Some movie fans with short memories are voicing their dissatisfaction over the casting of Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone in the upcoming HBO Max series The Penguin, because they claim the slender actor has the wrong body type for the role.
Though Colin Farrell famously made an astonishing physical transformation from slim to stout for his scene-stealing turn as Oswald Cobblepot in The Batman, Grace Randolph openly expressed her displeasure that Milioti was chosen to play Falcone by tweeting, “Love the actress, don’t care for the casting – not comics accurate.”
Randolph posted a follow-up tweet with along with an image from the comic of a heavy-set Falcone with a wild vermilion mane and the comment, “Note the SIZE – she’s supposed to be like Gwendoline Christie.”
A user called kingevz seemed agree with Randolph that other actors resembled Falcone more closely. In response, they posted a screen capture of Natasha Lyonne, whose appearance they felt was more in keeping with the comic book version of the character.
Another user called filmerdude24 also felt Lyonne would have been a perfect choice for the role and tweeted, “I can hear Natasha Lyonne sassing casting directors everywhere now.”
Seemingly oblivious to the fact that Farrell altered his size and appearance with special effects to convincingly morph into the Penguin, a user named Super_Shanko tweeted that they took umbrage with directors who did not focus on the physical likeness of actors to the characters they play.
Other fans seemed baffled by the argument that actors should neeed to look like their characters in order to accurately play them. A user called Marc_Spectorr tweeted the obvious by sharing an image of Farrell on the red carpet next to a photo of him in costume as the Penguin with the caption, “I mean…”
It’s ironic for people to decry the casting of Milioti in The Penguin when she’s literally starring opposite the roguishly handsome and very much in-shape Farrell, who’ll need to spend hours in the makeup chair and costume department every single day of the shoot before he even sets foot on set, but that’s just how the internet works sometimes.