SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from Sunday’s third episode of The Penguin on HBO.
Unlike Colin Farrell, Rhenzy Feliz didn’t have source material to peruse before accepting the role of Victor Aguilar — The Penguin’s man Friday who ends up saving his boss in episode 3 by driving a car into Nadia Maroni’s henchmen.
Victor is a new creation for HBO’s adaptation about the classic DC villain — which means Feliz, best known for voicing Camilo in Encanto and playing Alex Wilder in The Runaways — had a blank canvas to work from when it came time to create the perfect protégé for Oz.
At least, that’s what Feliz thought before trying out for the role.
“Right after I sent in my initial audition, they wanted me to meet Craig Zobel, our director,” recalls Feliz. “I ran through the scenes a couple of times, and then he asked me if I’d ever done a stutter before. I hadn’t. He said, ‘I know you haven’t prepared, I know you didn’t know this coming in, but do you mind just kind of trying it out to see how it sounds?’ As an actor, you just say yes and run with it. I gave it my best shot. I guess it was good enough because they wanted me to meet with Colin a few weeks later.”
Looking back, Feliz understands why the producers thought it important that Victor, a delinquent from a flood-ravaged section of Gotham City, have a speech impediment.
“I think to Oz, he sees a bit of himself in Victor,” says Feliz, who worked with a fluency coach during production. “Oz has a disability himself, and he knows he been looked at as an underdog who hasn’t been given many chances in his life and even looked down upon because of his disability. He sees Victor has one, as well. They’re from the same neighborhood, and he thinks, ‘maybe I can give this kid a chance, the chance that nobody really ever gave me.’”
That’s primarily why Vic chose to stick with Oz rather than join his galpal on the bus and escape the hell that Gotham had become.
“At that point in his life, he sort of lost his family. He lost his purpose, really,” says Feliz. “And I think in Oz, he finds a bit of purpose. There’s this grand thing that they’re trying to accomplish, and he can be a part of something bigger than just himself. I mean, he’s a poor kid. Money’s a massive incentive to people who don’t have enough of it. And then on top of that, he sees something in Oz that he wishes he had for himself. This sort of confidence, this sort of chest out, chin up. There’s an attitude that Oz carries in himself that maybe Victor admires and looks up to, and he wants a little bit of that in his life, as well.”
Feliz described working with Farrell as if it was seeing “magic being done in front of you,” though he admits to being terrified when the Irish actor first ambled on set in his full body suit and prosthetics.
Oh, man. It was astonishing,” he recalls. “I know Colin’s under there, but it looks and feels like this completely different human being. So it’s this weird magic trick going on in front of you. It’s terrifying because he looks scary and almost bigger than I imagined. I remember telling Colin it’s scary. And he goes, ‘good. Use it.’”
Oh, there are plenty of opportunity for that: Feliz says the season only gets more hair-raising from here.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love being a part of this show, and my experience has been incredible,” says Feliz. “But you’re carrying around a bit of darkness all day long for weeks, and then weeks turns into months. It just kind of feels like your shoulders are a little more hunched than they normally would be. I welcome it though. I been searching for something that feels like this for a long time. I’ve been a part of some serious stuff before, but this is definitely the darkest and most twisted crime world thing that I have ever done.”
