If Ryan Gosling is the new Batman, as the unlikely rumor has it, I will not go see him in 2015.
Wait, no. That's a bold-faced lie. I will go see the new Batman movie even if Betty White plays Bruce Wayne. Especially if Betty White plays Bruce Wayne.
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| Now picture her doing the Batvoice. |
But if Ryan Gosling is the new Batman, I will be significantly less excited to see him in 2015.
The same goes for Josh Brolin, possibly for Matthew Goode, and definitely Orlando Bloom -- three other actors rumored to be in the early running to take on Batman's cowl. I don't dislike Brolin or Goode (can't say the same about Bloom, sadly). I've never seen a performance from Brolin I didn't like and Goode seems more than capable as a rising star who's already taken on one superhero role. But I don't want either of them to play Batman in 2015 because I think Batman should play Batman.
The role of Batman ought to be a star maker, not a star magnet -- like it was for relative unknown Christian Bale in 2005 and certainly for Henry Cavill in 2013. An unfamiliar actor is ideal for such a part because the role the actor will be playing is already familiar on its own. I don't want someone I recognize to take the role of Batman in 2015 - I want to really believe he is Batman. I got this in 2005 with Batman Begins (I was born in 1988... a little young for American Psycho) so the effect of watching this unfamiliar actor inhabit the story I already knew was enthralling. I can't watch an actor as familiar as Ryan Gosling put on a cape and truly believe that he is Batman. But I can believe that Ryan Armitage is the Caped Crusader.
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| Honestly, I'd only recognize him if he were four feet tall with a beard. |
None of the above, however, applies for the role of Lex Luthor.
Most of the best villains I've ever seen on screen were performed by actors who were either a) stretching themselves, b) clearly having the time of their lives, or c) both. There's something undeniably gleeful about watching an established, dignified, award-winning actor put on his best mustache-twirling face and set the audience either screaming or nervously giggling for two hours. I could provide examples for hours here. Jack Nicholson as the Joker in Batman. Robert DeNiro as Max Cady in Cape Fear. Kevin Spacey as John Doe in Se7en.* And so forth. Half the pleasure of watching these performances comes from the fact that we recognize the actors immediately, but they aren't acting anything like their "normal selves," so to speak. It's like seeing a good friend in an incredible costume on Halloween. They're recognizable, but their appearance in this new and frightening role is even scarier because of their familiarity.
For this reason, I'm gunning for Bryan Cranston in the role of Lex Luthor. It's total speculation at this point Breaking Bad fans have long been familiar with Cranston's dark side, but the role of Luthor is completely different from the everyman-gone-wrong character of Walter White. This is beyond looking for a good actor who happens to look bald. Bryan Cranston (like Michael Shannon) can be equal parts scary and hammy, the essential ingredients of a good supervillain actor.
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| Separated at birth????? |
So let's get Cranston on board as a super villain. Don't put that bald head to waste.
*As much as I love Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, I feel uncomfortable providing it as an example because 1) in my opinion, Ledger is unrecognizable in the part, and therefore largely unfamiliar to the audience and 2) the aftermath of the movie showed that we could hardly say that Ledger enjoyed the experience.
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