While Zoë Kravitz is now the face of Selina Kyle, the Catwoman actress told the Guardian she was turned away from auditioning for the role over a decade ago.
The film was 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Kravitz sought to play Catwoman, who was eventually portrayed by Anne Hathaway, but told the outlet she was considered “too urban” for the role.
“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” Kravitz said. “I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant. … Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word urban being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment.”
Kravitz said to prepare for her debut as Catwoman in The Batman, she trained for four months, studying feline movements to further immerse herself in the part. She previously told Jimmy Fallon she even drank milk out of a bowl. While Kravitz adored her time as Catwoman, she told the Guardian her catsuit could at times be difficult. “I was like a two-year-old,” she said with a laugh. “If I needed the toilet, someone had to escort me in and out.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kravitz spoke on another uncomfortable situation: filming HBO’s Big Little Lies in Monterey, California. “There were a few moments where I felt a little uncomfortable because it is such a white area. … Just weird racist people in bars and things like that,” she said.
The Batman crushed the domestic box office on its opening weekend, raking in $134 million domestically, making it the second-largest launch of the pandemic era after Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which premiered to an astonishing $253 million in the U.S. The Batman’s opener was the largest weekend for Warner Bros. in five years.
“It’s fun to see the public really embrace the movie,” Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros, told Variety. “Since the movie is three hours long, it became appointment viewing. That bodes well for its run on the big screen. It helps that the word of mouth is so strong.”






