Rhenzy Feliz on the role of Victor in “The Penguin”, That Season Finale Twist and What’s Next in the Bat-verse

ESQUIRE: Obviously this is the end of the road for Victor. But it’s so heartbreaking! Were you happy with the end of his story?

RHENZY FELIZ: Yes, when I got to the end I was happy, but I always expected that to be the end. That was always the story for me, the natural ending. That’s why I never thought about it because I knew where we were going. For what we wanted to do to serve the story, it was necessary for the audience to see it [the Penguin] as irredeemable.

I loved it when Oz picked up your driver’s license and confirmed that you were just Victor Aguilar. You are no secret to anyone theorizing at home Batman Character. It really sold the moment for me.

Yes, and what a brutal moment it is too. The whole show, Oz tells him [imitating Colin Farrell’s Penguin]“You’ll remember us, boy. They will remember our names. You can be anyone.” For him to take away my driver’s license and just leave me as John Doe with a body in the river so that no one will ever know who I was… that’s brutal.

Fantastic impression of Oz Cobb by the way. I can’t stop quoting him, even in the office. Did Colin hear it?

No, not in front of Colin. [Laughs.] I’ll keep it to myself. But when I’m with my friends and we watch the show, it’s fun to put on the voice.

You seem to have a knack for language work. What impresses me most about your performance is the stuttering.

Definitely. When I first came to audition, [the script] didn’t mention it. I came back to meet the director, Craig [Zobel]and he did it to me in the middle of the audition. I did a few scenes without it, and then he said, “Why don’t you just try it?” As an actor, you feel like you can’t say no. I just thought, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll try!’ It must have been pretty decent because they wanted me to meet Colin. In between, I hired my own dialect coach and stuttered for a few days. Later I got the call that they wanted me to come shoot. They hired a language consultant, Marc Winski, and he was incredibly helpful.

I wanted it to feel real to me. So we spent a lot of time going out in public, calling people, and figuring out not so much the technical aspects of stuttering, but more the mental and emotional side. Mark also stutters, which was invaluable. I worried about the entire community of people who live with this every day. If I came in as someone who didn’t have that [a stutter] and didn’t take it seriously enough – or they felt like I was making fun of it – I was very afraid of the thought that they would reject me. Luckily everyone was incredibly nice. It was a relief.

I liked the scene with Colin in episode 3 where you’re sitting at a fancy lunch and he defends you from the waiter interrupting you as you stutter.

It was one of my favorite scenes. It’s really the first time you’ve heard Victor speak. Before it’s just a sentence here and there, but then he actually talks a bit about himself. He opens up and Oz listens to him. This day was beautiful. After we finished, Colin came up to me and patted me on the face. He didn’t even say anything, but I could feel the energy saying, “That was nice.” We’re doing a good job.” He and I knew that this was an important scene for Victor, for his development with Oz and as Main character in the eyes of the audience.

It was probably easy for Colin to get in and out of his character since he literally had to put on and take off a mountain of prosthetics. But was there anything you would do to familiarize yourself with Victor before filming?

I used a lot of music. I created a playlist called “Vic.” There’s a song by Eminem called “8 Mile” that I used for the entire second half of the season. When someone hears “8 Mile,” they’ll see it.

“8 Mile” checks out.

I also have “Flight from the City” by Jóhann Jóhannsson. And I have this The walking castle Soundtrack here too.

This feels like the opposite of The penguin. Was this just a relief after a really intense scene? Like a palate cleanser?

Exactly. I would use Howl Simply go to a neutral place at the beginning of each day. It’s meditative. Calming. But then, as I sat in the makeup chair with my lines in my hands, I hear the Victor music.

Was it difficult to play a character who constantly makes bad decisions?

The only time I was mad at Victor was when he would screw up the mission. I did my best to understand where he was coming from. In his heart he is good. He doesn’t want to do any of this, but he does it against his will because he wants to be useful to Oz. He loves Oz and doesn’t want to abandon Oz. It’s more of a necessity.

We all have choices to make – and we have much more control over our fate than we think. Victor, Oz, Sophia, even Francis – none of them are in a good position at the end of the show. When Victor kills Squid he thinks: I can’t let him harm Oz and Francis because they are my new family.

I doubt Victor could appear in any possible Bat-Verse projects from here on out, but from what I’ve read in your interviews, you seem like a guy who would rather move on to something new anyway.

Yeah, you’re definitely right that I’m looking forward to the next thing. I just want to play more interesting characters and be part of as many exciting projects as I can. It’s not necessarily a role I’m looking forward to or a specific character I want to play, but I have one in the back of my mind that I want to play when I’m a little older. I’ve always loved Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Hamilton is one of my favorite pieces of art ever made. I’d love to do that someday – I just need to get my singing lessons up to speed.

You were there Encanto. Seems like you already have something to do with Lin-Manuel.

Yes. [Laughs.] I don’t know what it is about me. I just have to get better if I want to perform this musical. I always looked forward to that.