#Rochard kind full#

(Also, I told myself that I wouldn’t just choose people from The Sopranos for this exercise, only to accidentally wind up with three people from Billions. An actor of Giamatti’s caliber deserves a meatier villain role than that, and the world of The Batman, which exists at the intersection of the grounded Gotham of the Nolan movies and the hyperstylized Schumacher version, would provide the perfect palette for him to unleash his wildest instincts. The Penguin is a major role, and what if you want someone with a little more star power? Then go with Giamatti, who hasn’t dipped his toe into superhero cinema since his cameo as Rhino in the Amazing Spider-Man 2 epilogue.

Photo-Illustration: Vulture Photos by Getty Images and Warner Bros. Who could The Batman have cast instead? I’m glad you asked. It’s enough to make me feel like Emma Stone in “ Wells for Boys” - everything is for hunks, this one thing is for character actors! In today’s industry, filmmakers would rather cast someone who looks like Jon Hamm and make him unrecognizable, as if he’s the one who’s hiding a secret identity.

#Rochard kind full#

In decades past, the part of the Penguin would have been a prime opportunity for one of our finest character actors to go Full Ham. (Question for the class: How many of those castings would have happened if James Gandolfini were still alive?) Take Farrell in The Batman. Or make that someone - the guys who already look like what these A-listers are trying to turn into. Now, Colin Farrell piles on the prosthetics to play the Penguin in The Batman, a performance that is such a match for Mortensen’s Oscar-nominated turn that I almost expected him to fold an entire pizza in half and eat it.Īs thrilling as it may be to see Hollywood’s makeup artists transcend the limits of the human face, I can’t help but worry that something’s getting lost. Then, Jared Leto went full mamma mia! for House of Gucci. First, Viggo Mortensen gained the weight of a typical 5-year-old to play future Sopranos guest star Tony Lip in Green Book. Pity the regular-guy character actor, who in recent years has thrice lost out on plum gigs to pretty-boy stars making dramatic transformations.

Colin Farrell (under heavy makeup) in The Batman.