26/09/2023

The Batman’s Interrogation Scene Secretly Continued The Dark Knight’s Method Acting Extreme

It turns out The Batman took a page out of The Dark Knight’s book as Matt Reeves talks about what went into the movie’s massive interrogation scene.

Summary

The Batman’s interrogation scene with The Riddler was meticulously executed, with 70-80 takes to capture Paul Dano’s exploration of the character’s deeper layers.
The scene showcases The Riddler at his most unhinged and has become an iconic Batman movie scene.
The attention to detail in capturing the darker elements of the film highlights the seriousness of The Batman production.

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An element of The Dark Knight’s method acting was tackled in The Batman as Matt Reeves goes deeper into the movie’s interrogation scene. While initially meant to be a DCEU movie for Ben Affleck’s Caped Crusader, The Batman morphed into a reboot for the DC icon, existing in its own continuity with Robert Pattinson as the titular lead. One of the major Batman villains to get reimagined for the big screen was The Riddler, played by Paul Dano, becoming one of the character’s best-received live-action interpretations.

One of the pivotal moments for The Riddler was after Edward Nashton was arrested and taken in for interrogation, which became one of the best scenes in the DC movie. It turns out there was more work put into that scene, as Reeves recently talked about working with Dano in an interview with The Guardian. According to the filmmaker, they went through “70 or 80 takes,” as Dano went deep into exploring the deeper layers behind The Riddler, with Reeves sharing the following:

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. 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.’

How The Batman’s Interrogation Scene Repeats Paid Off

Throughout The Batman’s story, The Riddler is seemingly always in control and a step ahead of the Gotham City vigilante, which is what makes his defeat that much more satisfying in the end. For much of the movie, The Riddler thinks that he and Batman are fighting for the same side. That is why when Batman rejects The Riddler’s philosophy, Edward snaps, which becomes a crucial moment for The Batman’s final act and sets up an even more compelling story in The Batman – Part II if Dano is back for the sequel.

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Clearly, the immense number of takes for this important scene paid off. Not only does it show The Riddler at his most unhinged, but it is also one of the more discussed scenes from all of the Batman movies over the last decade. It also demonstrates how serious The Batman production was when it came to nailing some of the darker elements of the movie.

Time will tell if there are more stories for The Riddler in The Batman universe, as he is currently locked up at Arkham Asylum. Hopefully, there is a way for Reeves to bring back The Riddler in an organic way, whether that happens to be in The Batman – Part II or a later sequel. For now, anyone who wants to relive Dano’s performance as The Riddler in The Batman can do so through streaming on Max or on Blu-Ray/DVD.

Source: The Guardian