Cristin Milioti has had a very varied acting career, but since she was 7 years old, an outsized obsession has burned within her for the Batman universe. The full-circle moment has arrived with Milioti’s new role of Sofia Falcone in HBO’s highly anticipated series The Penguin. An interview just dropped that features Milioti revealing how her early love for Gotham’s darker characters, particularly Catwoman, led to a career throughput to this dream role.
For Milioti, the road to Batman began in 1992 when Batman Returns first hit theaters. She was instantly captivated by Michelle Pfeiffer’s iconic take on Catwoman. “I remember sitting in the theater, absolutely mesmerized by her,” Milioti recalled. The powerful, complicated Rendition of Catwoman that Pfeiffer gave at the time left an indelible mark on young Cristin, who dressed up as the character for Halloween that year-and continued to wear the costume long after the holiday had passed. She remembers fondly the flimsy plastic nails and the sense of excitement she had each and every time she put on the suit to imagine herself as the fierce feline villain.
Her love for everything Batman didn’t end there. By 1995, Batman Forever only made her ties to Gotham stronger. This time, it was Jim Carrey’s Riddler that fascinated her then. Milioti confesses that she was so enthralled by the character that she would often play as him, along with other iconic Batman villains like Two-Face and the Joker, while playing as a child. “I must’ve seen Batman Forever a dozen times.
“It just opened up this whole world of larger-than-life villains that I couldn’t stop thinking about,” she said.
For Milioti, Sofia Falcone in The Penguin has been nothing short of her dream come true. Sofia, daughter of the crime boss Carmine Falcone, is every bit as daunting a figure herself and plays a pivotal role in the dark underbelly of Gotham.
Milioti has spoken to the fun that comes with diving into such a layered role, much less one within a universe she is so in love with. “Getting to play a character as complex and ruthless as Sofia feels like coming full circle for me,” she said. “It’s like I’ve spent my entire life preparing for this.
She credits early fascination with Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman as the source of her urge to portray nuanced, multi-dimensional characters. “Pfeiffer’s performance taught me that villains can be so much more than one-dimensional,” Milioti said. “They can be vulnerable, conflicted, and powerful all at once. That’s something I’ve carried with me throughout my career. Largely determining her professional route broadly, the fixation with Batman not only influenced the games Milioti played as a child. The love for Gotham villains allowed the start of her craft and gave her an insight into the complication in both an actor’s delivery and self-understanding. Now, as Sofia Falcone, she gets to finally live out those childhood dreams, full on and immersed in that dark, gritty world that so captivated her as a child. Milioti reflects on the trajectory that has brought her here, saying that her lifelong love affair with Batman will always fuel her love for acting as well. “There’s something about the villains of Gotham-how they walk the line between right and wrong-that has always fascinated me.
I think that’s why I’m drawn to complicated roles. That essentially reminds me of everything I loved about these characters when I was growing up.” For Miliuti, The Penguin has finally checked off the box on her childhood dream. And this affection for the universe of Gotham hasn’t just governed the acting decisions but made her the dynamic performer that she is. Rather obviously, Batman has been more than a superhero to Cristin Milioti; he has been the guiding force through her career, which led her into one of the most exciting roles of her life.
