SA actress Marié Botha calls role of Magpie in ‘The Penguin’ her best career move
It was around 7am in New York when I called Marié Botha.
Sipping on her cup of coffee, she was brimming with energy and eager to chat about bagging the role of Magpie in the critically acclaimed crime drama, “The Penguin”, showing on Showmax and M-Net.
Based on the DC Comics character, the eight-part series charts the rise of Oswald Cobb/ The Penguin (played by Colin Farrell) in Gotham City’s criminal underworld.
Before unpacking how she landed the role, Botha revealed that she’s been in the US for 14 years.
After high school, she went to UCT for a few months and then moved to New York University. After she graduated, four years later, she spent a year trying her hand in the industry.
Without an agent, it was a Catch-22 situation trying to land work.
Botha was then one of the 17 students selected out of 2,000 entries to do her master's at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. She graduated in 2018.
She shared: “I’ve done a lot of Off-Broadway work, some commercials and voice-over work. I booked my first guest star role in a TV show in 2019. I played Mary Bowles in the Apple TV+ show, ‘Dickinson’.
“Then the pandemic happened. Right before the SAG actors strike, I was at home in South Africa visiting my parents and I got the audition for Magpie.
“I taped it from South Africa and did the callback over Zoom at midnight because they wanted to do it at 6 pm New York Time. The next day I found out that I got the part and I had to fly back for the hair and make-up test and we started shooting the week after.”
This was a big deal for Botha and she didn’t miss a beat in soaking up the experience of working on a project of this magnitude.
Botha revealed: “As soon as found out I got the part, I immediately ordered all the comic books that featured Magpie on eBay. I didn’t grow up reading comic books. I was a fantasy novel book girl. I was a fan of “Harry Potter”, “Lord of the Rings” and “A Series of Unfortunate Events”.
“I started reading and was fascinated with this character, she’s a lesser-known member of the Batman villain family, they are called The Rogues Gallery.
“She hasn’t been featured that extensively in film and TV over the years. So I was thrilled, first of all, that I got to play her and, second of all, that it was in this Matt Reeves universe.”
She added: “I love transformative roles. I work obviously on transforming my emotional and psychological gait.
“But the make-up and hair for this character helped because it almost gives you a certain freedom … There is a scar that they placed on the side of my face. And the rash from the chains at Arkham Asylum, that rotting teeth, the dirty fingernails and the tousled hair.
“So all of that was fantastic and helpful in sealing the deal with all of the work I had done. It was the best thing that has happened to me in my career to date.”
Botha features in episode four of the series.
“My scenes were all with Cristin Milioti, she plays Sofia Falcon. This episode specifically is focused on her character and flashbacks to when she was betrayed by her father and put into Arkham Asylum for the criminally insane against her will.
“And she meets me in there and we have a weird friendship.”
Botha says it was a very rich experience for her, despite only having three scenes.
She added: “I got to just pour myself into those scenes and make them as colourful as possible. The fact that the episode itself is one of the highest-grossing, highest-received episodes of television of all time is insane.
“And to be a part of that with a character that already has a built-in fan base has created quite a ripple effect. I’m quite overwhelmed in the most amazing way possible.”
With this series under her belt, she’s excited to take on more challenging roles.
She said: “The door is open, I want to do it all. I want to do more characters like this with psychological challenges and I want to do more period pieces and put on a corset and ride a horse. I want to do all of that. I want to do fantasy and horror. I’m very excited and hungry for more.
“I very much am eyeing the role of the villain Bellatrix Lestrange in the upcoming ‘Harry Potter’ reboot. Ever since I was a kid, I was obsessed with the books and Helena Bonham Carter, who played her in the films. That’s number one on my list right now.”
Before she had to dash, she shed light on trying to make her mark in the industry.
She shared: “Hollywood is what you make of it. It’s a waiting game. It’s an endurance game. Those that endure will be rewarded.”