Robert Pattinson Says Playing Batman Was ‘Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done’

The Batman star Robert Pattinson is grateful to have had the beloved DC character during the (ongoing) pandemic, although—as detailed in a new interview—the role marked “by far the hardest thing” he’s done as an actor.

Pattinson, fresh off word that he’s soon set to link up with Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, spoke openly with GQ about the experience of bringing his own take on the Caped Crusader to life as part of Matt Reeves’ pandemic-delayed film. Per Pattinson, the multifaceted experience of digging into both the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities gave him the unique opportunity of having something to focus on while much of the world went on pause.

“I just always had this anchor of Batman,” Pattinson said in the new cover story interview, released Tuesday. “Rather than thinking you’re flotsam to the news, you could feel engaged without being paralyzed by it. Everyone I know, if you had a little momentum going in your career or your life, then stopping, you had to have a reckoning with yourself. Whereas I was so incredibly busy the whole time, doing something that was also super high pressure, by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Speaking more on the film, which also counts Zoë Kravitz and Paul Dano among the main cast, Pattinson reflected on the experience of watching a rough cut and being struck by the opening shot. “I watched a rough cut of the movie by myself,” Pattinson said. “And the first shot is so jarring from any other Batman movie that it’s just kind of a totally different pace.”

Pattinson connected the tone to comments previously made by the film’s director, specifically the noir detective-leaning aspect of its central story. “Normally, when you see Batman he arrives and beats people up,” he told GQ. “But he’s having conversations, and there are emotional scenes between them, which I don’t think have been in any of the other movies.”

Later on, Pattinson described Reeves’ Batman as “a sad movie;” in the actor’s words, due largely to how Wayne progresses along his pursuit of hope.

“Like, it’s a sad movie,” he said. “It’s kind of about him trying to find some element of hope, in himself, and not just the city. Normally, Bruce never questions his own ability; he questions the city’s ability to change. But I mean, it’s kind of such an insane thing to do: The only way I can live is to dress up as a bat.”

Elsewhere, the Lighthouse and Tenet star expressed support for making face masks a more universally standard when-in-public decision (“I will be wearing a mask for the rest of my life”) and also shared some befitting words of appraise for his Good Time collaborators Josh and Benny Safdie. Read the full thing here.

The Batman, also starring Jeffrey Wright and Colin Farrell, hits theaters on March 4.

As for that upcoming project with Oscar-winning filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, sources were reported to have told Deadline in January that the director will be helming a new film based on Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey7, with Pattinson set to star.