Paul Dano's Riddler is the new big foe for Robert Pattinson's caped crusader to face in the upcoming The Batman. Looking to take things in a much more serious, and darker direction, Dano has now revealed his portrayal of the comic book character has resulted in many nights with difficulty sleeping.
The Riddler has been one of Batman's iconic supervillains for many years, and as the name suggests, the mastermind incorporates riddles and puzzles into his crimes. After a goofy, comedic approach to the character from Jim Carrey in 1995's Batman Forever, Riddler is finally making his way back to the big screen in what appears to be a realistic portrayal of the villain that is sort of molded after the real-life Zodiac killer.
It's of course difficult to tap into any role, especially with such an unpredictable character like the Riddler. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly ahead of The Batman's early March release date, Dano delved deeper into playing such an iconic character that has been around for many years, also adding that as exciting as it was to take on the role, it also became taxing at some points. "There's a sequence with Peter Sarsgaard's character [Gil Colson]. That was intense," Dano recalled. "There were some nights around that I probably didn't sleep as well as I would've wanted to just because it was a little hard to come down from this character. It takes a lot of energy to get there. And so you almost have to sustain it once you're there because going up and down is kind of hard."
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With such commitment to a role, director Matt Reeves believes Dano's performance will truly be a memorable one. "Paul is really a chameleon," the filmmaker claimed. "He's brilliant in so much. But I think you see him going through a very internal tortured experience in his characters. You can see him really in an active way, having this kind of psychological turmoil that I find is really compelling." Unlike previous villain portrayals such as Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, a performance that stole every scene, Reeves strived to still keep the focus on Batman, but have Dano's Riddler function in a more ghost-like way. "The Riddler is omnipresent, but almost as a ghost," Reeves said. "...by withholding the Riddler, he had more power, he was more unsettling. He felt like a ghost throughout the whole movie, this kind of presence that you never knew where he would show up and how he was affecting things."
Jumping into his first comic book role after many performances in smaller-budget, indie projects, Dano immediately knew that The Batman was something special, and under the assured direction from Reeves, the film was bound to be a huge success. "[I was] waiting for the right one or ones, where you're in collaboration with people and material that excites you. And this was definitely that," Dano shared. "I was totally surprised, frankly, that [the script] was so good. I felt immediately [on] page one, page two, you could tell that the director was seeing the film that they wrote. You could feel, even in the action scenes, the type of energy behind the fighting or the violence, it was just very fully conceived."
The Batman will have a bigger emphasis on the detective side of the caped crusader, as he tries to navigate through his second year of fighting crime. Going off of the footage that has been released as well as knowing the film's runtime will nearly be 3 hours, the newest adaptation seems as if it will deliver on Reeves' goals of presenting a darker, grittier version of the DC hero that taps into many more neo-noir/mystery elements. The Batman also stars Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Peter Sarsgaard as district attorney Gil Colson, and Barry Keoghan as young officer Stanley Merkel. The film will be followed by two direct sequels and two spin-off series for HBO Max.
The Batman arrives in theaters on March 4, and on HBO Max on April 19.
Source: Entertainment Weekly