Meet Marié Botha in "the best episode yet" of The Penguin

The fourth episode of The Penguin is now on Showmax (and on M-Net at 9pm today), taking a break from Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) to focus on the origin story of Sofia Falcone (Critics Choice Super Award winner Cristin Milioti) and why she’s known as The Hangman. 

Hailing The Batman spinoff for “the best episode of The Penguin yet,” Esquire says, “Episode 4 just proved this is one of the year’s best shows. Cristin Milioti went ahead and vaulted this series—and herself—into the Emmy conversation.”

Opposite Milioti, look out for South African actress Marié Botha in the Arkham Asylum flashbacks as Magpie. 

Botha was born in Pretoria and grew up in Joburg’s northern suburbs. Leaving South Africa at the tender age of 18 to chase her dream, she studied acting at New York University’s respected Tisch School of the Arts. After earning her BFA degree with honours, she enrolled in the masters programme at Yale School of Drama, as one of only 17 students in her class, selected from thousands. Once she had the MFA under her belt, Botha started building her life as a working actress in New York, where she has now lived for 14 years. It has been a varied tapestry of Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions, indie films, commercial voice-over work and countless auditions. She also came home briefly to play in the TV series Erfsondes back in 2012.

We caught up with the rising star.

Tell us more about your role in The Penguin?

I play Magpie, a villain with a split personality and a penchant for shiny things. When we see flashbacks of Sofia Falcone in Arkham Asylum, we meet Magpie. She befriends Sofia, but eventually paranoia takes over and Sofia starts to see Magpie as a threat and a spy. This is the first time we see Sofia truly pushed to the edge and the outcome is dire.

Playing Magpie was like walking a tightrope. In one way, she is this beautiful, dreamy, childlike creature, and on the other side of her sits darkness, trauma and vengeance.

It’s a gift to get to play characters that call on me to transform and put myself in parts of a psyche very unlike my own – Magpie is like that. She is troubled, haunted by childhood trauma, yet still trying to maintain positivity and look for beauty in her life. It’s sort of sweet and deeply sad. She is very dear to me.

What can you tell us about the experience of playing in a big-name series?

Watching Cristin Milioti navigate the role of Sofia Falcone, the female lead in The Penguin, was awe-inspiring. The work she was doing allowed me to see what it takes to lead a show of this size and calibre, and I am so ready to step into that space one day soon. I was extremely fortunate to have her as a compass and to be able to play opposite such a legend. I hope to work together again in the future.

How did you land the role? 

I was visiting my family in South Africa at the time and had just extended my trip when I got the callback. It was to be on Zoom with the director of episode 4, Helen Shaver. I logged on at midnight, 6pm New York time, and the most intense callback of my life ensued. We worked for ages on the first Magpie scene, doing it this way and that, almost to a point where I thought, “Am I messing this up? I don’t know which way is up anymore.” Right after the audition I was certain that was the end of the road on this one. But the next day I got a call from my agent that I had booked the job and needed to be on a plane back to New York the next morning for a hair and makeup test!

How’s the feedback been on your performance, and the series as a whole?

I am blown away by the support and love I have received for this small part of this huge, incredible series. At the premiere, I had the chance to connect with the brilliant Lauren LeFranc, who is the showrunner and writer/creator of the show, and I absolutely geeked out when she said, “We all love Magpie.” 

The show is doing really well. It opened to 5.3 million viewers, which broke records on the Max streaming service… and that’s just in the United States. We are in for a wild ride with this one, and as a Batman fan I can’t wait to see where The Penguin takes us through these eight episodes.

What is your dream role?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been attracted to playing villains and for as long as I can remember I have been a Harry Potter fan. When I heard about the HBO version of Harry Potter that is currently in development, I knew it would be beyond a dream to get to play Bellatrix Lestrange. Helena Bonham Carter played her in the films, and the complexity, humour and madness she carries is so delicious – I would give anything to dive into that. There is also a part of me that feels not quite ready to say goodbye to Magpie. It excites me that Matt Reeves is cooking up a lot more in the DC Universe, and I do feel that this incredible character has a lot more story to offer. Fingers crossed!

You’ve lived in New York for 14 years. Tell us a random NY secret?

In Brooklyn on Van Brunt Street, there is a little hole-in-the-wall record store called Record Shop where you can find the coolest old-school vinyls from Jim Croce to Nick Drake to James Brown to Rodriguez. They always have something spinning that you listen to while flipping through the racks. It’s such a treat to leave there with a tote bag full of cheap golden oldies.

Are you a New Yorker or a South African?

It is lore that you have to have lived in New York for 11 years before you can call yourself a New Yorker, and I’ve done 14. However, recently on a film set, a born-and-raised Brooklynite told me that, because too many people were claiming the title, it is now a new unspoken rule that you have to do 15 years. Shh, don’t tell him, but I know I am a New Yorker in my soul. In my heart, though, I will always be South African. It’s impossible to let go of the Afrikaans “boeremeisie” in me, and I would never want to. The moment I step off the plane in Cape Town and smell the sea air, hear the melting pot of languages, step through immigration like a local and see my parents waiting to take me to Hermanus, I know I’m home, always.

What’s the first thing you want to do when you arrive home?

Sit in the backyard garden of our beautiful home in Hermanus with an Inverroche gin and tonic, and catch up with my parents and sister while my dad is on the braai. Tjops, boerewors, braaibroodjies, malva poeding, family. Welkom tuis.