She has already grabbed our attention with her memorable performances in Palm Springs, Black Mirror and even as Leonardo DiCaprio’s less-than-happy first wife in The Wolf of Wall Street, but actor Cristin Milioti is now stealing the show in many ways with her commanding portrayal of Sofia Falcone on The Penguin series.

Acting alongside leading man Colin Farrell as the power-hungry Oz Cobb in a crooked Gotham City, Milioti, 39, is nothing short of magnetic, playing the daughter of fallen mob boss Carmine Falcone, as she strives to be taken seriously, following her involuntary stay in Arkham Asylum.

With The Penguin series offering a brand new narrative and fresh characters within the same fictional universe that filmmaker Matt Reeves brought to us with the 2022 film The Batman, I sat down with Milioti, wondering first what it was about Sofia’s story and this new series, led by writer/showrunner Lauren LeFranc, that made this project feel like the right fit for her within her ongoing acting career.

Milioti said, “I mean, there was my own sort of selfish little secret dreams of like, I love Batman. I’ve wanted to play a villain my whole life. I was jonesing for something like this. That’s my own personal little dreams, but then I think that everyday on that set was a real thrill because I couldn’t believe that I was given this opportunity to explore a character and really build a character, and that’s such a testament to Lauren’s brilliant writing and the trust that she put in me, as well. We had fabulous directors like Helen Shaver and Craig Zobel. I was truly beside myself, especially once you get to see her backstory and I would read about what I was going to be able to do and explore. It was a wildest dream – like a real bucket list thing.”

With the fourth episode titled “Cent’anni” premiering on HBO and Max this Sunday, which shows viewers how Sofia got forced into Arkham, her experiences there and why she is now the way that she is, I had to bring up with Milioti how her character is often the smartest person in the room, yet she is not often treated that way by those around her because of her past. Does Milioti see that too, and if so, did that at all craft the way she chose to dive into her on-screen performance?

“Absolutely! I also think what’s so great about that episode is that you get to see how she was driven mad – like you completely understand because she is so smart and she sees through everyone’s ‘B.S.’ She is always a couple steps ahead and she’s punished for it. You see her break – you see them break her – that was also so thrilling to explore. You see them turn her into something that she’ll never turn back from and she blossoms into this like creature. In a way, she has this real freedom for sure. She’s finally leaning into something. You get to see that journey and it’s thrilling.”

With The Batman’s Reeves serving as an executive producer on The Penguin series, I was curious of Milioti’s thoughts on working within this ever-expanding Gotham universe that he initially created for the screen.

Milioti said of The Batman, “One of my favorite things about that film – there were so many – but one of the things I really loved is there has always been a fine line between Batman and his villains, I think. They’re both putting on costumes and going out into the night and going on a terror. Obviously, you root for [Batman’s] reasons and his are more grounded in an actual pursuit of justice and he’s righting these wrongs, but they [the villains] think they are righting wrongs too and they are wanting the world to feel the hurt that they feel. I like love that no one has superpowers in it! I think in his film, he blurred that line even more and I think that Lauren has also continued that brilliantly, where like your allegiance, I hope, really shifts throughout and you’re like, Why am I rooting for this person that is bad? You begin to understand them and you begin to understand, hopefully, why they would make everyone feel the way they’ve been made to feel.”

As I concluded my conversation with Milioti, I wondered what this celebrated actor would want to say to her character Sofia Falcone, after embodying her on The Penguin series so far, knowing who she is and who she wants to be. What does Sofia need to hear?

Milioti put it simply, “I love you.”