Danny DeVito Says His Penguin Was Better Than Colin Farrell’s in ‘The Batman’

Many actors have taken a stab at playing the Penguin (aka Oswald Cobblepot) over the years, but Danny DeVito’s strange, hilarious and grotesque turn as the Gotham City mobster in “Batman Returns” has stood the test of time. Most recently, Colin Farrell put a darker spin on the villain in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” starring Robert Pattinson.

Hooked up to a lie detector test for Vanity Fair, DeVito was forced to share his opinion on Farrell’s performance, saying: “I love Colin. He’s a terrific guy. My Penguin was better.”

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DeVito then looked over at the polygraph examiner and asked, “Was that the truth? It most certainly was. In my opinion.”

Both actors personified the Gotham villain in distinct contexts, with DeVito embodying Tim Burton’s gothic camp style and Farrell operating within the moody noir of Reeves’ pic.

Ranking the live-action Batman villains, Variety‘s Jackson Kim Murphy placed DeVito’s Penguin at No. 3, writing: “Perhaps the most sexual creature to grace a big screen comic book adaptation, DeVito’s Cobblepot is a whirlwind of full-tilt vice. What makes his snappy, borderline literal portrayal of the Penguin that much funnier is that his section of the film is devoted to a doomed mayoral campaign, with Cobblepot touting himself as the meek abandoned sewer baby who should inherit the civilized Earth. And yet, the only thing he wants more than chowing down on raw fish and screwing anything that moves is… to belong. Libido and laughs sustained alongside operatic pity — it’s a tightrope walk that no other could manage.”

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