Robert Pattinson Says His Batman Is Just as ‘Crazy and Perverse’ as His Other Characters
After a string of indies, Robert Pattinson’s blockbuster hiatus is coming to an end with the one-two punch of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” and Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” Both Warner Bros. summer tentpoles will open a year apart. But despite taking a break from smaller films to make massive studio blockbusters, Pattinson maintains that the tentpole choices he’s made for his future align with his indie work of the past. The actor told BBC that Nolan might have a lot of money to work with, but he’s still the kind of auteur filmmaker Pattison prioritized after the “Twilight” films wrapped (he went to work for David Cronenberg, Claire Denis, Robert Eggers, Werner Herzog, and the Safdie brothers, among others). As for “The Batman,” Pattinson said his Bruce Wayne will be just as “crazy and perverse” as the characters he usually plays in indie films like Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” Denis’ “High Life,” the Safdies’ “Good Time,” Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” and more.
“Out of all the big roles that I knew of in that kind of realm, there was just something about this one,” Pattinson said of Bruce Wayne in “The Batman.”
As for why he stopped making studio blockbusters following the release of the last “Twilight” movie in 2012, Pattinson argued prioritizing studio films would’ve been more “dangerous” to his career than diving headfirst into smaller independent projects that often prove polarizing with his fans.
“You can see quite a lot of examples of it not really working out for people, so I just thought it would be a silly idea to try to do a massive action movie or something,” Pattinson said. “I always think that whatever movie you’re doing, there’s a potential that it’s the last movie you’re ever going to get, and so I don’t want to end my career on a ‘transitional’ movie.”
Pattinson stars opposite John David Washington in Nolan’s “Tenet,” an international espionage thriller with a mysterious time-travel element that has yet to be fully revealed. Reeves’ “The Batman” is under even more secrecy. The production on the film is now underway and the cast includes Pattinson opposite Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Farrell as Penguin, and Paul Dano as Riddler. Warner Bros. will release “Tenet” on July 17, 2020 and “The Batman” on June 25, 2021.