Warning: Spoilers for The Penguin episode 3.
I’m sitting within the inexperienced room of StyleCaster’s studio on fifth Avenue, Manhattan, however there’s a tinge of desperation in Rhenzy Feliz’s voice, “Can we communicate anyplace else?” he asks. You see, his mother, Joelis Vallejo can also be his groomer, and once I say we’re right here to speak about spoilers for The Penguin, he panics. “She doesn’t know what occurs,” he says. It’s OK, she insists, she’ll placed on headphones and take heed to Karol G whereas we do the interview and he or she lays out her hairstyling instruments. It takes a second extra convincing, however he agrees.
Feliz has had a handful of performing roles earlier than this one. His breakout position got here within the younger grownup sequence Runaways for 33 episodes, however you get the sturdy feeling that HBO’s gritty mob drama—a by-product of Matt Reeve’s The Batman—will push him into the massive leagues. Colin Farrell, with whom Feliz spends nearly all of his screentime, reprises his position as Oswald Cobb, a center administration mobster with ambitions for grandeur.
Feliz performs Victor Aguilar, a young person from a low-income neighborhood in Gotham. In episode one, he and his pals attempt to steal the edges off the incorrect man’s purple—sorry, “technically it’s plum”—Maserati. Pictures are fired, and Vic’s buddies flee, however Oz has him cornered. In change for his life, Vic provides to assist Oz with no matter he wants, and his apprenticeship on this planet of organized crime begins. “Oz loves this concept of being revered, being admired. He desires it,” observes Feliz, “and so I feel he finds that in Vic. He likes having him round due to what it does to his ego.”
Whereas there’s actually an influence imbalance between them, Oz and Vic share a number of basic similarities. Each are from modest backgrounds and each are sometimes underestimated due to their impediments. For Oz, it’s his limp; a symptom of a beginning defect often known as Membership Foot. For Vic, it’s his stutter. Feliz labored extensively with fluency guide, Marc Winski, who grew up with a stutter himself and is an advocate locally, as a key a part of Victor’s character improvement. “I might both make telephone calls to delis in a stutter, or I might go to I might go to grocery shops and order stuff in a stutter. You possibly can really feel embarrassed and ashamed to talk since you really feel such as you’re taking on somebody’s time,” he says. “The stutter had 75 to 80% of understanding who Victor was as a result of it actually shapes who you might be as a human being.”
What has struck so many viewers within the opening few episodes of The Penguin is how, unexpectedly, it’s made them chortle. Between Oz and his new protégé, some touching moments can even catch the viewer off-balance. One particularly from episode 3, which we spoke about in nice element, decreased Winski to tears.
I need to begin off by asking you what components of Vic’s character you may empathize with.
I additionally didn’t develop up with a lot.
The place did you develop up?
I spent 5 years up within the Bronx. After I was 5, I moved out of the Bronx. We lived up within the initiatives on 183rd St. Then we moved to a housing neighborhood in Florida. Then once I was 15, we moved to LA, and that was when my mother met my stepdad, so that they joined the household, and we moved out to LA, and that was when it began getting slightly extra middle-class, and it was respectable. However till I used to be 15, I lived in not the best circumstances. And I feel that rising up that means, I can perceive why Victor would possibly go down this path.
Oz loves this concept of being revered, being admired. He desires it. And so I feel he finds that in Vic. He likes having him round due to what it does to his ego
Rhenzy Feliz
Firstly of episode 3, Victor’s household is killed in a flood brought on by the Riddler’s bombs. He and his girlfriend Graciela don’t have anything left. His house is destroyed. She provides him an out, to go to California. Why do you assume he chooses to not go away together with her?
