As the release date for The Batman comes closer, the audience is blessed with more and more tidbits about the upcoming superhero film, including how Nirvana was a key player in the creating the character, and how the film narrowly trails behind Avengers: Endgame in length, making it impossible to perfectly time out bathroom breaks.
But one of the most important and mysterious bits about the newest caped crusader is his emo boy band look, complete with some (honestly impressive) eyeliner. In a new interview with Esquire, director Matt Reeves defends his choice to have Pattinson don heavy makeup.
“You can’t wear a cowl and not wear that. All of the Batmen wear that,” Reeves says, insisting that the eyeliner is important for character development. With the eyeliner, even with the mask off, he is just becoming the batman. “I just loved the idea of taking off [the mask] and under that there’s the sweating and the dripping and the whole theatricality of becoming this character.” Reeves adds.
It seemed to take a lot to convince the Warner Bros execs to cast Pattinson, who has been working on a slew of great films, but none of them as high-profile as this biggest DC superhero. When Reeves and Pattinson met, that’s when the director was convinced he could actually handle the role.
“[Pattinson] heard that we were doing this and got excited about the idea that there was going to be another version of this character,” Reeves says. “And so when I met him, and he read the script, we talked for a long, long time and I realized, ‘This guy is a massive fan.'” He then had to audition wearing Val Kilmer’s old suit.
Still, Reeves defends his casting choice, despite backlash from hardcore fans. “The people who were excited, I knew it was because they knew Rob’s work post-Twilight,” The director said. “The people who weren’t excited, I knew it was because they didn’t know Rob’s work post-Twilight.” Lesson learned, just get any Rob haters to watch The Lighthouse and they will be convinced of his ability to play a brooding recluse.
