Barry Keoghan discusses $10 audition tape for ‘The Batman’
Irish actor Barry Keoghan has revealed the lengths he went to when creating a self-tape audition for the role of the Riddler in Matt Reeves‘ 2022 movie The Batman.
Keoghan, also famed for his role in The Banshees of Inisherin, ultimately secured the role of the Joker instead, but the now-viral audition tape undoubtedly sealed the deal.
The actor invested $10 in a cane and a hat from a costume shop for the audition. His dedication shone through as he meticulously storyboarded the entire scene. In the scene, the Riddler strolls intensely and eerily through a door and down a hallway in slow motion.
“I just made it up. I wanted to make it Kubrick-y: symmetrical, the X on the back, the square doorframe, everything square,” Keoghan said in a recent interview with Esquire magazine. “I just wanted swag to come across. Swag and endearing. It was just me giving my idea. And then I’s like, I’ma send this in!”
In the end, Paul Dano secured the role of the Riddler, but Keoghan received correspondence several months later offering him the smaller Joker instead. Despite only appearing in a short scene towards the end of the movie, a deleted scene has surfaced in which Robert Pattinson’s Batman encounters Keoghan’s Joker at Arkham Asylum.
In an interview with GQ last year, Keoghan remembered the ecstatic moment he heard from his agent that he had landed the Joker role. “The Batman wants you to play the Joker – but you cannot tell anyone,” he recalled his agent saying.
Matt Reeves is currently steering The Batman Part II, which is set to hit the big screen in 2025. It is still unconfirmed whether Keoghan will reprise his role as the Joker.
Watch the trailer for The Batman below.
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