Robert Pattinson Is Afraid Every Time He Opens His Mouth He Will Offend ‘Swathes of Batman Fans’
Robert Pattinson will be the next actor to play the caped crusader in the upcoming film The Batman. This isn’t his first experience with playing an iconic character.
But that doesn’t mean the pressure isn’t on. Pattinson says that he’s afraid every time he opens his mouth he will offend “swathes of Batman fans.”
‘Twilight’ was Robert Pattinson’s ‘safety net’
It’s no secret that Pattinson achieved global fame by playing the role of Edward Cullen in the Twilight films. Not to mention his role of Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies. When the Twilight series wrapped, Pattinson admits that he felt “a little bit nervous.”
“I’d basically just done a movie in between each of the Twilight movies, and I’d just kind of worked consistently for six or seven years or something,” Pattinson told NPR. “And then when it stopped, I kind of felt a little bit more nervous to make — to do more experimental stuff because I didn’t have the safety net of doing another sequel, which would basically recess everything afterward.”
The audience isn’t always the concern
After starring in a number of big time, commercial films in the early part of his career, Pattinson says it was nice transitioning to independent movies.
The actor says it’s fun to team up with people who “throw caution to the wind about their work” and are “entirely unconcerned” with what others want. Instead, indie directors make the movie they want to make, regardless of whether or not an audience likes it.
“I’d done quite a few commercial movies, and, you know, your first concern is, are the people going to like it? Are they going to like it? Are they going to like it? And it’s very — it’s so stressful,” Pattinson explained.
Robert Pattinson feels serious pressure from Batman fans
Pattinson says he’s done a lot of movies where he plays a “partially monstrous character,” and whenever he promotes them no one cares what he says about it. But with a comic book film like The Batman, he feels serious heat from fans about playing Bruce Wayne.
“I’ve just noticed every single time I say one sentence about Batman, there’s this massive — I’m offending swathes of Batman fans,” Pattinson explained.
He went on to say that both the Batman comics and movies have covered so much ground. Pattinson noted that if he’s going to try to play a historically accurate Batman, he could “literally play anything.” For The Batman, Pattinson says his performance was all about what Reeves was going for.
He knew the backlash was coming
Fans have known for two years that Pattinson would be the next Batman. And, the actor knew the backlash would come. He told The Guardian in 2019 — long before filming began — that he was already getting flashbacks to his Twilight days.
“I’m already remembering what it’s like to talk about a movie where there’s an expectation,” he said at the time. “Whenever you say anything, people are like, ‘Argh! You idiot!’ Like, dude, I haven’t even started yet!.”
Robert Pattinson says wearing the Batman suit makes you feel different
Pattinson says that he had some ideas about the Bruce Wayne character when he landed the role. But, everything changed when he did his screen tests and put on the Batman suit for the first time.
“It’s pretty astonishing how different you feel when you put it on,” Pattinson said. “You can have as many ideas as you want, and as soon as you put that costume on, it feels, you know, an entirely different situation in which you could never have predicted.”
The actor says that when he wears the cape and tights, it makes him feel “a lot larger.” He’s also noticed that people behave differently around him. According to Pattinson, that’s something you’d never really know about unless you’ve experienced it.
The Batman is expected to hit theaters March 4, 2022.
