South African actress Marié Botha has a role in the second biggest show in the world right now, ‘The Penguin’ starring Colin Farrell! Not only this, but her episode has achieved the pinnacle of IMDb ratings with a 9.6/10 score:
Global (15 October 2024) — Fans of Batman’s world and all its various spin-offs are likely already very familiar with the latest rollout from Gotham, ‘The Penguin’ starring a hardly recognisable Colin Farrell. In fact, even if you aren’t necessarily a fan of the notorious fictional city’s stories but simply can’t resist an intriguing show with thick plot lines, you might’ve picked up on the fact that the series is revealing itself to be quite the hit. According to IMDb, it’s the second-biggest show in the world right now!
All of this is hardly bad for the mood for South African actress and self-proclaimed ‘boeremeise’, Marié Botha who nabbed the role of villain Magpie in the show that’s already made the 100 top-rated series of all time list!
As a matter of fact, the episode Marié is in (episode 4) has been hailed as ‘the best episode of The Penguin yet,’ per Esquire. By IMDb standards, the episode has also reached the gold standard, thanks to a rating of 9.6/10.
It’s a big deal in the world of dreams for Pretoria-born Marié, who certainly deserves her flowers.
Born in Pretoria, Marié left home at 18 and headed off to the Big Apple to study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Following her BFA degree (which she earned with honours) Marie enrolled in the masters programme at Yale’s school of Drama—a position only 17 other students achieved despite thousands of applicants.
Equipped with an MFA—the jet fuel of her acting dreams—Marié began working as an actress in New York. With countless auditions, indie films, commercial voice-overs and Off-Broadway productions under her belt, Marié finally got her big break after 14 long years.
“I play Magpie, a villain with a split personality and a penchant for shiny things,” shares Marie. “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.”
Marié explains that the role was complex but a gift:
“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.”
Marié refers to the callback process as being the ‘most intense’ of her life.
“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!”
For the Batman fan, it was a dream role and one of many complex characters she hopes to play.
“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,” says Marié of her ‘dream role’.
She adds that she’d love to play Bellatrix Lestrange but also doesn’t feel 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!”
As for her South African roots, Marié shares that despite the length of her life in New York and identifying as a New Yorker in her soul, she will always be a South African at heart.
“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.”
You can catch The Penguin on Showmax and M-Net with new episodes every Monday! You can catch the trailer below:
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