The Batman’s Paul Dano Had Difficulty Sleeping After Playing the Riddler

Paul Dano reveals filming an “intense” scene as the enigmatic Edward Nashton, a.k.a. the Riddler, had him struggling to sleep while making The Batman. The There Will Be Blood and Escape at Dannemora actor portrays a live-streaming serial killer targeting the elite of Gotham City, playing a deadly game​ with the lives of Mayor Don Mitchell (Rupert Penry-Jones) and District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard). As Riddler draws the Batman (Robert Pattinson) out of the shadows with a trail of cryptic clues​ and increasingly sadistic slayings, the dark but PG-13-rated Matt Reeves reboot just might keep you awake at night. 

“There’s a sequence with Peter Sarsgaard’s character [Gil Colson]. That was intense,” Dano told Entertainment Weekly. “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.”

Dano is “really a chameleon,” said Reeves. “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.”

Dano’s Riddler is more Zodiac Killer, less Jim Carrey in 1995’s Batman Forever. The Prisoners actor appears in his first superhero project from Let Me In and Planet of the Apes director Reeves. 

“[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 said. “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 is rated PG-13​ for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material. 

Starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/the Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as GCPD’s James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson, Jayme Lawson as mayoral candidate Bella Reál, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot, The Batman opens exclusively in theaters on March 4. Tickets are now on sale.