I had never been interested in doing a superhero movie ...but Batman stood out as very special...
ROBERT PATTINSON, ZOE KRAVITZ AND THE REST OF THE BATMAN CAST TELL KERRI-ANN ROPER ABOUT THEIR TAKE ON THE CAPED CRUSADER
ZOE KRAVITZ is recounting a story about being locked out of where she was staying while filming The Batman in London.
Luckily for the actress, 33, thanks to her role as Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, in the upcoming blockbuster, she was able to sort the problem out herself, by simply scaling the gate.
“I was in the best shape of my life,” the American starlet recalls talking about the physicality of the role while seated next to her co-star film, Robert Pattinson, who of course plays the famous caped crusader in the upcoming Matt Reevesdirected film.
“We were midway through shooting and I was staying at this house in London and I got locked out of my gate, and it was very a very high gate. I was with a friend of mine and I was like, I think I can scale that wall. I think I can do it... I really do. And I did it!”, she recounts.
“I’m so mad it wasn’t recorded but I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can scale walls and do things like that now’. “And it was cool to really see, after all that work, how strong I was... I can’t do that anymore.” London-born Robert, 35, who became a global name following his stint as vampire Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga films, laughs softly at the revelation, adding: “It’s amazing the amount of beatings you can take if you’ve been training for it.” And he should know. The former Harry Potter star spent seven weeks training for fight scenes, guided by the supervising stunt co-ordinator Robert Alonzo.
It’s down to him that, Zoe says, the characters weren’t “doing things that didn’t feel possible”, including her own not “wearing shoes I couldn’t walk in”, while, for Robert, the fight scenes “felt more reactive and closer to a real fight, because you’re really watching the person who you’re fighting with rather than just memorising it like steps in a dance.” Matt’s take on the famous character, who has been played by stars including Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck, sees us meet a reclusive Bruce Wayne and his Batman alter ego, who is “Gotham City’s vigilante detective”.
The Batman fans will meet is “not a Batman in control... this is a Batman in a little bit of a freefall,” he says.
The rest of the cast reads like a who’s who, with Andy Serkis playing Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred and Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant James Gordon.
The casting for Gotham’s pool of villains is no less impressive, with Colin Farrell unrecognisable (thanks to make-up and prosthetics) as Oz, aka The Penguin, John Turturro as mob boss Carmine Falcone and Paul Dano as Edward Nashton, aka The Riddler.
“I had never been interested in doing a
superhero movie, it hadn’t been in my periphery at all, but for some reason, Batman always stood out as a very special, separate entity,” explains Robert.
Of Matt’s imagining of the character, Robert says: “He just had an angle on it that was exciting.
“And the Bruce characterisation felt different as well. He’s alone and isolated, as well as compelled to do this thing. There’s even a kind of hopeless desperation, and that was an interesting interpretation.”
For The Riddler, director Matt, used the real-life serial killer known as the Zodiac killer, as an inspiration for a facet of the villain in the film.
He reflects that this is a movie made for the big screen.
Matt explains: “I love the cinema and the idea of seeing something like this, the whole point of the way that I made it, I made it through a very subjective point of view, I wanted to take the audience and put them in Batman’s shoes, so that when he is in his Batmobile chase, when he is in the midst of this horfilm’s ror, that you feel and hear all of that in an immersive way.
“All of it is designed to be felt and seen and experienced and I wanted the movie to be an experience, it’s a big-screen experience.
“When it’s on streaming and home video, it’s just not going to be the same experience.
“I’m really excited that audiences are going to have the chance to go back to the cinemas and see it and have that experience.”
For Zoe, the daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and The Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet, it was vital that her character not be portrayed as a victim given her backstory.
The Big Little Lies star recalls saying to Matt after a script reading: “I really want to stop her from being a victim.
“And if she is vulnerable, or crying or anything, it’s on purpose...it’s manipulation.”
Irish star Colin, 45, spent more than three hours each time in the make-up seat to be transformed into The Penguin, but says: “It was one of the most exciting and most jubilant, celebratory experiences I’ve had in making pictures in 20 years.
“I’m not overstating how much fun I had. I was able to experiment with animating the final character and giving it voice.
“My youngest son came out to visit just as the whole costume was finalised on that day, and to see his response to it was really special.” The Batman also reunites Andy, 57, and Matt, 55, who worked together previously on Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and War For The Planet Of The Apes.
Andy said of working with the director again: “It always feels like you’re making a very intimate movie with Matt because deep down, the emotional core of the story is what drives Matt as a filmmaker and underpins every decision about the look, the feel, the cinematography.
“Everything is done to amplify the emotional truth at the centre of the story.”
The Batman is released in cinemas on Friday. See page 37.