Now Milioti is taking over Gotham.
To Milioti, this is the highest of compliments.
I was 7 whenBatman Returnscame out and I saw it in theaters.
Cristin Milioti at the photo studio from the New York premiere of HBO’s ‘The Penguin’.Emilio Madrid
It terrified me, but I also wanted to put it directly into my veins.
Milioti dressed as Catwoman that Halloween after seeing Pfeiffer on screen.
I remember the costume came with these little push-on plastic, very flimsy nails, she recalls.
Marié Botha as Magpie, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone on ‘The Penguin’.Macall Polay/HBO
I wore it for Halloween, yes, but then I wore it constantly.
I would come home from school and put it on and just freak out.
Emilio Madrid
Its sometimes difficult for Milioti, 39, to grasp the full-circle moment happening.
Cristin Milioti on ‘The Sopranos’.HBO
Some days on set ofThe Penguin, Milioti says, she would get very quiet taking in the experience.
I have been obsessed with this role since the moment I signed on, she continues.
They shared the first four episodes with me before we started filming.
Michaela Coel, Jesse Plemons, Jimmi Simpson, Cristin Milioti, and the rest of the ‘Black Mirror’ cast of ‘U.S.S. Callister.'.Jonathan Prime / Netflix
Of episode 4, specifically, she adds, For sure when I read that, my heart exploded.
Milioti sits on the living room couch of her Brooklyn apartment on a Tuesday afternoon in early October.
She cant say which project exactly.
Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone on ‘The Penguin’.Macall Polay/HBO
Everything is hush hush, she remarks of Hollywood jobs.
Gone is that once cool-girl demeanor.
To get to do all that in one hour, I was beside myself.
Its like a movie.
You get to see her in all those different stages of how she’s pushed to madness.
Macall Polay/HBO
Milioti has a love-hate relationship with discussing the acting process.
You could say that defines Miliotis career as a whole.
I really think she transformed Sofia in my head.
Sofia starts as a character who is a little bit of a cipher.
You don’t understand what happened to her.
You don’t understand what her agenda fully is.
We’re pretty much there to do everything but actually have a meal, he recalls.
There’s a lot of dancing around the elephants in the room.
Johnny Sack (Vincent Curatola), on three episodes of theJames Gandolfini-led hit.
She calls it one of many profound, emotional, moving, and meaningful synchronicities in my life.
It was only in 2022 that Milioti watchedThe Sopranosin its entirety.
I kind of forgot I was on it, she admits.
I mean, Im notgoodin it.
I didnt know how to get the line out.
HBO
Milioti remembers the overwhelming experience at that age.
Student loans also felt crippling to a young actor hoping to enter an already competitive field.
I think I’m losing my mind here, she recalls.
I didn’t know what craft service was, Milioti admits.
One of the crew members was like, you’ve got the option to’t miss it.
It’s a giant table of food.
That’s been sprayed!
Despite that moment, which is still burned into Miliotis brain, she considers the experience a pivotal moment.
What she had to learn next was to trust that she knew what she was doing.
The feedback would always be: You’re doing an impression of what you think a CW show is.
Because I wanted the job, she points out.
I wanted to pay my rent.
Then a certain casting director took her aside.
Thats a tough thing to learn because auditions are brutal.
They never get easier.
Like her standout episode ofBlack Mirrorin 2017, season 4s U.S.S.
The scene was me explaining about coding of some kind, but also there was urgency to it.
She wasnt surprised to get that call.
We always talked about it, she says of the sequel.
This business is crazy and things fall apart.
It’s a miracle that anything gets made.
Its the same reason why shes so appreciative of Sofia Falcone.
Milioti actively auditioned for various comic book-based projects over the years.
I tested for a bunch of different ones.
They weren’t interested, Milioti remarks.
I was never precious about it.
I got to do it eventually and in a way that feels right for me.
I know that I wasn’t right for those other ones.
At the very least, “She’s a chameleon,” LeFranc says.
“She’s the best part of everything she’s in.
I think we all felt that.”
