Anne Hathaway has mentioned before that when she first auditioned for The Dark Knight Rises, she assumed she was playing a very different Batman character than her now fan-favorite portrayal of Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman. However, Hathaway has never confirmed the identity of the mistaken character, until now.
In a new interview with BBC Radio 1, Hathaway reveals that after scoring an audition with director Christopher Nolan, she waltzed into the room under the very confident impression that she was gunning for the role of Harley Quinn. She even came dressed for that part. As we all know, that obviously wasn’t the case, and Nolan was looking for an actress to play Catwoman. Unfortunately, Hathaway didn’t know that until a good hour into the audition when she was forced to quickly switch gears. Via CBR:
“I came in and I had this lovely Vivienne Westwood kind of beautiful-but-mad tailoring top with stripes going everywhere. And I wore these flat Joker-ey looking shoes. And I was trying to give Chris [Nolan] these crazy little smiles,” Hathaway explained. “About an hour into the meeting he said ‘Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but it’s Catwoman.’ And I was shifting into a different gear. ‘Now ok, we’re slinky. We’re slinky. And I hate my shirt. I love my shirt, but I hate it right now. We’re slinky.'”
As for why Hathaway thought she was auditioning to play Harley Quinn, she doesn’t say. To put this delicately, Heath Ledger’s Joker clearly wasn’t going to be back for the sequel. Then again, there were internet rumors at the time that the film would focus on Harley Quinn continuing the Joker’s plan in the final film, so maybe Hathaway and/or her agent latched onto that. The incredible thing is that she essentially auditioned for the wrong character, and yet still managed to stick the landing and walk away with the coveted Catwoman role. That takes skill.
You can watch Hathaway talk about filming The Dark Knight Rises right at the beginning or jump to the 2:00 mark for the Harley Quinn audition mix-up:
(Via BBC Radio 1)
