For superhero movie fans, excitement is high on the precipice of the release of “The Batman.”
For the time being, nervous fans can take some solace in the fact that actor Robert Pattinson seems to have really taken the lead role as seriously as fans do.
In a recent interview, he discussed the difficult process of nailing down his take on the superhero's infamously growling voice. In an intriguing twist, he decided to make a left turn on the usual Batman rumble.
Taking a seat on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Pattisnon explained the tact.
“Everyone does this kind of gruff, gravelly thing,” Pattinson told the host, “and I’m like, ‘I’m going to do the opposite, I’m gonna go really whispery.’”
For a character like Batman, that is rebooted so often, it makes sense to try something new. But Pattinson admitted his early vocal attempts didn’t fly.
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“I tried to do it for the first two weeks,” he recalled, “and it just looked absolutely atrocious, and they told me to stop doing it.”
Nevertheless, director Matt Reeves appreciated Pattinson’s devotion to character development, as he explained to GQ recently, saying he “never plays a character with exactly his voice. The voice is one of his ways in.”
He also made a very astute observation that will surprise fans.
Ever since Batman started getting the serious, modern reinvention with Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton Batman movies at the end of the ‘80s, the actors who’ve portrayed him since – George Clooney and Ben Affleck – have continued with some version of that deep voice. Most would agree Christian Bale perfected and set the blueprint for Dark Knights to come in the Christopher Nolan-directed epics.
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But Reeves revealed that even Bale, like Pattinson, had to experiment with that growl.
“That’s what Christian Bale did on ‘Batman Begins’ as well,” he said. “If you listen to the first ‘Batman Begins’ teaser trailer, you can hear the original voice. I only found this out a couple of weeks ago.”
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It wasn’t just previous actors’ portrayals of the caped crusader that weighed in on Pattinson's character choices. As the Guardian reported, he told Kimmel that simply donning the heavy, ink-black costume intrinsically forced him into speaking a certain dour way.
The complicated suit forced Pattinson to adjust to some other habits too. And here’s where Christian Bale swooped in again for inspiration.
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“I bumped into Christian Bale next door at a urinal,” said the latest Bruce Wayne, “and I guess that kind of inspired him to say the first thing you need to do in the batsuit is figure out a way to pee. So I went into the costume department and was like, ‘First things first – I need a patch, I need a flap on the back’.”
"The Batman" flies into theaters on March 4th.
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