Colin Farrell resisted rewatching iconic mob drama The Sopranos while preparing for his turn as a gangster boss in The Penguin, the Irish star of the new Batman universe series told AFP on Tuesday. The Penguin chronicles the gritty rise of a low-level player in the criminal underworld against a backdrop of societal dysfunction in grimy Gotham City, with New York City used for filming.

Farrell’s anti-hero character, Oz Cobb who is dubbed the Penguin for his unsteady walk from a mishandled case of club foot, has drawn media comparisons to the larger-than-life mob boss Tony Soprano played by James Gandolfini. Farrell, who spent hours a day being transformed into a grizzled, chunky villain, said he had drawn on “anything I ever read or seen about that world” for inspiration.

“To be honest I didn’t need references because the script was just — you use your imagination — we’re given fantastic writing,” he told AFP at the New York premiere Tuesday. “There’s no doubt anything I’ve ever seen (inspired me) from Untouchables to Sopranos — I’m not comparing myself (to the Sopranos). It inhabits a similar world. No (I didn’t rewatch it) — that would mess with me, why would I do that? That would mess with me because I’m very susceptible to influence” he said.

“All those films that I have seen in my past are part of my Rolodex of what I now own as my imagination.” The Penguin is the latest of several productions set in the Batman universe, but without the presence of the eponymous hero. This eight-episode DC Studios series follows Matt Reeves’s film The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader. The Penguin airs on HBO and streams on Max from Thursday.