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Cristin Milioti becomes a supervillain

Cristin Milioti becomes a supervillain

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Spoiler alert! We discuss Important plot points and the ending of Sunday’s new episode of The Penguin. So be careful if you haven’t seen them yet.

For one truly deadly night, Cristin Milioti was the most evil supervillain in Gotham City.

Take some, Riddler. Take that, Joker.

In Sunday’s fourth episode of HBO’s Batman-inspired crime drama “The Penguin” (now streaming on Max), Milioti’s gangster queen Sofia Falcone faced the physical and emotional stresses of Arkham Asylum – a “pinch me” moment for Milioti who is a huge bat fan. At the end of the hour, Sofia stands triumphant, wearing a yellow dress, a gas mask, and a gun, having murdered most of the crime family that tried to get rid of her.

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“I’ve been waiting for a scene like this my whole damn life,” says Milioti, 39. “I’ve wanted to be in this universe since I was a little kid.” Her co-star Deirdre O’Connell, who plays the penguin’s mother , Milioti said she was gleefully walking around in her rogue outfit: “She was like, ‘You looked like you were in an amusement park.’ That’s how I felt. I was so happy. Too excited.

Seeing yourself on screen is “a complete nightmare,” Milioti adds. “I grab my hands, shake them and look through (my fingers). But I definitely had those moments where I was like, ‘Whoa. That’s a few.’ Villain. That’s cool.’ ”

“Penguin,” a spin-off of the film “The Batman,” centers on Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) and his quest to dominate Gotham’s underworld and drug trade. In the premiere episode, Sofia, a convicted serial killer known as “The Hangman,” was released from Arkham after ten years and reintroduced to Oz, her former driver, with whom she has a checkered history. After the death of her father Carmine (as seen in “The Batman”) and after Oz kills Sofia’s brother, the title character attempts to foment a Gotham gang war between the Falcones and rival Maronis, and Oz and Sofia form an uneasy alliance , that fails south.

The new episode explores Sofia’s backstory in flashbacks: It turns out that Sofia was framed for seven murders by her good-for-nothing father (Mark Strong). Instead of taking over the family as her father had promised, she was arrested and taken to Arkham.

In the prison hospital, Sofia is subjected to shock treatment and prisoner abuse until she freaks out and fights back. She has changed forever, as seen today when Sofia fatally poisons her relatives with gas at a family reunion – with the exception of her young cousin and Falcone underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly), whom Sofia keeps with her to protect her to obey orders.

The advantage of a limited series is that “you have more time to show how someone becomes a villain,” says Milioti. “When I read this episode I was drooling. I couldn’t believe it, not just the fact that you get to see it in these 10 years, but also in the way you can explore its entire origin story.

“I hope you understand. You see how she was driven mad and why.”

Milioti had the most fun filming her scenes in Arkham, the infamous prison in films and comics where Batman imprisons his most heinous enemies. And the actress longed for the full Arkham experience.

“I want to get my hands dirty. I want some blood,” she says. “When they put the collar on me that attaches to my waist and you’re wearing those orange stripes and you see the stamp on the uniform that says ‘Arkham Asylum’, I freaked out.”

Milioti admits that the Arkham days on set were intense and that she was “thrown around a lot” while filming the prison brawl scenes.

But it’s definitely worth it, she says. “I really get the full load out of me and then I hit it some more. But that’s exactly what you want as an actor.

“At the end of the day you go home and have left everything there. You feel completely exhausted and think, “Yeah, I’m in.” Batman.’ “You’re just so excited, even though you have a few bruises of course.”