Robert Pattinson claims The Batman role as the best job in the world

Robert Pattinson was “very eager” to play Batman.

The 35-year-old actor makes his first appearance as the iconic superhero in ‘The Batman’ and was excited to take on the part after being impressed by Michael Keaton’s portrayal of the character.

Robert said: “The first Batman movie I ever saw was ‘Batman Returns’ and I think in some ways it’s still probably my favourite.

“I love that movie so much. I was always very, very excited and very, very eager to do it, which is kind of really unlike me, to be honest.”

Robert revealed that he has seen all of the previous Batman films but didn’t have much knowledge about the hero’s comic book origins.

He explained: “I think in England there’s not really a comic-book culture.

“In America it’s ubiquitous but I only discovered the Batman comics fairly recently, especially the wealth of graphic novels. I don’t even remember seeing a comic-book store when I was growing up.”
Pattinson continued: “But, yeah, since I’ve been doing the movie, I could not have read more of them. I think pretty much every single major one of the graphic novels I’ve read now.”

Matt Reeves’ blockbuster features Robert as a younger version of Bruce Wayne/Batman and the star suggested that the superhero is fuelled by anger in the new flick.

He said: “In this story he’s unclear what his purpose is. In other iterations of the story, he truly believes he can change the fate of Gotham and in this he doesn’t, really.

“At the beginning of the story, it’s very much a self-destructive road he’s on.”

The movie marks Robert’s return to a big franchise a decade after the conclusion of ‘Twilight’ and the actor relished the experience.

He explained: “There was part of me that just wants to have that kind of big audience. It just feels different. You can almost feel it when you’re shooting – the anticipation.

“And it’s fun. I guess it’s like surfing a massive wave.”

Robert Pattinson talks us through the best on-set stories ahead of the release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman

Robert Pattinson is the latest in a long line of actors to play Batman, and in many ways is the strangest choice since Val Kilmer and his Bat Nipples – possibly the strangest ever. There’s no doubting Pattinson’s talent, but since the days of Twilight and Harry Potter he has religiously avoided franchises and blockbusters, opting instead for enticing prestige indie flicks like Good Time, The Lighthouse, and High Life. The closest he’s gotten to a blockbuster role like The Batman would either be Netflix’s star-studded but clearly-aiming-for-prestige-indie-status drama The Devil All the Time, or Christopher Nolan’s complex and complicated Tenet – neither of which are classic blockbusters in the way a character like Batman is. Of course, being a franchise star has some neat perks: free socks.

“They told me to stop stealing them,” Pattinson tells a gathering of the media after co-star Zoe Kravitz ratted him out. “It was intentional. After a while, it was day 156 of the shoot. They said ‘you have 156 pairs of socks, like, what are you doing with them?’”

Pattinson explains how it felt to embody such an iconic role, and when he first began to think of himself as a Batman. “They built eight blocks of Gotham, and there were lots of people playing cops and civilians around and I was walking across the street, my cape was blowing in the wind. It was just interesting, ‘cause they were all English. Just hearing lots of extras dressed like American cops being [Pattinson stresses a North London accent] ‘You awright, Batman?’. So that was probably the day. I’d say, [Pattinson now stresses his Batman voice] ‘Silence!’”.

“The nature of the part, and the fact it’s been around for such a long time and has been reinterpreted a few times as well as shows it has had so many layers, so many ways you can play it, even though you’ve got half your face hidden,” he says. “It’s bizarre, but you can put him into so many different genres. Just the legacy of the people who’ve been involved. It’s a massive privilege when you put the suit on for the first time, you can feel it. I remember walking across the parking lot and seeing a shadow with two little ears coming out the top, that was really strange.”

Pattinson sees himself as something of an atypical Batman.

“The first time I read the script was a pretty drastic departure from the traditional way Bruce Wayne’s portrayed. He’s [usually] a society playboy, he’s very much in control of the three aspects of his personality. He’s Bruce Wayne, the playboy, a little bit silly, and then he’s the Bruce at home, who’s – I’m just describing the old movies now, whatever! But this one, he doesn’t know. He’s basically let Bruce just withered away. He hasn’t worked on himself at all, apart from this obscure way where you think the only way you can survive is creating this alter ego, which he wants to live in more and more and more and more. I think he doesn’t have an enormous amount of control over what’s happening to him when, when he puts that suit on, and he genuinely believes he’s another person. And he’s addicted to it. And then when the red light comes on, it calls him out. I mean, it’s almost like he’s more afraid of his identity being revealed than dying, which I guess is almost worse than death.”