“Its heartbreaking, its brutal.”
Rhenzy Feliz discusses Victor Aguilar’s journey in The Penguin finale.
This article contains spoilers forThe Penguinepisode 8.
Den of Geek: A moment of silence for Vic.
How was it playing such a brutal death scene in the season finale?
Ad content continues below
Rhenzy Feliz:It was an interesting one.
Me and Colin both circled the dates in our calendar knowing that the scene was coming up.
and I was like Yeah.
Three days before that, he was like Three days before our scene!
and then, [the day before] Big day tomorrow!
The thing that I was most interested in nailing was the moment right before that happened.
Its a very soft scene.
The way I read it, its vulnerable and emotional.
These two are opening up to each other in a way that they maybe havent before.
Then, for Oz to do that directly afterwards, its meant to be a gut-punch.
That was its own challenge as well, filming the strangling and dying of it all.
That was an interesting thing to do, but thats more physical.
The first half is more emotional, mental, and wanting to tackle this challenge.
Theyre two different challenges ones physical and ones emotional.
It was a big day and we knew as much.
It was a little bit darker, more sad and sullen kind of day.
Even before that, in the hospital, its Vic coaching Oz after they bring in Francis.
Vic pulls up Oz from his lowest moment only to get rewarded for it shortly thereafter.
That was an incredibly exciting thing to get to do over eight episodes.
You get eight hours on this thing and that was very exciting.
By the end, he is more assertive.
you might see that in the way hes talking to the gangs.
Yall are a bunch of cowards.
By the end of the show, hes telling off the heads of these five different gangs.
Do you thinkVic killing Squid in the seventh episodealso killed the innocent, old Vic?
I think its on a gradual spectrum versus an on-and-off switch.
Hes on his way to something much darker and it wouldve been interesting to play out.
I wonder if hed lose all of his goodness and innocence, I dont know.
There were some things I was doing with posture and my stutter.
At the beginning, his shoulders are rolled a little bit and he looks up a lot more.
As the show goes on, hes talking to you more head-on.
Maybe the audience wont know that its happening, but theyll feel that theres a difference.
So many of your scenes are with Colin Farrell.
How was it working with him on this series, especially on the more intense scenes?
The guy is so giving as an actor.
Id tell him you’re free to totally go home, were just finishing this coverage.
Hed always stay back and give whatever I needed for looks as an actor.
Thats just an example.
I couldnt have asked for a better person to stand next to and take this journey with.
Its heartbreaking, its brutal.
If Im looking at it as Rhenzy, I think Oz cares about people who adore him.
The way you get that is making people think that you care about them.
Its more about the adoration that Oz gets rather than the care that he gives to others.
I think that Victor confused the two.
Im the little guy and look at what hes doing for me.
He couldve killed me but he didnt because he cares.
I think he confuses that adoration, attention, and wanting to look up to Oz.
Looking back, what scenes standout for you?
What makes the sizzle reel?
Its hard to watch my own stuff, to be honest.
I try not to bring that up as much as possible, I think its eye-rolling behavior.
There are very small moments in 6 that I like.
I like watching everyone elses work more.
That whole scene is heartbreaking.
I was having the time of my life watching Francis talk to Sofia, going Go fuck yourself.
I cant wait until my son puts a bullet in that little skull of yours.
All of those scenes are fun to watch.
Some of them are heartbreaking, some of the other ones are intense.
I just find them to be awesome.
I can stand back and appreciate those.
I think its hard for me to stand back and appreciate my own.
Its the other ones that Im in awe of.
Rhenzy, lets lay Vic to rest.
It was an honor.
A 17-year-old kid probably wouldnt just take to it like that.
Itll probably take some time, itll hurt, and it wont be fun.
Taking a real grounded approach to it and bringing it into reality, I thought it was awesome.
They seem protective of him, they dont want him to go.
They dont want him to meet a tragic demise.
I think thats who Victor is at his core.
We get to see that, see the everyday person and what happens to them.
Thats the human aspect of whats going on in the city and Victor embodies that.
We get to see an extraordinary tale because its not the everyday person who gets to meet Oz.
We get to see what happens.
I think thats who he is and Im glad people were able to embrace him.
All eight episodes of The Penguin are available to stream on Max.
