Robert Pattinson Learns Christian Bale Gave the Same Batman Advice to Ben Affleck

Christian Bale has only one “practical” piece of advice for actors suiting up as Batman, and it’s a suggestion shared with successors Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson. Pattinson is the latest to don the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight in The Batman, the beginning of a new Batverse created by filmmaker Matt Reeves. After playing Bruce Wayne in director Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, Bale advised Pattinson to ensure his Bat-suit had a Bat-zipper. In a new interview with BBC Radio 1,Pattinson learned it was advice Bale shared with Affleck ahead of his turn in the costume in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. 

“Wait, that happened to [Affleck], too? That’s crazy,” Pattinson said of Bale’s advice about access for bathroom breaks. “It’s just like Christian to say that to people: ‘You gotta [have a zipper].’ Christian obviously had a lot of accidents, he’s very concerned about it (laughs).” 

Affleck recalled his encounter with a “very generous and kind” Bale on The Graham Norton Show in 2016, revealing Bale advised him to “‘make sure they put a zipper in that suit. I did three movies with no zipper in my outfit.’”

“He gave me some very practical advice,” Affleck said. 

During DC FanDome in 2020, Reeves said Bale shared that same recommendation as his only piece of advice for Pattinson’s rebooted Batman. 

“One of the big things that Rob actually talked to Christian Bale, and [Bale said], ‘Just make sure you’re going to be able to relieve yourself,’ so that was actually part of what was important to build into it,” Reeves said at the time. “Like, okay, he needs to be able to put [the suit] on. He also needs to be able to live as a human being.” 

“I was a bit scared to kind of ask [Bale and Affleck] anything but I bumped into Christian Bale like next door at a urinal, and I guess it kind of inspired him to say ‘You need — the first thing you need to do in the Bat-suit — is figure out a way to pee,’” Pattinson said recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “So when I went to the costume department, I just was like, ‘First things first, I need a patch, I need a flap on the back, easy access!’”

Starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/the Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as GCPD’s James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson, Jayme Lawson as mayoral candidate Bella Reál, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot, The Batman is now playing exclusively in theaters.