Why Robert Pattinson Is Perfect For ‘The Batman’
By: Travis Bean
Tags: Film, Movies

US actor Robert Pattinson arrives at the Marrakech International Film festival, on November 30, 2018 in the city of Marrakesh (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP) (Photo credit should read FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)

On July 25, 2017, Robert Pattinson sat down with Howard Stern for an interview.

And wouldn’t you know it, Howard Stern asks him: “Have you ever asked to be one of these superheroes or anything like that?”

At the time Pattinson had not been asked by anybody to play any kind of superhero. He was fresh off playing emo vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight films and, understandably, had some reservations about committing to characters in blockbuster franchises.

“I’ve never actually auditioned for them because, for one thing, you have to sign up to do eight movies—and I just got out of five.”

“I don’t know, that’s a tough one,” Stern responds. “Because look at Downey Jr. I mean, he’s tearing it up.”

And then that’s when Pattinson said exactly what I expected him to say:

“It all depends on the character.”

You may only know Robert Pattinson as the hot dude from Twilight that every girl loved back in 2008. But he hasn’t been Edward Cullen for nine years now. And since 2012, Pattinson has actually been incredibly active, appearing in 10 feature-length films.

And a lot of those films are with some huge directors: David Cronenberg; Werner Herzog; Claire Denis; Anton Corbijn. He’s even got an upcoming movie with Christopher Nolan (Tenet). He’s made a point of distancing himself from the mass appeal of Twilight by working with the biggest arthouse directors of the past few decades.

And I think that’s largely because of what he next revealed in the Stern interview: he was almost fired from Twilight. And that’s because everyone wanted Pattinson and his co-star, Kristen Stewart, to be playing their parts “happy and fun.”

But “happy and fun” wasn’t how Pattinson saw his character:

“Considering now that Twilight is known to be this very emo thing, I just thought at the time: if you’re 21, you’re in a relationship with someone, the way to make it really intense is if you can barely talk to someone, you can barely touch each other. It’s incredibly serious all the time. That’s what teenage relationships are. That’s what makes it real.”

Full disclosure: I really love the Twilight movies. And I think that quote gets at why. This role was going to turn Pattinson into a worldwide heartthrob celebrity…and he almost lost it because he wanted to bring his character to life.

And, in my opinion, he accomplished just that. There’s such a hesitant, breathy back-and-forth between Edward and Bella (Stewart’s character) that feels so strange and awkward and…honest. It feels real. Like two teens figuring out what love is.

And Pattinson’s story confirms that it wasn’t a direction he received—it was an acting choice that he had to fight for. And that dedication has shown in his other work. He has this very deliberate, calculated approach that allows him to get lost in his characters.

Interestingly enough we’ve seen Kristen Stewart go down a similar path as Pattinson did since the Twilight movies. She’s largely done indie and arthouse films, working with directors like Olivier Assayas, Kelly Reichardt, Woody Allen, Ang Lee. At the time, the world had no idea the two Twilight stars were looking to do something authentic and genuine with their teenage fantasy flick. If given the freedom, they were willing to commit to fully embodying any character in any film.

And that includes Batman.

People have long derided the DC Comic movies. But one thing people seem to always forget or miss is that Warner Bros. has always hired genre directors who are known for their very unique styles: James Wan directed Insidious and The Conjuring before he directed Aquaman; Patty Jenkins directed the Academy Award-winning Monster before Wonder Woman; David Ayer directed End of Watch and The Fast and the Furious before he directed Suicide Squad; and, of course, there’s Zack Snyder, whose long list of divisive movies included 300, Sucker Punch and Dawn of the Dead before he took on Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Justice League.

And now with The Batman we have Matt Reeves, who went on from the success of Cloverfield to direct big-budget films that an intense focus on character, such as Let Me In and the Planet of the Apes films. Reeves, along with all the other DC directors, has a unique style that diverges from normal and commercial—just like all the storied directors Pattinson has worked with for years now.

So while The Batman may require Pattinson to sign onto several films like Twilight did, he also knows he can work with Reeves and become his envisioned character just like he did in Twilight.

And with The Batman, we already know Reeves wants to go another direction, as he noted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

“It’s very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale. It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional. It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime, it’s going to allow his character to have an arc so that he can go through a transformation.”

From that, we can tell that this isn’t going to be the traditional movie Batman we’ve grown to know over the years—and you can bet Pattinson will be there for it.