10 Actors Whose Movie Character Requests Got Rejected
2. Colin Farrell Wanted The Penguin To Smoke Cigars - The Batman
Colin Farrell gives a phenomenally transformative performance as Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin in Matt Reeves' The Batman, donning extensive facial prosthetics and a fat suit to alter his appearance beyond almost all recognition.
There's one aspect of the character's portrayal that Farrell wasn't quite satisfied with, however.
He fought hard to have the mobster smoke cigars throughout the film, as has been a common character trait ever since The Penguin's creation, only for Warner Bros. to outright refuse on moral grounds.
In an interview with YouTuber Jake's Takes, Farrell said:
"Big studios make big decisions around such things as the presence of cigarettes in films... I fought valiantly for a cigar. At one stage I said, 'I can have it unlit! Just let me have it unlit.' They were like, 'No.' [As if] a bunch of 12-year-olds are going to start smoking Cuban cigars because [the Penguin is smoking cigars in a movie]."
Farrell's performance is magnetic enough that it's easy to forget about the absence of the villain's signature cigars, but on the flip-side it does seem a tad excessive for Warner Bros. to have a blanket ban on smoking in all movies rated PG-13 or lower.