To not simply get on that bus in episode three and go away with Graciela, cash is a large motivating issue. He hasn’t had loads of company or loads of energy in his life. He has been in a position to do a lot. He’s by no means been checked out like he’s in a position to accomplish a lot. I feel that’s one of many issues in episode one, the place he goes, “I bought ambition, and I’m not a waste.” I feel at that second in episode three he realizes, “That is my likelihood to get issues I would like issues. I need to be somebody, I need to be a part of one thing.”
That’s what Oz sees in him too, proper? Each of them need one thing extra out of life. Do you assume his affinity for Vic is real?
That’s most likely extra of a query for Colin, however do I feel it’s actual? I feel in the beginning, he does really feel like he might help this child, he’s like, “This child wants me.” I feel it’s an ego increase. I feel he likes the truth that this child is wanting as much as him and that he’s serving to him.
I liked the scene within the French restaurant the place Vic and Oz are having lunch. Vic’s ordering the steak frites however due to his stutter, he can’t fairly get the “frites” out instantly. The waiter interrupts and Oz tells the waiter off. Are you able to stroll me by means of that scene?
That scene is very nice as a result of it takes some dips and valleys. I’m telling Oz a narrative, after which it turns into this entire, “Hey, arise for your self, take up house. Cease fucking cowering.” I bear in mind Marc pulling me apart when he learn the scene, and he stated, “The scene goes to be actually particular for lots of people.”
As soon as we shot it, he stated, “You guys have been taking pictures and I had tears in my eyes.” I feel that, hopefully, one of many issues that may come to that scene is this concept that it’s okay to take up time and to take up house, that folks can simply provide you with an additional second and get the phrase out.
There’s one other second the place Oz tells Vic his dad can be happy with him once we know from assembly his dad briefly that that wouldn’t be the case.
Yeah, precisely. Vic is aware of who his father is, and is aware of he wouldn’t need him chopping off pinkies and stuffing useless our bodies within the trunks of automobiles. But it surely’s one of many issues that I feel human beings do; push issues to the aspect when deep down we all know we’re doing one thing incorrect. I feel that’s what Vic has been doing, he’s been shoving it down and Oz brings all of it again up. It’s a reminder that he’s not doing the suitable factor.
I adore it when Oz begins Vic on $1,000 per week and Vic asks for 2. Oz loves that. You possibly can see the attract for positive.
Yeah, I feel Vic sees Oz, and he admires how Oz is. He’s bought this face with a giant scar, and he’s bought this limp, and but he’s the loudest man within the room. He is available in and he can hurt anyone, however he is available in and makes a joke, makes folks chortle. And I feel Victor admires that. I feel that there’s additionally this concept of energy that Oz has, he’s bought folks working for him, and he’s a sensible dude. He’s enjoying chess, and everybody else is enjoying checkers.
You and Colin have such nice chemistry and he’s been within the business for a very long time. Did he give you any recommendation?
I might ask him questions now and again. I’d ask him generally, like, “Is it too far in a single path? Is it not sufficient?” He would give me recommendation on that, however solely once I requested. He was very cautious to not make it really feel like there was this kind of hierarchy, although he, deservingly, is up on a little bit of a pedestal, however he was very conscious to not make it really feel like that.
There have been a few instances when, artistically, I didn’t need to do one thing. Perhaps they’d ask me to say one thing, and I’m like, “I didn’t really feel proper.” I feel he’d see it on my face, and a few instances he pulled me apart to say, “Hey, for those who don’t need to say it, don’t say it. Your instincts are good. I’ve seen you.” These moments the place I’d be afraid to talk up as a result of I’m the youthful actor on set, and he’s telling me to belief my instincts. It’s humorous, it’s actually much like what Oz says to Victor.
Editors notice: After we wrapped the interview, we checked to see if Rhenzy’s mother had heard something. Relaxation assured, she hadn’t.
The Penguin airs every Sunday on HBO at 9 pm ET.
Photographer: George Chinsee
Leisure Editor: Sophie Hanson
Grooming: Joelis Vallejo
Styling: Raziel Martinez
Rhenzy wears Ferragamo