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Andy Parsons

Robert Pattinson on how he almost lost the Batman role before he'd even got it

Isabelle Aron
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Isabelle Aron
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Robert Pattinson was annoyed when news leaked that he might be in line to play Batman, the London-born actor has revealed in a Time Out interview. It wasn't because he didn’t want the part though, it was because it wasn’t even close to being confirmed.

‘I hadn’t even done the audition’, he told Time Out. ‘It’s just nerve-wracking because I was really excited about it and you think: really, is this how I’m going to lose this role? It’s the most annoying circumstances to lose something.’ 

He says that the rumours led to him getting grilled about it at the premiere for his new arthouse flick ‘The Lighthouse’, which stars him and Willem Dafoe playing lighthouse keepers on a remote island on the New England Coast. ‘Everyone was like: “Is that true, is that true?”,’ he said. ‘And it wasn’t true at the time, I hadn’t got the job. It was pretty terrifying.’ 

Pattinson did get the part, but that wasn't the end of the drama around his casting. Within months of the announcement he appeared on the Today show where he riled fans by saying Batman was not a superhero because he doesn’t have superpowers.

‘I wasn’t educated about the subject,’ he joked. ‘People got very angry about it. It’s bizarre. I still can’t understand the argument. Okay, he’s a superhero, I’m sorry! The next headline: “Pattinson retracts: Batman is, in fact, a superhero. He takes it back.”’

Joking aside, he does care what people make of it. ‘I’m only worried about if people like it when it’s done. Right now, people can think what they want.’ ‘The Batman’ is out in 2021, but in the meantime, Pattinson isn’t keeping his cool about how excited he is. ‘It’s the coolest thing ever,’ he says. ‘I still can’t really believe it.’

Read our full interview with Robert Pattinson in next week’s Time Out London magazine

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