While at New York Comic Con this year, I had the opportunity to speak with The Penguin showrunner/writer/executive producer Lauren LeFranc as well as cast members Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, and Michael Kelly. New episodes of the show premiere Sundays on HBO and are available to stream on Max.

Starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka “The Penguin”), the DC Studios series continues filmmaker Matt Reeves’ The Batman epic crime saga that began with Warner Bros. Pictures’ global blockbuster The Batman. Developed by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, the series centers on the character played by Farrell in the film.

During roundtable interviews with the talent, I asked what they each considered to be the most rewarding part of working on The Penguin. Milioti answered, “It’s kind of been endlessly rewarding, I gotta say. We’ve been doing press for this show for a minute now and I always get a little self-conscious about repeating things that I’ve said but it’s kind of the nature of it. But that I’m such a big Batman fan and dreamt of being a villain since I was a kid and so, that was already rewarding in its way, but you never know how something that you’re a part of will turn out. When we were shooting it, I certainly thought it was special but I’ve shot a lot of things that I thought were special and that never found their audience, people didn’t feel that way, or the chaos of making something and putting it out in the world.”

She continued to say, “There’s all these different stages of reward where like the first was being given the opportunity to do it when it’s such a lifelong dream and then, making it with such extraordinary artists [at] every level, like every single department of this show is the top of their game and are also so excited about it. So you’re also just surrounded by incredible artists, crew, cast, and creatives, and then there’s always the terror of how the world will receive it. Ever since we started shooting the show, I’ve really tried to keep my expectations in the basement because I love this show so much and to see the reception has been mindblowing. So, there’s been different stages of it and to see — I don’t read anything, I stay off the internet, I’ve really tried to stay away from everything, but I know that people, even in my own life, really love Sofia [Falcone] and I love her so much and so, that has also been a reward as well. So it’s been multi-layered.”

“Well, that everybody enjoys it so much. I mean, we were talking backstage about how great it is to be in something that everyone likes, that we like, and that seems to be universally liked. I mean, we’ve all done films that are more controversial in their reception,” Brown, who portrays Salvatore Maroni, shared. “We all thought it was gonna be good ‘cause when we make these movies, we all think it’s gonna be good and every now and then, we make one that’s as good or better than we expected. That’s been the nicest thing about it.”

Kelly brings the character of Johnny Viti to life and commented, “Doing it with these people. I think you had the best of the best from every department, from costumes to, obviously, the special effects and the actors involved. Doing those scenes with Cristin, working with her, she is such a force and such a giving actor. So, to get to play with her, that scene in the mausoleum, as awful of a day as it was sitting on concrete like that for an entire day and being tortured, being tortured by her, was as good as it’s gonna get. It was an honor.”

“That’s a really good question. Well, honestly, personally, the most rewarding thing is that we had the greatest crew and just the greatest cast, and I had the greatest writers and every day, my life for the last few years has been going to work with these people and also, seeing what they can do. I think the reason our show is special is because there’s like a million talented people who are so passionate and you can feel that on screen. I feel like my job as a showrunner is to just reiterate my vision time and again to the point where other people then say that vision and then believe in it so fervently. So to me, that’s personally the most exciting thing, and I’m really floored and appreciative that people feel connected emotionally to the show. I care a lot about these characters,” LeFranc expressed. “I’ve spent a lot of time on little details and little moments in the scenes and the things that matter most to me are sometimes the smallest little joke or the smallest little moment. And so, seeing some people respond to that is great and the fact that I get to evolve canon for something so seminal, I mean I grew up on comic books. I grew up reading these comic books and now, I get to be a part of that universe and have a future in that, that’s really neat.”

Feliz takes on the role of Victor Aguilar and told me, “I put a decent amount of pressure on myself for the stutter thing. I was very nervous about it and what people would say. It’s a disability and I don’t have it, and so, I could see how people would get naturally upset about that. I think what’s been a relief is the fact that a lot of people in the community have reached out, who have a stutter, and have been very, very kind about it, and I think that they feel seen in a way and that they think I did an okay enough job to where no one’s cursing me out or sending me death threats. So, I just think that’s been the most rewarding part is that this thing that I put a lot of pressure on ended up being, for that community, they ended up accepting it, I guess, or the people that I’ve heard from, at least.”

“There were many rewarding aspects. I mean, it’s rare. I was so happy shooting it, I loved shooting it so much. I was genuinely so happy, so challenged, and so scared, and then, felt so met and supported by everybody involved with it. So, you come away from a situation like that and you think, ‘Okay, I’m never gonna watch it,’ I had sworn to myself I would never watch it. That was the only way I could do some of it, I would feel like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so embarrassing. I’ll never see it, though. So, it’s okay, just keep going.’ So, I had sort of made a pact with myself that I would never watch it but then, we had to loop, so they set up the first scene with Francis, Victor, and Oz in the kitchen, and I mean, I had loved shooting that scene. It was also very hard to stop laughing because we were giving Rhenzy so much shit to the point where at one point he just literally sat down on the floor in the living room because we were like, ‘Don’t touch my shit.’ But I expected it to sort of have a lot of music behind it and be cut together in a certain way. When that scene started and they had just let it unfold almost like a piece of theater, and there’s no underscoring it, it was just very plain and it played out in real-time in this way and I was like, I thought this was gonna be a show based on comic characters and so, I was expecting it to just feel a little bigger,” O’Connell, who plays Francis Cobb, explained.

The actress then added, “As real as it felt shooting it, I thought, ‘But they’re gonna sweeten this up and make it almost unrecognizable,’ and there was nothing. It was so plain and it was so beautiful to me that I actually started crying. I was like, ‘You guys, you didn’t zhuzh this up, you let it [be],’ and a lot of the stuff with Francis and Oz is like that. It’s like all of a sudden, then everything stops and everything’s very plain, and that quality, I hadn’t seen that coming. I knew it felt that way to shoot it, but I really didn’t think it would feel that way to watch it. Now, of course, I broke my pact and I’ve seen everything. And so, next time I make that pact to myself when I’m working, I won’t believe myself. I’ll be like, ‘You’re gonna watch this.’ No, I swear, this time I won’t watch it!’”