The Batman Star Robert Pattinson Opens Up on Creating His Own Bruce Wayne

Fans are eager to learn more about The Batman, DC Comics and Warner Bros. latest iteration of the superhero franchise with Robert Pattinson under the cowl and director Matt Reeves at the helm. Both the filmmaker and the actor have iterated that this will be a much different version of the character we've seen played by Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck. Pattinson recently spoke with Vanity Fair France about his role in The Batman and the care he's taking to create this new version of Bruce Wayne, and of course he describes it as a complex process on the set.

Pattinson explained that the process is more involved than the smaller films he's typically involved with. He likened it to his work on the Christopher Nolan tentpole Tenet that released earlier this year.

"To start, The Batman, I'm using things at the moment that seem fragile compared to the importance of the project," Pattinson told Vanity Fair France (h/t Battinsonverse on IG for the translation). "Conversations I've had with close friends, embryos of dreams. This is the secret and sensitive part of the actor facing the heaviness of the project... On The Batman, on Tenet, a gigantic team of technicians surrounds you and when you say, 'Let's go Robert…Action!' You have to forget this mass of people and play in front of your own thoughts, your own demons.

"Yes, I have an actor's excitement to face the tension of the set, the inordinate expectation of all these people and to transform it into a dialogue between me and myself. It's an exciting and horrible feeling to be that 'little shit' who risks planting all the heavy artillery, all that war infrastructure, because she wasn't able to go and get it… I think about that, a few days before a shoot."

Pattinson is the latest to step into the role of Bruce Wayne, and now he's needing to craft his own nuance to the character to separate him from previous iterations. The Batman will go back to the early days of his career as a crime fighter, which is affecting his personal life.

"I look first at the character and what I have to do with it, how I'm going to have to invent nuances in this shell, making it more complex, more complex all the time," Pattinson said. "Batman is a role in which I have to learn how to play ambiguity better. It's out of the question to interpret a character of a single color. It's beautiful, people who seem to live in two states at the same time."

The Batman is currently scheduled to premiere in theaters on March 4, 2022.