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Robert Pattinson Auditioned To Play Batman While Wearing The Batsuit

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You and I — which is to say, normal people — we show up for job interviews wearing a suit or dress. But Robert Pattinson — which is to say, the super handsome, super famous, super rich Twilight-turned-indie favorite mega-star — he also wore a suit to his last job interview: the Batsuit.

Pattinson was recently named the next actor to play Batman, following in the scowling and growling footsteps of Ben Affleck and Christian Bale, and the Hollywood Reporter has the inside scoop of how he got the part. Basically, it was a two-horse race between the High Life star and Nicholas Hoult (Beast in the X-Men series, Mad Max: Fury Road), as the script for Matt Reeves’ The Batman calls for a Bruce Wayne in his 30s. “Reeves is said to have spent hours poring over the two actors’ work and met with them in April,” according to the Reporter. “Pattinson has far more name recognition than Hoult, but it was his work in Good Time and High Life, among others, that Reeves kept on coming back to. Hoult, too, had impressed the filmmaker, known for his work on the Planet of the Apes franchise, with The Favourite this winter.” (Hoult should have been nominated for an Oscar for his performance in that film, but I digress.)

Both actors met with Reeves in late May, and “both shot screen tests in costume on the Burbank lot,” which is very funny to imagine. “Pattinson and Hoult put on a suit from a previous Batman movie, as has become customary in the Bat-test process. (Christian Bale, before landing Batman Begins, performed his test in the suit used by Val Kilmer in 1995’s Batman Forever.)” It’s unclear if Pattinson and Hoult auditioned while wearing George Clooney’s Batsuit from Batman & Robin, complete with the nipples, but let’s assume: yes, they did.

Reeves and Warner Bros. executive also reportedly preferred an actor who wasn’t already associated with a superhero franchise — that ruled out Hoult, who’s in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, while Pattinson is seemingly the only actor left alive who isn’t in a Marvel or DC movie. Or, he was.

The Batman comes out June 25, 2021.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)