Jim Carrey has not yet seen Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” but he does have “mixed emotions” nonetheless about Paul Dano’s dark interpretation of the Riddler. Carrey infamously played the Riddler in Joel Schumacher’s 1995 superhero movie “Batman Forever,” starring Val Kilmer as the Caped Crusader. Carrey’s Riddler was a flamboyant prankster in a neon-green bodysuit, the polar opposite of Dano’s Riddler.
“I’ve not seen it. It’s a very dark version. I have mixed emotions about it,” Carrey recently told Unilad about the Riddler in “The Batman.” “To each his own and all that. I love [Paul Dano] as an actor, he’s a tremendous actor.”
“I do worry. There’s a spot of worry in me over gaffer-taping people’s faces and encouraging people to do the same,” Carrey added, citing how Dano’s Riddler leaves his mark on his victims. “Some sickos out there that might adopt that method…I do have a conscience about the things I choose…I know there’s a place for it, and I don’t want to criticize it, but it’s not my kind of thing…it’s very well done, those movies are very well done.”
Carrey plays the villainous Robotnik in Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” film franchise, but he stressed that this villain has “cartoon bombs and no-one gets hurt.” Carrey’s villain characters, be it Robotnik or the Riddler, are larger-than-life personalities that are a far cry from Dano’s grounded Riddler. Carrey has spoken out against film violence in the past, even criticizing his own movie “Kick-Ass 2” following the Sandy Hook shootings in 2013.
“I did ‘Kick-Ass 2’ a month before Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence,” Carrey wrote on Twitter at the time. “My apologies to others involve[d] with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.”
Dano’s performance as the Riddler in “The Batman” has been mostly acclaimed by film critics. The movie has earned over $330 million in the U.S. and over $675 million at the worldwide box office. Carrey’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” launches nationwide April 8. The first “Sonic” movie grossed $310 million worldwide.