Danny DeVito’s Penguin Crush: A Candid Confession About Michelle Pfeiffer
You know, sometimes Hollywood legends surprise you, and that’s exactly what happened when Danny DeVito sat down with Colin Farrell for Variety’s Actors on Actors . The two powerhouse actors were there to compare notes on portraying Oswald Cobblepot—better known as The Penguin —but it wasn’t just the beak and the top hat that made headlines. It was DeVito’s totally unfiltered, absolutely endearing confession about working with Michelle Pfeiffer on Batman Returns that stole the show.
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Right in the middle of discussing prosthetics, power grabs, and the unique “grotesqueness” they each brought to the role, DeVito dropped the line: “She was a goddess.” And he meant it. He went on to admit how hard it was to keep his cool on set around Pfeiffer, who famously played Catwoman. “I got all flushed. Put extra makeup on — ‘Give me another pound of makeup,’” he said, laughing at his own starstruck behavior. “It was very difficult… and I lusted after her. I loved her.”
Farrell, never one to miss a beat, couldn’t resist joking: “Did she call security?” DeVito chuckled and quipped, “I kind of feel like she liked it. She liked Oswald.” Classic DeVito — bold, funny, and just a little cheeky.
But beneath the laughs was a genuine respect between the two actors for the complexity of the Penguin character. DeVito remembered cooking pasta between takes and spending 66 days in full makeup. Farrell, who portrays a much darker, mob-style Penguin in the Max series The Penguin , talked about how the role wore him down emotionally — even if he was grateful for it. “I had nothing of myself left,” he admitted, reflecting on how deep he sank into the character of Oz Cobb.
What’s striking is how these two very different takes on the same villain can still reflect something shared — a brutal, raw, and oddly tragic grotesqueness. As Farrell put it, “There’s an ugliness that your Oswald and my Oz shared… a kind of uncouth grotesqueness.” It’s a thread that ties the two performances together despite decades between them and radically different storytelling styles.
DeVito even threw his hat in the ring for a potential return. Would he come back if Tim Burton called? “Absolutely,” he said. And when asked if he’d guest star in Farrell’s series, he gave a mock-growl: “Absolutely. It would be really great. Ah, the old Penguin, nastier than ever; you ain’t seen nothing yet!”
So here we are, decades later, and the Penguin’s still got bite. And Danny DeVito? He’s still got heart — and maybe just a little crush on a certain feline femme fatale.
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