Robert Pattinson has some interesting takes on Batman he’s made known since he was cast. Most recently, he intimated Bruce isn’t totally sane in the upcoming movie, and before that, he said the Dark Knight is not a hero and his morality is messed up.
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Now Pattinson has said in a new interview with Parade that there are two ways of looking at Batman’s infamous no-kill rule and that ambiguity fed into how he plays the character.
“There is this rule with Batman: he must not kill,” he said. “It can be interpreted in two ways. Either he only wants to inflict the appropriate punishment, or he wants to kill and his self-control prevents him from doing so.”
From the time of his first rehearsal, Pattinson had this on his mind as a “funny” what-if. To him, Batman hypothetically either wants to cut a criminal’s throat or takes pleasure in punishing them.
“I imagined it that way from the rehearsal of the first fight, I thought it was funnier: something in him just wanted to slit the guy’s throat!”, he said. “I told myself that if he spends his nights chasing criminals, it is impossible that he does not take pleasure in it.”
He added a desire to inflict punishment overtakes him until he goes out and has his fill. “He suffers and it is a desire that overwhelms him. And by dint of knocking, his mind clears, he calms down, he reaches a state close to plenitude.” Pattinson explained.
The actor also thinks that in his first fight on the street, and maybe from then on, Batman treats criminals like they killed, specifically, his mother because he is this embodiment of vengeance.
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“I’m sure in this first fight, he manages to convince himself that every guy in front of him is the one who killed his mother (Laughs.) And so that allows him to vent all his rage,” said Pattinson, who believes Batman lives like a criminal.
“The interesting thing is that this Batman practically lives in the gutter,” Pattinson continued. “He’s nowhere at home except on the street when he’s wearing the suit. He lives a criminal life, but without committing crimes!”
That’s pretty dark but Pattinson loved playing with the interpretation. “I felt like I could get something out of that,” he said. “Anyway, I could only play a superhero if he was really dirty!”
The Batman is set to be dark and dirty. Complicating things further is The Riddler besieging a city that’s already descending into madness. Will Batsy break his one rule to stop a man like him?
We find out in due time as The Batman is finally almost upon us with its release date of March 4th.
NEXT: Robert Pattinson: “Batman’s Not a Hero”