You might know Cristin Milioti from her knock-down, drag-out performance as Sofia Falcone (turned Gigante) in the HBO original miniseries “The Penguin” — but did you know that she also auditioned for one of the biggest movies of 2024? If you weren’t aware of that until right now, I’ll forgive you … because Milioti did not book the role.
In a conversation with Deadline on the red carpet ahead of the SAG Awards — which took place in Los Angeles on February 22 and where Milioti was nominated for her role in “The Penguin” but lost out to “Baby Reindeer” breakout Jessica Gunning — Milioti was asked about the fact that she apparently auditioned for “Wicked.” Not only that, but Milioti was quite candid about the whole thing. “I did a really bad job,” the acclaimed actress confessed.Â
“How could you possibly be bad?” the interviewer asked — and so, Milioti answered honestly. “Well, there was a real big famous note that I was nowhere near hitting,” she continued, referencing the enormous riff Elphaba Thropp, the newly christened Wicked Witch of the West, hits at the end of her showstopping number “Defying Gravity.” Still, Milioti said that the film’s director Jon M. Chu took it in stride: “But Jon was really kind about it, and you know, I really went for it.”
So would she play someone else in a “Wicked” project considering that Cynthia Erivo ended up playing Elphaba in the film (and went on to earn an Oscar nod for her performance)? Milioti says yes. “Oh my god, I would love it,” she gushed. “Are you kidding? Big fan.”
Cristin Milioti is actually a wickedly talented singer and musician
Cristin Milioti might feel like downplaying her musical talents to joke about how she couldn’t hit Elphaba’s high note during her “Wicked” audition, but if you’re at all familiar with her career, you know that she’s actually a very skilled singer and musician. In 2012, Milioti earned a Tony nomination for her starring role in “Once,” a small and intimate musical about a street busker who meets a girl on the street (Milioti’s character, known simply as “Girl”) with whom he forms an immediate bond. Milioti starred in “Once” from 2011 to 2013, and also in 2013, she began appearing in the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” as, well, The Mother! In the standout episode of that show’s final season, titled “How Your Mother Met Me,” Milioti performs a simple and stunning version of Édith Piaf’s famous song “La Vie en Rose” on the ukelele, marking one of the absolute best moments and scenes of the (otherwise pretty dreadful) ninth season.
Sure, Milioti didn’t score the role of Elphaba, but to be fair to her, Cynthia Erivo was basically born to place the role of the green sorceress who finds herself scorned by all of Oz after she’s wrongly vilified by the fraudulent Wizard (played by Jeff Goldblum). Still, Milioti is doing quite well for herself in Hollywood.
Even without Wicked, Cristin Milioti’s career is doing just fine
Obviously, Cristin Milioti’s most high-profile role as of late is Sofia, the horrific yet deeply sympathetic villain on HBO’s “The Penguin.” (The show may or may not continue past that initial season, so whether or not Milioti will ever return to the role remains to be seen as of this writing.) Still, Milioti is a versatile, charming, and extraordinarily talented actress who’s proven, time and time again throughout the years, that she’s up to absolutely any challenge.
In 2017, Milioti led the fan-favorite “Black Mirror” episode “U.S.S. Callister” alongside Jesse Plemons, Michaela Coel, and Jimmi Simpson, and a few years later, she appeared in another mind-bending project, the time-loop romantic comedy “Palm Springs” with Andy Samberg as her on-screen partner in crime. She’s at the center of the “Mythic Quest” episode “Dark Quiet Death,” one of the most heartbreaking explorations of a relationship running its course. “Made for Love,” an HBO original, gave Milioti the chance to take the lead on the premium network opposite Billy Magnussen as her controlling tech-bro husband, and “The Penguin” simply proved that Milioti will remain an industry staple for years to come. She’s already set to return to the “Black Mirror” universe for its 7th season, and past that, it’s anyone’s guess … but again, at this point, we can safely assume that we won’t see Milioti perform “Defying Gravity.”
“The Penguin” is available to stream on Max now.