With a performance as chilling and intense as Paul Dano gave in The Batman, you can tell he put the work in. But what you may not know is just how much actually went into portraying The Riddler. As it turns out, Dano would demand dozens upon dozens of takes while filming.
Speaking with The Guardian, The Batman director Matt Reeves said Paul Dano would give everything he had to ensure certain scenes were executed perfectly. “Paul loves doing a lot of takes, as do I…We took two days on the final scene between him and Robert Pattinson as Batman, and we must have easily done 70 or 80 takes. Paul loves exploring. He’s obsessive that way.”
Paul Dano would also be quite unpredictable as The Riddler, offering surprises for the cast and crew of The Batman. As Reeves remembers, “There were all these moments as the Riddler where he’d be tickled by something and then fly into a rage, and you never knew from take to take where that switch would come. I’d be sitting there with the headphones on, trying to stifle my laughter because he’d always do something surprising. Paul would ask me: ‘Was that crazy? Was that too much?’ I’d say: ‘No it’s fantastic. Let’s do another.’”
Such dedication from Dano shouldn’t be too much of a surprise as he is one of the most committed actors on the screen right now. And while news of Paul Dano taking the key villain slot in The Batman may have raised some eyebrows at first – former Riddler Jim Carrey was openly skeptical of choices in the character – he definitely nailed the character and made it his own as a Zodiac-inspired psycho. Sure, he’s no Heath Ledger as The Joker, but I truly think Dano earned an Oscar nod for his demented take on the character.
Paul Dano can currently be seen in Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money.
What did you think of Paul Dano’s performance in The Batman? Did he follow through with a strong turn and prove to be a captivating villain? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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