

(Macall Polay/HBO)

Milioti uses the word “collaborative” repeatedly to describe the process of working with LeFranc. She suspects the amount of input she had is unusual given the series' high profile.

“I don't have any other franchises to compare it to because I haven't been in anything like it, but I have to imagine that's not the case,” he says. “I know it was a blessing.”

With LeFranc and other department heads like stylist Brian Badie, Milioti discovered how Sofia would “bloom” over the course of the episodes. As she asserts herself (and becomes more of a mafia boss), Sofia gains confidence. Milioti pushed, for example, for her hair to evolve from prim to the sexy bob at the end. “It's like a kind of animal flowering,” he explains.

I confess to Milioti that I was rooting for Sofia to beat Oz at his own game. It looks like he might when he bombs his warehouse. Unfortunately, he gains the upper hand. As an actress, her job is to defend her characters, even those who do terrible things, but she admits that she also cheered for Sofia. Others on set were too. “I even remember that the team members felt that way too,” he says. “'But we wanted her to win.'”

Milioti pushed for her hair to evolve from prim and updo to the sexy bob at the end. “It's like a kind of animal blossoming.”

(Macall Polay/HBO)

Her final scene with Farrell was one of the last she filmed and it was an emotional day. “I couldn't have asked for a better companion to go into the depths of darkness with,” he says. “I think he also understood how devastating that was.”

There have already been rumors that Sofia could return for “The Batman” sequel, but Milioti says she hasn't had any conversations with Reeves or LeFranc. “Everyone keeps it very under control,” he says.

The character, however, means so much to Milioti that she was deeply stressed when she was initially on set. “I thought, 'Oh my God, this is a needle in a haystack,'” he recalls. “And it certainly contributed to my absolutely crippling nerves during the first few months we filmed. “I was very aware that opportunities like this don't come around very often.”

When did your nerves dissipate?

“When I realized there was so much of me in jail that if they were going to fire me, it was going to be a big headache for them.”