At this week's New York Comic Con, I and a few other reporters had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the cast of The Penguin. Each of them were wonderfully gracious and answered our questions to give more insight into what went into making the show. Below is our conversation with Cristin Milioti, who plays Sofia Falcone. You can see our coverage of the public panel here.

This role seems darker than the other roles you played, in Fargo and How I Met Your Mother for instance. What attracted you to playing Sofia?

I think it's certainly the opportunity to do something different. But also everything about this role appealed to me. She's so complex, and it's such an incredible world, and I'm such a huge Batman fan, so to just even be in this universe was a thrill, but to get to play this multi-layered villain. It was just, it was a dream. So there was no world in which I wasn't gonna jump be a part of this.

Did they contact you? Or did you have to audition?

They contacted me and I met with them and we talked for many hours and then I screen tested with Colin for the DC gods, and then it worked out.

For the role of Sofia Falcone, what were the inspirations that you pulled for this particular interpretation, in terms of how you wanted to portray her. Were there any discussions with showrunner?

Oh my God, endless discussions and it was something that we really found together. You know, I can't sing [showrunner] Lauren's praises enough. I think her brain and heart are so special that she created this world and created this character. And so we had a lot of discussions.

I had a lot of strong feelings about how I wanted to portray her, knowing where she goes. It was really collaborative between her and I and [director] Craig Zobel, and the most incredible [director] Helen Shaver who did episode four. It felt like a very open discussion at all times and just endless conversations and pre-production.

In Batman media as a whole, especially with the prominence of Arkham Asylum, there's this stigma about villainizing mental illness, with portrayals of the Joker, Two-Face, and what have you. But that seems to be something that The Penguin as a series, and especially your character, is very interested in subverting and kind of rising above, and I want to ask about how you took on that challenge.

Oh well, again, I think that speaks to Lauren's Brilliance because Sophia is such a wonderful example where you get to see how she's driven mad and how the world can drive someone mad and how pain can drive people to do terrible things. I mean that's the world that we're living in. I think that's why I've always loved Batman. Because I kind of have always felt that the villains of the world and Batman himself are all recovering from  - or they're not recovering, actually they're actively not recovering - they are attempting to make sense of these horrible things that have happened to them, and it comes out in these larger than life ways.

Like there's always been a fine line between Bruce Wayne sewing a leather cape in his giant garage and the Riddler making his costume; they're sort of the same. Obviously that's been explored in all the films, but I think that also what she does so brilliantly is she shows how someone can be broken and put into that. I guess in the Keaton Joker you see him sort of go slowly mad, and with Heath Ledger his past is a mystery which is what's delightful about it. So it kind of like shifts around a bit but I love that we got the opportunity in this, to show someone's full descent because you understand villainy, which is so exciting.

There's been a lot of chatter about how Penguin is basically superhero show without the superhero, and I was wondering what you feel like your personal experience was having to explain how you're basically playing like a mob boss in a show that comes from comic books but doesn't adhere to typical comic book tropes, especially since you mentioned you're a Batman fan.

Well I think that's one of the things I really love about it because they're villains, and it is the world, but you get to see their origin story. I feel like origin story is like thrown around a lot, but you really do and it's thrilling. I've also always really liked Batman because it does seem like it's a sort of stand-in for New York and everything is possible. Even him as a superhero, he has no powers which is what I love. None of them have powers, it's like their own madness is what powers them, him too. To me, it sort of felt like it was so in the world of the movie that it just felt present without like needing to see someone fly. I love that aspect of it.

The Sophia in the comics is probably a less multi-dimensional character than what you've portrayed on the show and I think you've built out her complexity by adding a lot of layers. Can you talk to how you added to the character on top of what you've adapted from the source material?

Early on in my initial meeting with Matt Reeves and Lauren, when I met with them I'd done sort of preliminary internet research where I was like "who is this?" and I read a ton about her and but I didn't go out and buy the comics because I wanted to be like "what should I attach myself to or shouldn't?" and they both were like "just so you know this is we're taking this in a different direction. You can read the comics if you'd like but we're doing something very different." So I kind of decided not to and really focused on what Lauren wrote. So I know there are shared elements, I definitely know it's subverted, but, I kind of just tried to focus on this world as much as I could, and also that's another brilliant aspect of getting to do something long form like this. You do get to explore all these different levels to her that you maybe wouldn't in a film because there's so many of characters.

Runtime also is another issue that you would have to run into if you were to do it in the movies. So it makes sense for the show that you have enough room and space to really explore Sophia.

One of my favorite parts of four is that you get to is that you see who she was before all this happened. And I also hope, or it's a hope of mine, that if you were to go back and watch episodes one through three, knowing what's coming, that you'll see the ways that inform how she speaks and moves. Little things that she says that maybe people at the time are like, "what is that? Oh, I don't know what that is." Even when they're smoking outside the club and she's like, "well, I'm not the hangman." A friend of mine the other night was like, "when I heard that I was like, what? Okay, I guess I'll figure that out", and I love stuff like that, or that she wakes up in her closet every day clawing at her neck, you don't know why she does that until four. I mean I have chills thinking about it. It's so rare that you get the opportunity to plant those seeds and see them like flower later.

What were the challenges with trying to have a series that stands alone, while being an extension of an established film? You mentioned earlier that this is a multi-layered world where there are a lot of lived in characters and environments. How did you navigate that with the showrunner?

You never know how things are going to be received. I've been working long enough now that like that you just can never tell what people will respond to and what will move people. I certainly felt reading these scripts "this is so unbelievably special" but it's just chaos, you know? You just don't know what will connect. I feel like Lauren could probably answer that question better. You get nervous when you care about something, you want other people to care about it. So certainly you know that If you're lucky, there will be a lot of eyes on it, but that also comes with its own set of pressures and not wanting to let people down or not live up to expectations. In terms of navigating that day-to-day when you're filming, you just kind of have to ignore it I guess. I did try my best to but you think about it sometimes for sure.

I'm just gonna ask, have we seen the last of Sophia?

I hope not, because I love her. I also would have a laser pointer on my head if I say anything but I love her and I selfishly hope not, you know?

Stay tuned for more Batman News coverage of NYCC, including interviews, news, and panels.