The DC Extended Universe is set to make some major strides over the next couple of years to bring a breath of life into a franchise that has been very hit-and-miss amongst fans and critics over the past seven years of storytelling. Already completed are projects like Patty Jenkins' sequel Wonder Woman 1984 and James Gunn's sequel/reboot The Suicide Squad.
The next movie to come after these is Matt Reeves' The Batman, which will not only be the first solo movie for the Caped Crusader within the DCEU, but also will take place in an alternate dimension of the DCEU multiverse with Robert Pattinson taking over the lead role from Ben Affleck. Pattinson has made a name for himself as a star in Hollywood for most of the last two decades, although this will be his first venture into the superhero genre.
Recently, the new DC star opened up on a philosophical level talking about his approach to playing one of the most well-known superheroes of all time.
NEWS
Vanity Fair France (via Robert Pattinson Austrailia) recently sat down with The Batman starring actor Robert Pattinson to discuss how he went inside the psyche of Bruce Wayne and how he prepared to play the billionaire playboy in the DCEU.
When asked how long it took him to find inspiration for this new role, Pattinson offered this quote, which has been translated from French to English:
To start, The Batman, I’m using things at the moment that seem fragile compared to the importance of the project. Conversations I’ve had with close friends, embryos of dreams. This is the secret and sensitive part of the actor facing the heaviness of the project. On The Batman, on Tenet, a gigantic team of technicians surrounds you and when you say, “Let’s go Robert…Action!” you have to forget this mass of people and play in front of your own thoughts, your own demons. Yes, I have an actor’s excitement to face the tension of the set, the inordinate expectation of all these people and to transform it into a dialogue between me and myself. It’s an exciting and horrible feeling to be that “little shit” who risks planting all the heavy artillery, all that war infrastructure, because she wasn’t able to go and get it… I think about that, a few days before a shoot.
Pattinson was also asked about if he is still able to surprise himself as he takes on so many major roles in the most anticipated new movies, to which he gave this response (also translated from French to English):
I invented a pressure that ended up going crazy. And I like it. The duty to surprise, my audience and above all myself, has become the only worthwhile challenge. And it’s much more difficult, believe me, than the box office challenge. With The Batman and Tenet, you could always say that I’m trying to get back to those heights – we’re talking about millions of entries. But Tenet is also an experimental film. As for The Batman, I look first at the character and what I have to do with it, how I’m going to have to invent nuances in this shell, making it more complex, more complex all the time. Batman is a role in which I have to learn how to play ambiguity better.
WHAT THIS MEANS
This interview doesn't really give a ton of concrete information about the new DCEU movie that fans can digest and dissect, but it does show how much mental preparation Robert Pattinson is putting in to give a level of nuance and depth to this new version of Batman. He makes a point to mention that it isn't necessarily the box office appeal of this movie that makes him want to play the role well, although the chance at becoming a financial success is obviously present, but he really is looking to take all the small details and complexities behind the character and make sure they shine through in between all the fights, jumps and explosions.
It's also quite enlightening to see just how much Pattinson talks about having to focus on making the movie while ignoring all the pressures that surround him both physically and mentally. Taking a few days to really prepare for taking on a role like this appears to be one of his most important goals, which shows how dedicated he is to making sure this new Bruce Wayne is shown the right way on the big screen. Even considering the major movies he has starred in such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the Twilight series, and most recently Christopher Nolan's Tenet, this will easily be the most monumental role of his career to date, which assuredly means he's had to put that much more energy into his work in front of the cameras.
The Batman is currently shooting in the United Kingdom in preparation for global release on March 4, 2022.
