Yahoo Movies ‘The Batman’ Director Explains Robert Pattinson’s Emo-Eyeliner: ‘You Can’t Not Wear That’
When the first trailer for Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” debuted in August 2020, it left comic book fans buzzing over the look of Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne. The character takes off his Batman mask to reveal he’s sporting some serious emo-eyeliner. It’s taken well over a year, but Reeves finally weighed in on the makeup choice during a recent interview with Esquire magazine.
“You can’t wear a cowl and not wear that,” Reeves said. “All of the Batmen wear that. I just loved the idea of taking off [the mask] and under that there’s the sweating and the dripping and the whole theatricality of becoming this character.”
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Reeves also commented on the initial backlash that hit social media after Robert Pattinson was announced as his Bruce Wayne/Batman. The director shrugged off the outrage, saying, “There has been no actor, when his announcement that he was going to be playing Batman in one of the feature films was announced, that has not received a backlash. The people who were excited, I knew it was because they knew Rob’s work post-‘Twilight.’ The people who weren’t excited, I knew it was because they didn’t know Rob’s work post-‘Twilight.'”
It was one of Pattinson’s post-“Twilight” indie movies that sold Reeves on casting the actor in “The Batman.” One watch of the Safdie Brothers’ “Good Time” is all the convincing Reeves needed. Pattinson stars in “Good Time” as a desperate criminal trying to free his brother from jail.
“In the process of writing the movie, I watched ‘Good Time,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, he’s got an inner kind of rage that connects with this character and a dangerousness, and I can feel this desperation.’ And I became dead-set on it being Rob,” Reeves said. “And I had no idea if Rob had any interest! Because, of course, he had done all of these indie movies after he established himself in Twilight.'”
“The Batman” opens in theaters nationwide March 4.
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