‘The Batman’: Barry Keoghan Originally Auditioned for The Riddler
‘The Batman’: Barry Keoghan Originally Auditioned for The Riddler
Playing The Joker on screen is hardly an enviable position to be in. Virtually every actor who’s played the iconic Batman villain has gone down in history books, for one reason or another. And while it might be too early to tell where Barry Keoghan ranks on the list — the Irish actor made a quick cameo as the Clown Prince of Crime in this year’s The Batman — he’s confident about his take on the character, which has a connection to his own troubled childhood. In a new profile on GQ, Keoghan revealed that he’d originally auditioned to play The Riddler, but after months of radio-silence, was later told that they wanted him for another role altogether. The Riddler gig ultimately went to Paul Dano.
‘The Batman’: Barry Keoghan Originally Auditioned for The Riddler
After hearing about director Matt Reeves’ Batman film, Keoghan sent in an unsolicited audition tape of himself. The video has quietly existed on Keoghan's Vimeo page for years, and shows Keoghan exiting an elevator, dressed in a black shirt, green suspenders, and a bowler hat. While classical music plays in the background, Keoghan’s Riddler walks around twirling his stick, and disappears for a moment behind a wall. He re-emerges with blood on his face, implying that he’s just murdered somebody. His interpretation of the villain — camp, with a touch of Peaky Blinders meets A Clockwork Orange — was nothing like the sinister serial killer-inspired character that eventually made it to the final film.
By the time Keoghan met co-producer Dylan Clark, the role had already been cast. But the actor insisted that Clark watch the audition tape anyway. He didn’t hear back for a few months, but then his agent called, and told him, “The Batman wants you to play the Joker – but you cannot tell anyone.”
Keoghan’s Joker appeared in the film for a few minutes right at the end, when the character offers his friendship to Dano’s Riddler. A deleted scene featuring The Joker’s interaction with Robert Pattinson’s Batman was later released online, and has since been viewed millions of times. Keoghan described his version of the character as “a broken-down boy.” He insisted that they don’t put lenses on his natural blue eyes, and said, “I wanted some sort of human in there behind the makeup. I want people to relate to him… [to know] this is a façade he puts on.”
The Joker has famously been played on the big screen before by Jack Nicholson in Batman, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Jared Leto in Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker and its upcoming sequel. All four actors are Oscar-winners, and two of them — Ledger and Phoenix — won their Academy Awards for playing The Joker. Keoghan has delivered acclaimed performances in films such as Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Green Knight and Calm with Horses. He will soon be seen in director Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin .
The Batman was a critical and commercial hit, and Reeves is hard at work on the sequel. You can watch Keoghan's Riddler audition tape here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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