Robert Pattinson on how he’s preparing to play Batman

Robert Pattinson has had a pretty interesting career trajectory. Although it seems like ancient history, it wasn’t that long ago that he was the object of worshipful tweenage fantasy thanks to his role as sparkly vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies, which made $3.3 billion worldwide. After making that kind of splash, Pattinson could have done pretty much whatever he wanted; the MCU was getting up and running around then, and I bet he could have squeezed into a superhero suit if he asked — in fact, he recently revealed to Variety that he had a sit-down with Marvel about Guardians of the Galaxy back in the day, but nothing came of it.

Instead, Pattinson went off and did arty indie movies like Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars, The Lost City of Z, High Life and more. In retrospect, that was a smart move, because it got people to associate him with something other than YA fiction, and proved that he had genuine chops as a performer. He wisely put off the inevitable superhero part of his life until later. “The idea of trying that transition after ‘Twilight,’ I never saw a road in that direction,” he said.

But now Pattinson is stepping back into the spotlight with a role in Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman, where he’ll play…the Batman. “I’d had Batman in my mind for a while,” Pattison said. “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.”

Apparently, playing this particular superhero was a longtime dream of his, dating back to when he was a kid and he would wear his Batman outfit in an undisclosed location. “If I actually said it in an interview, I would definitely have a lot of abuse afterwards,” he said, laughing. “If I successfully play the character, I can say it at the end.” I’m gonna go with…grandmother’s funeral?

HOLLYWOOD, CA – JUNE 13: Robert Pattinson attends the premiere of Magnolia Pictures’ “Damsel” at ArcLight Hollywood on June 13, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

As Batman, Pattinson will join an exclusive club of actors that Michael Keaton, Christian Bale and, most recently, Ben Affleck. There was bound to be some blowback after he was cast in the role — someone put up a Change.org petition asking Warner Bros. to reconsider, of course — but Pattison took it in stride. “To be honest, it was less vitriolic than I was expecting,” he said. And a little pushback can be fun, anyway. “It’s much more fun when you’re an underdog. There’s no expectation of you.”

All that said, Pattison was pretty steamed when news of him auditioning for the part leaked to the press — and at this point, he hadn’t actually auditioned. “Everyone was so upset,” he recalled “Everyone was panicking from my team. I sort of thought that had blown up the whole thing.”

The news broke when Pattison was in Cannes for a screening of his new movie The Lighthouse, where he plays an isolated lighthouse keeper in the ’20s who at one point masturbates to a figurine of a mermaid he found — see what I mean about him taking unorthodox parts? “It was terrifying,” he remembers (the Batman news, not the mermaid thing). “I was like, ‘Oh f—! Does that screw me because they are so intent on secrecy?’”

But it did not screw him. Right after that screening was done, Pattinson flew back to LA to try on the Batsuit for his audition. “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.’"

“It’s actually an interesting part,” Pattison said of the role. “I think it’s because he doesn’t have any superpowers…You’re trying to think of the way to balance, how to bring something new to it and not want to scare people off. And work in the confines of the costume.”

Just a few days later, Pattinson learned he’d gotten the part, winning out over Nicholas Hoult. As a bonus, when he got the call he was on the set of a new film from Christopher Nolan, who made The Dark Knight trilogy, and immediately started asking Nolan questions. “I was talking about things to do with the Batsuit,” he remembered. “How to get more movements in it.”

And that’s where we are! Pattinson wouldn’t reveal whether he’d signed up for additional Batman movies — you know how Hollywood loves its long-running series — but did say something about Joaquin Phoenix, who stars in the upcoming Joker, and asked to retract it. “Oh s—,” he said, saying that he’s not used to thinking about spoilers. “I definitely should not say that. I’m so used to pretty art-house movies, where you can watch the movie three times and still not know what it’s about.” I’ll just leave that here and let you decide what it means.

We’ll keep our ears to the ground for more news about The Batman. In the meantime, The Lighthouse looks pretty good, and comes out October 18.

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