ESQUIRE: This is clearly the end of the road for Victor. But it’s so heartbreaking! Were you happy with how his story ended?

RHENZY FELIZ: Yes, by the time I reached the end I was satisfied, but I always expected this to be the end. That was always the story for me, the natural ending. So I never thought about anything else because I knew where we were going. For what we wanted to do, to serve the story, it was necessary for the audience to see (the penguin) as irredeemable.

I loved it when Oz picked up your driver’s license and confirmed that you are just Victor Aguilar. To anyone theorizing at home, you are no secret Batman character. It really sold the moment for me.

Yes, and what a cruel moment that is too. Throughout the show Oz tells him (imitates Colin Farrell’s Penguin), “They’ll remember us, boy. They’re going to remember our names. You can be someone.” For him to take my driver’s license and leave me like a John Doe of a body in the river so no one will ever know who I was… it’s cruel.

Fantastic Oz Cobb impression by the way. I can’t resist quoting him myself, even in the office. Did Colin hear?

No, not in front of Colin. (Laughs.) I’ll keep that to myself. But when I’m around my friends and we’re watching the show, it’s fun to do the voice acting.

You seem to have a talent for voice work. One of the things that impresses me most about your performance is the stuttering.

Certainly. When I first got the audition, (the script) didn’t mention this. I came back to meet the director, Craig (Zobel), and he told me in the middle of the audition. I did a few scenes without it, and then he said, “Why don’t you just try it?” As an actor you feel like you can’t say no. I was like, “Yeah, sure, I’ll give it a try!” It must have been decent enough because they wanted me to meet Colin. In between, I hired my own dialect coach and stayed with stuttering for a few days. I later got the call that they wanted me to come shoot. They hired a fluency consultant, Marc Winski, and he was incredibly helpful.

I wanted it to feel authentic to me. So we spent a lot of time going out in public with it, calling people and figuring out not so much the technical aspects of stuttering, but more the mental and emotional side. Mark also stutters, so that was invaluable. I worried about the entire community of people who deal with this every day. If I came in as someone who doesn’t stutter and didn’t take it seriously enough – or they felt like I was making fun of it – I was very scared of the idea that they would reject me. Fortunately, everyone has been very nice. It was a relief.

I loved the scene you have with Colin in episode 3 where you’re sitting at a fancy lunch and he defends you from the waiter who interrupts you while you’re stuttering.

It was one of my favorite scenes to film. It really is the first time you hear Victor speak. Before then it’s just a sentence here and there, but then he’s actually talking a little about himself. He opens the door and Oz listens to him. That day was beautiful. Colin came over to me after we were done and patted my face. He didn’t even say anything, but I felt the energy was like, ‘That was fun. We are doing well.” He and I knew this was an important scene for Victor, for his development with Oz, and as a character front and center in the audience’s eyes.

It was probably easy for Colin to step in and out of character, since he literally had to put on or take off a mountain of prosthetics. But was there anything you would do to get into Victor’s mindset before shooting?

I used a lot of music. I created a playlist called ‘Vic’. There’s one Eminem song called “8 Mile,” and I used that for the entire last half of the season. If anyone listens to ‘8 Mile’ they will see it.

“8 Mile” checks out.

I also have ‘Flight from the City’ by Jóhann Jóhannsson. And I have the Howl’s moving castle soundtrack is also on here.

That feels like the opposite vibe of The penguin. Was that just to calm down after a very intense scene? As a palate cleanser?

Precisely. I would use Howls at the beginning of each day simply to go to a neutral place. It’s meditative. Calming. But by the time I was sitting in the makeup chair with my lines in my hands, I’m listening to the Victor music.

Was it difficult playing a character who constantly makes bad choices?

The only time I was mad at Victor was when he ruined the mission. I’ve done my best to try and understand where he’s coming from. He is good at heart. He doesn’t want to do any of these things, but he does them in spite of himself because he wants to be useful to Oz. He finds love for Oz and he doesn’t want to let Oz down. It’s more out of necessity.

We all have choices to make – and we have much more control over our fate than we think. Victor, Oz, Sophia and even Francis – none of them are in a good position at the end of the show. When Victor kills Squid, he thinks: I can’t let him hurt Oz and Francis because they are my new family.

I doubt Victor could appear in any Bat-verse projects from here on out, but from what I’ve read in your interviews, you seem like someone who would still prefer to do something new.

Yes, you are absolutely right that I am looking forward to the next one. I just want to play even more interesting characters and be part of as many exciting projects as possible. It’s not necessarily a role I’m looking forward to, or a specific character I want to play, but there is one in the back of my mind that I want to play once I’m older. I’ve always loved Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Hamilton is one of my favorite works of art ever created. I would really like to do that at some point; I just need to get my singing lessons up to par.

You were inside Encanto. It looks like you already have an appointment with Lin-Manuel.

Yes. (Laughs.) I don’t know what is wrong with me. I just have to be better if I want to be able to perform that musical. That’s something I’ve always looked forward to.