Zoë Kravitz currently stars as Catwoman in “The Batman," but is now opening up about being previously denied a chance to audition for the superhero franchise due to her skin color.
In a wide-ranging new interview for UK outlet the Guardian, the 33-year-old actress speaks honestly on a number of topics, from all the showbiz lessons she learned through her parents (actress Lisa Bonet and rocker Lenny Kravitz), to past eating disorders, and career stumbles.
The stumbles, though, are currently way back in the rearview, as Kravitz has won accolades for the HBO hit “Big Little Lies," and now stars in the biggest hit of the year so far, “The Batman.”
And it’s a Batman-related story she tells in the interview that is raising eyebrows.
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It turns out “The Batman” wasn’t Kravitz first attempt at moving into Gotham City.
In 2012, she was not allowed to audition for a part in the third of director Chris Nolan’s Batman epics, “The Dark Knight Rises,” because she was too “urban” for the role.
“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” Kravitz told the outlet. “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.”
"The Dark Knight Rises" starred Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.
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The satisfying irony in the fact Kravitz got the part of Catwoman in “The Batman” a decade later barely needs to be explained. So Kravitz didn’t gloat, but had to admit, through a sly smile, “it was crazy. My phone was blowing up more than any birthday I’ve ever had.”
Get Your tickets to "The Batman" here.
In the run-up to making the film, Kravitz trained incredibly hard, which did bring up concerns she might be triggered back to the time in her teens when she struggled with eating disorders. But she states that it never went past a little worry.
“I was focused on being strong versus being thin," she explained. "It’s a physical part. I wanted to make sure it felt believable that she was physically capable of doing all the things she was doing. I was actually stronger and more healthy than I’ve been in a long time.”
According to Variety, "The Batman" earned $134 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend.
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