The Batman is set to come out March 4, and as the release date draws closer, more intrigue is swirling around Robert Pattinson and his much-anticipated take on the stalwart superhero. Thanks to an interview published today, we’ve learned — according to The Batman director Matt Reeves — that the voice Pattinson uses to play the Caped Crusader is far from his own.
In the GQ profile published Tuesday, covering the twists and turns in Pattinson’s career since his time as a sparkling vampire in Twilight, Reeves revealed the surprising and intriguing tidbit about how Pattinson approaches his roles.
“He’s a chameleon. Recently, Rob was telling me that he never plays a character with exactly his voice. The voice is one of his ways in.”
The article candidly explores Pattinson’s journey into arthouse film projects, and the seeming purposefulness with which he’s embraced those roles, apparently without ever using his real voice.
Writer Daniel Riley noted that for Pattinson, “The fame came quickly, with Twilight, the teen-vampire saga that grossed billions of dollars and set Pattinson up for a particular kind of path. The choices—smaller movies with singular filmmakers—came as part of his masterfully planned, decade-long prison break out of that one particular career.”
That observation leads to Pattinson candidly cracking,
“I’m constantly doing risk assessments, which drives everybody crazy, trying to predict every single element that could possibly happen. And then, at the end of it, just being like: Ah, fuck it! I’ll just play a lighthouse keeper who fucks a mermaid! I think this is the right move!”
The Batman opens March 4, with widespread rumors of two sequels and possibly even an HBO Max spinoff tied to the streaming service’s DCEU embrace following this release.