The Batman’s Robert Pattinson describes his worst day filming Warner Bros./DC Films’ latest iteration of the Caped Crusader. Pattinson will play Bruce Wayne, Gotham City’s Dark Knight, in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which is slated to hit theaters on March 4th. In addition to Pattinson, the film stars Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, and Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/Riddler. Inspired by comics like Batman: Year One, The Batman will find its titular vigilante in his second year as he hunts Riddler, a Zodiac-esque serial killer targeting elites to unveil Gotham’s corruption.
Ben Affleck was meant to direct, write, and star in a DCEU version of The Batman. However, he eventually left the project and Pattinson was cast as the third person to don the cape and cowl in a decade. There’s a lot of pressure on his rendition to deliver something fresh while honoring what came before—from Batmobile to Batsuit. While the most emotional scenes in previous Batman films took place outside the cowl, the design of Pattinson’s Batsuit allows for more emotive freedom. It was Reeves’ vision to keep the cowl on Bruce as much as possible and have Pattinson emote equipped with little more than squints and eyebrow raises, which proved difficult for the actor.
During a Q&A event attended by Screen Rant, Reeves and Pattinson discussed the challenges of lengthy monologues and acting beneath Batman’s cowl. The director jokingly called the idea to make emotions visible through the cowl “a terrible mistake” because they “had no idea how hard it was going to be.” At times, Reeves would ask Pattinson for “more,” not realizing the actor was on the verge of having “an embolism.”
Screen Rant
