Based on the DC “emo comic,” Matt Reeves’ upcoming take on the Caped Crusader leans into the “nihilistic side,” as Pattinson told GQ in a March cover story. “Even the artwork is really, really different,” Pattinson added. “So, hopefully, there are a lot of sad people in the world.” Even filming “The Batman” during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns pushed Pattinson to almost a breaking point of his own. “The nature of the shoot was so kind of insular, always shooting at night, just really dark all the time, and I felt very much alone,” the “Good Time” star said. “Even just being in the suit all the time. You’re not really allowed out of the studio with the suit on, so I barely knew what was going on at all outside…I was really, really, really dead afterward. I just looked at a photo of myself from April and I looked green.”
And Pattinson passed the time trying to read while wearing the Batman cowl, and making ambient electronic music, which we now can only hope is in the final cut of “The Batman” somehow. “He’s kind of a weirdo as Bruce and a weirdo as Batman. In this, it’s sort of implied that he’s had a bit of a breakdown. But this thing he’s doing, it’s not even working,” Pattinson said. “Like, it’s two years into it, and the crime has gotten worse since Bruce started being Batman. The people of Gotham think that he’s just another symptom of how shit everything is.” Pattinson added, “It’s a sad movie. It’s kind of about him trying to find some element of hope, in himself, and not just the city. Normally, Bruce never questions his own ability; he questions the city’s ability to change. But I mean, it’s kind of such an insane thing to do: ‘The only way I can live is to dress up as a bat.’” Pattinson, so it seems, is almost an inverse of Bruce Wayne: “I’m constantly doing risk assessments, which drives everybody crazy, trying to predict every single element that could possibly happen,” Pattinson admitted. “I just can’t help it. I’ll do it for every single element, every decision, in my life. What is the worst-case scenario for this decision?” Pattinson concluded, “And then, at the end of it, just being like: ‘Ah, fuck it! I’ll just play a lighthouse keeper who fucks a mermaid! I think this is the right move!’” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
