Back in June, Robert Pattinson was officially announced as DC’s newest Batman. With Ben Affleck out after three movies, the British actor will take the lead in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which will explore Bruce Wayne’s younger days as the Dark Knight once again. Now, for the first time since the news of his casting went public, Pattison has broken his silence on taking that most coveted of comic book movie roles.
Speaking to Variety, the former Twilight star revealed that it was less about Reeves having to convince him to play the part and more about him having to convince the director to consider him. Pattinson explained that he’d actually had his eye on being Batman for a while and when he heard that Reeves wanted a younger Caped Crusader, he wouldn’t let the opportunity go.
“I’d had Batman in my mind for a while. It’s such an absurd thing to say. I sort of had an idea to do it, and I’d been prodding Matt. He didn’t accept any prods. I kept asking to meet him.”
Pattinson went on to recall the first time he put on the Batsuit back in May. Though he admitted that the process of squeezing into the costume isn’t particularly dignified, he definitely felt something when he donned the iconic cowl.
“I put it on. I remember saying to Matt, ‘It does feel quite transformative!’ He was like, ‘I would hope it does! You’re literally in the Batsuit.’… You do feel very powerful immediately. And it’s pretty astonishing, something that is incredibly difficult to get into, so the ritual of getting into it is pretty humiliating. You’ve got five people trying to shove you into something. Once you’ve got it on, it’s like, ‘Yeah, I feel strong, I feel tough, even though I had to have someone squeezing my butt cheeks into the legs.’”
Funnily enough, Pattinson got the call to say he was the next Batman on his first day of work on Tenet, directed by Christopher “Dark Knight trilogy” Nolan. The actor told Variety that he quizzed Nolan about his experience with the hero on set, particularly asking about how to get the best out of the restrictive Batsuit.
The Batman starts shooting next year, and though there’ve been a lot of reports on the subject, none of the other cast members have been officially announced as yet. Once that changes, however, we’ll be sure to let you know.
