All About Rhenzy Feliz’ Victor Aguilar and His Stutter

SPOILER ALERT! This story accommodates particulars from Sunday’s third episode of The Penguin on HBO.

In contrast to Colin Farrell, Rhenzy Feliz didn’t have supply materials to peruse earlier than accepting the position of Victor Aguilar — The Penguin’s man Friday who finally ends up saving his boss in episode 3 by driving a automotive into Nadia Maroni’s henchmen.

Victor is a brand new creation for HBO’s adaptation in regards to the traditional DC villain — which suggests Feliz, finest recognized for voicing Camilo in Encanto and taking part in Alex Wilder in The Runaways — had a clean canvas to work from when it got here time to create the right protégé for Oz.

At the very least, that’s what Feliz thought earlier than attempting out for the position.

“Proper after I despatched in my preliminary audition, they wished me to satisfy Craig Zobel, our director,” recollects Feliz. “I ran by means of the scenes a few instances, after which he requested me if I’d ever executed a stutter earlier than. I hadn’t. He stated, ‘I do know you haven’t ready, I do know you didn’t know this coming in, however do you thoughts simply type of attempting it out to see the way it sounds?’ As an actor, you simply say sure and run with it. I gave it my finest shot. I suppose it was ok as a result of they wished me to satisfy with Colin just a few weeks later.”

Wanting again, Feliz understands why the producers thought it necessary that Victor, a delinquent from a flood-ravaged part of Gotham Metropolis, have a speech obstacle.

“I believe to Oz, he sees a little bit of himself in Victor,” says Feliz, who labored with a fluency coach throughout manufacturing. “Ozhas a incapacity himself, and he is aware of he been checked out as an underdog who hasn’t been given many probabilities in his life and even regarded down upon due to his incapacity. He sees Victor has one, as nicely. They’re from the identical neighborhood, and he thinks, ‘possibly I can provide this child an opportunity, the possibility that no one actually ever gave me.’”

That’s primarily why Vic selected to stay with Ozslightly than be a part of his galpal on the bus and escape the hell that Gotham had change into.

“At that time in his life, he form of misplaced his household. He misplaced his function, actually,” says Feliz. “And I believe in Oz, he finds a little bit of function. There’s this grand factor that they’re attempting to perform, and he may be part of one thing larger than simply himself. I imply, he’s a poor child. Cash’s an enormous incentive to individuals who don’t have sufficient of it. After which on high of that, he sees one thing in Ozthat he needs he had for himself. This form of confidence, this form of chest out, chin up. There’s an angle that Ozcarries in himself that possibly Victor admires and appears as much as, and he desires slightly little bit of that in his life, as nicely.”

Feliz described working with Farrell as if it was seeing “magic being executed in entrance of you,” although he admits to being terrified when the Irish actor first ambled on set in his full physique swimsuit and prosthetics.

Oh, man. It was astonishing,” he recollects. “I do know Colin’s underneath there, but it surely seems and appears like this utterly completely different human being. So it’s this bizarre magic trick happening in entrance of you. It’s terrifying as a result of he seems scary and nearly larger than I imagined. I keep in mind telling Colin it’s scary. And he goes, ‘good. Use it.’”

Oh, there are many alternative for that: Feliz says the season solely will get extra hair-raising from right here.

“Don’t get me incorrect, I like being part of this present, and my expertise has been unimaginable,” says Feliz. “However you’re carrying round a little bit of darkness all day lengthy for weeks, after which weeks turns into months. It simply type of appears like your shoulders are slightly extra hunched than they usually can be. I welcome it although. I been looking for one thing that appears like this for a very long time. I’ve been part of some critical stuff earlier than, however that is positively the darkest and most twisted crime world factor that I’ve ever executed.”