Why Robert Pattinson Wanted to Play The Batman: “He’s a Freak!”

From Bat-fan to Batman, Robert Pattinson expresses what drew him to the Dark Knight: “He is a freak!” Following his acclaimed roles in indie darlings like Good Time and The Lighthouse, Pattinson is the latest actor to don the cape and cowl of Batman in filmmaker Matt Reeves’ grim and gritty reboot in theaters March 4. After calling his caped crusader an “odd creature of the night” and revealing his reclusive and grungy Bruce Wayne “practically lives in the gutter,” Pattinson told Total Film why he wanted to play Batman in his first comic book movie role.

“I was aiming for quite different stuff,” Pattinson said. “Obviously it’s basically the jewel in the crown of the parts you can really get as an actor. But I’d never really thought I was anywhere close to doing it, and especially with the other parts I was attracted to at the time.”

Reeves wrote The Batman with Pattinson in mind, unaware of the actor’s fixation on landing the role of a Batman in the second year of his crusade as a costumed crime-fighter. 

“I just kept obsessively checking up on it for the next year or so,” Pattinson said. “Even my agents were like, ‘Oh, interesting. I thought you only wanted to play total freaks?’ And I was like, ‘He is a freak!’”

Pattinson has “always loved the character,” most recently played on the big screen by Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and Ben Affleck in Zack Snyder’s corner of the DC Extended Universe. In the reboot set in its own universe, Pattinson’s Bruce is still defining his Dark Knight and considering himself “vengeance” as he pummels criminals to vent his (non-lethal) rage. 

“He’s got this enormous trauma inside him, and he’s built this intricate, psychological mechanism to handle it,” he said. “It’s like a really, really, really bad self-therapy, which has ended up with him being Batman at the end, as self-help.” 

Pattinson leads a cast that includes 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 playing only in theaters on March 4. Tickets go on sale February 10.