‘The Batman’ star Paul Dano suffered insomnia while portraying The Riddler
"It was a little hard to come down from this character"
‘The Batman’ star Paul Dano has revealed that he had trouble sleeping while filming his scenes as villain The Riddler for the new film.
Dano stars opposite Robert Pattinson (as the title character) in the new DC film, which comes to UK cinemas on March 4.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the experience of filming ‘The Batman’, Dano said: “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,” he added. “And so you almost have to sustain it once you’re there because going up and down is kind of hard.”
Explaining how part of the insomnia came from the plastic wrap that he would have to cover himself in for scenes due to The Riddler’s aversion to leaving DNA at crime scenes, Dano added:
“My head was just throbbing with heat. I went home that night, after the first full day in that, and I almost couldn’t sleep because I was scared of what was happening to my head.”
“It was like compressed from the sweat and the heat and the lack of oxygen. It was a crazy feeling.”
Teasing the imminent movie in a recent interview, Pattinson said that the ‘The Batman‘ is a “sad” film and that he characterises Bruce Wayne as a “weirdo” in it.
The actor, who portrays the Caped Crusader for the first time in Matt Reeves’ upcoming movie, said in a new interview that the story has a “nihilistic side” and implies that Wayne has had “some sort of a breakdown”.
“It’s kind of about [Wayne] trying to find some element of hope, in himself, and not just the city,” Pattinson said. “Normally, Bruce never questions his own ability; he questions the city’s ability to change. But I mean, it’s kind of such an insane thing to do: ‘The only way I can live is to dress up as a bat.’”
Last month it was confirmed that ‘The Batman’ is one of the longest ever comic book films with a two hour, 47-minute runtime. Only ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (three hours, two minutes) and ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ (four hours, two minutes) run longer in the comic book movie world.
‘The Batman’ is released in UK cinemas on March 4.