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Chris Nolan explains why Bane is the perfect villain for the Dark Knight finale
Ricardo Trejo
Back in 2006, when Heath Ledger was first chosen as the next guy to portray Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker, the entire Batman fandom called foul. How could a gay cowboy play the most iconic, comic-book villain of all time? Fast forward a few years and an Academy Award victory cemented Ledger, as well as the The Dark Knight, into what would become THE best superhero film of all time. With an answer like that it’s hard to question anything that Christopher Nolan dreams up — especially after following up the last Batman movie with an original masterpiece in Inception. So, now that The Dark Knight Rises is soon to be released next summer, why exactly did Nolan go with Bane opposite Batman in the finale instead of someone else more well known, like Riddler? Nolan would like to explain.
Christopher Nolan, the visionary director of the recent Batman film series, sat down with the LA Times to explain why he felt Bane was the right fit for the Dark Knight’s swan song.
“I didn’t know him [Bane] very well. David Goyer got me a bunch of stuff on him and we looked into him. I only knew him by name, I wasn’t familiar with his back story. He’s a very cool character. And getting an actor like Tom to take it on, you know you’re going to get something very special. Tom is somebody who really knows how to put character into every gesture, every aspect of his physicality in the way that great actors can. He’s a very, very physical actor. He transforms himself and it’s there in every movement. He’s not afraid to look at a character from the outside as well as the inside so there’s a deep psychological branch to the character but also a very, very specific awareness of how he’s going to use his body and his appearance to express that character too. Christian is like that too, very much.”
“With Bane, the physicality is the thing. With a good villain you need an archetype, you know, you need the extreme of some type of villainy. The Joker is obviously a particular archetype of diabolical, chaotic anarchy and has a devilish sense of humor. Bane, to me, is something we haven’t dealt with in the films. We wanted to do something very different in this film. He’s a primarily physical villain, he’s a classic movie monster in a way — but with a terrific brain. I think he’s a fascinating character. I think people are going to get a kick out of what we’ve done with him.”
Recently, in a press screening of the 6-minute prologue, which is set to premiere alongside IMAX screenings of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, a few of those invited expressed concern that Tom Hardy’s voice came off too muffled beneath the original, metallic mask Bane wears. Not only that, but even I’m a little worried that Bane won’t sound as evil as we might’ve hoped, having listened to one of these fan-taped scenes while Rises was still shooting.
But we gotta put trust in Nolan again, whose ability to see beyond the here and now will likely explain why Bane no longer is of Caribbean origin and so no longer sports a Spanish accent, but rather now speaks in a British tone.
