‘Batman,’ but make it casual: Zöe Kravitz dishes on audition with Robert Pattinson
Since booking the role of Batman, Robert Pattinson has gone by many names: Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, Robert Battinson, R-Batz.
But Wednesday, his co-star Zoë Kravitz introduced a new one: Casual Batman.
On the latest episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the Catwoman actor dished on her screen test with the “Twilight” alum — who apparently took the half-man-half-bat concept quite literally.
In theaters Friday, Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” stars Pattinson and Kravitz as dueling-vigilantes-turned-love-interests Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle.
Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle calls a woman ‘baby’ in Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman,’ in a nod to Catwoman’s bisexuality established in the comics years ago.
“I knew Rob just from ... around, but I had never worked with him, and I’m a huge fan of his work, and I had to camera test with him, and that was kind of funny — just to camera test with someone you know, dressed up as Batman,” Kravitz told Fallon.
“Only from the waist up, by the way,” she added. “He was wearing sweatpants at the bottom ... casual Batman.”
The casual bat and the cat... it’s got a nice ring.
According to Kravitz, the superhero suit Pattinson wore on top wasn’t just any Batman costume — it was George Clooney’s from the 1997 film “Batman and Robin.” After nonchalantly dropping that reveal, Kravitz elaborated on her experience acting opposite Pattinson for the first time.
“I was so scared that I was gonna be thinking, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Rob dressed as Batman. That’s weird,’” she said. “But he was so wonderful that I totally forgot it was him, actually, which was really impressive.”
Leading up to the film’s opening night, Kravitz has been making the rounds promoting “The Batman” and giving fans insight into her version of Catwoman, the famous feline femme fatale. In a recent interview with Australia’s Pedestrian.tv, Kravitz confirmed that she interpreted Selina Kyle as bisexual — which has been canon in the DC comic books since 2015.
Kravitz is the latest actor to portray the agile anti-heroine on-screen, preceded by the likes of Eartha Kitt, Michelle Pfeiffer, Anne Hathaway and Halle Berry. While chatting with Fallon, the “High Fidelity” star joked about studying cats and drinking milk out of a bowl to prepare for the iconic role.
“I’m Method, dude,” she said, laughing. “I watched a bunch of cat videos ... and what I was so interested by was the fact that you can’t read their face at all, which is why I think people are kind of creeped out by them. You can’t tell what they’re going to do.”
Asked what initially drew her to the part, Kravitz praised director Matt Reeves’ vision for the three-hour movie, which she billed as a deep piece of storytelling set in the fictional world of Gotham City.
“It’s definitely something you want to watch on a big screen,” she said. “It’s definitely something you want to watch with people. But it’s a very ... intense film. And I think a lot of people walk in going, ‘Whoa, Batman!’ and they leave like, ‘Whoa, Batman.’”
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