George Pimentel/Getty Images for HFPA
Robert Pattinson is trading in the vampire fangs for bat wings.
The 33-year-old actor is set to play Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves‘ Batman movie, which is expected to hit theaters in 2021. In fact, the Twilight alum has been a fan of the Dark Knight for years.
“When I was a kid, it was the only outfit that I had,” he told Variety in an interview published Tuesday.
So, when he heard Reeves was writing a script, he asked for a meeting. After a bit of “prodding,” Reeves finally agreed. Pattinson then headed to the Cannes Film Festival. By the time he had arrived, several outlets had reported that he’d already landed the role. There was just one problem: Pattinson hadn’t even auditioned yet. As a result, he was terrified he would lose the role and started scouring the internet for any signs that he had been cut.
“When that thing leaked, I was f–ing furious,” Pattinson recalled to the publication. “Everyone was so upset. Everyone was panicking from my team. I sort of thought that had blown up the whole thing.”
Pattinson then flew back to Los Angeles for the final audition. He even got to try on the Batsuit—an experience he describes as “transformative.”
“You do feel very powerful immediately,” he said. “And it’s pretty astonishing, something that is incredibly difficult to get into, so the ritual of getting into it is pretty humiliating. You’ve got five people trying to shove you into something. Once you’ve got it on, it’s like, ‘Yeah, I feel strong, I feel tough, even though I had to have someone squeezing my butt cheeks into the legs.'”
He landed the gig. While the role is certainly different from the Edward Cullen character he played in The Twilight Saga, it wasn’t the first time he’d been considered for a superhero role. According to Variety, the star had taken an informational meeting with Marvel around the time of Guardians of the Galaxy; however, nothing came of it.
“I don’t know what I would really be chasing,” Pattinson told the outlet. “The idea of trying that transition after ‘Twilight,’ I never saw a road in that direction.”
Variety
Pattinson has certainly been busy. Before landing the role of Batman, he had starred in the film The Lighthouse. In the movie, there’s a scene where Pattinson’s character pleasures himself, which he said seems to be a running theme in his work.
“I keep masturbating,” he said. “In the last three or four movies, I’ve got a masturbation scene. I did it in High Life. I did it in Damsel. And The Devil All the Time. I only realized when I did it the fourth time.”
He’s also set to star in Tenet, which premieres in 2020.
To read his full interview, check out Variety.