Robert Pattinson Tried On Almost Every Single Bat-Suit To Screen Test For The Batman
Before you get too excited, dear reader: No, actor Robert Pattinson did not try on the Batman costume worn by Adam West in the popular 1966 TV series. He did, however, actually put on the very same Batman costumes once worm by Val Kilmer and George Clooney (in "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin" respectively) for his screen test. It seems that even in 2022, Warner Bros. was keeping suits built in 1995 and 1997 as a reference.
Matt Reeves' 2022 film "The Batman" was a very different animal from the Batman feature films that had come before. Eschewing comic book fun, and embracing a dour, depressing aesthetic cribbed directly from David Fincher's "Seven," "The Batman" was a terse and complicated crime movie about a serial killer, organized crime, and terrorism. Gone were the colorful, outsize villains, or a Bruce Wayne who seemed capable of having any fun while living his life as a millionaire playboy. This was a pale, pasty Bruce Wayne with the skin of a newt and the social skills of ... well, also a newt.
Part of the process of auditioning to play Batman, however, did indeed see Pattinson gamely trying on various Batman costumes for screen test purposes. However skilled he may have been at playing Bruce Wayne, it was vitally important that Pattinson's head fit well in the bat cowl. Even by 2022, however, it seemed that Warner Bros. had, somewhere deep in its costume department, a team of wardrobe managers that were looking after older Batman suits with the utmost tenacity. Pattinson recalled the experience of trying on Batman costumes when appearing on a 2022 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
Val Kilmer's sweat
It's astonishing to think that Warner Bros. wouldn't make a costume for Pattinson, especially as they might want something unique from what had been seen in older movies. But, it seems, that every new Batman film uses the previous films as a template. Pattinson didn't even have the part yet when he was taken into the above-mentioned wardrobe to try on some foam rubber costumes that still had the bodily secretions of previous Batman actors caked onto them. "Every single still has the actor's kind of sweat inside," he said. What does 28-year-old Val Kilmer funk smell like? Only Pattinson knows for sure. Pattinson and an elite cadre of costumers and archivists that have the keys to the "little cage somewhere in Warner Bros. costume department." The actor said:
"There's the same people in the costume department who worked on every single one of the Batman movies. So they don't really care who the director is or anything. They're like, 'Do not mess these suits up.'"
Pattinson did not mess the suits up, although he admitted that, because of their age, some of them were rotting away nonetheless. Foam and latex rubber aren't substances made to last long, and they eventually melt into a sticky goop after a few decades. Pattinson recalls trying on a Batman suit that definitely didn't fit and likely would require repair just from being handled and tried on after so many years. He said:
"Either one didn't really fit, and you've got like three costume workers trying to squeeze your legs into this 30-year-old foam costume which is just disintegrating as you're getting into it."
Pattinson joked that he needed to be "lubed up" in order to fit inside. One may make their own lascivious joke here.
Clooney's head
Pattinson also learned that he had the same bodily proportions as two of the previous Batman actors. He said:
"[I]t's the size of your head that's the defining factor. [...] [T]he body fit more on Val Kilmer's one and the head fit of Clooney's one, so they kind of Frankensteined it."
Pattinson's Batman may have been meant to read as an original creation, but the templates were carried over from older ideas. To give credit where credit is due, the costume designers on "Batman Forever" were Bob Ringwood and Ingrid Ferrin. Ferrin returned for "Batman & Robin," while Ringwood was replaced by Robert Turturice. The costumes in "The Batman" were made by Glyn Dillon and David Crossman. The Pattinson Batman suit likely owes credit to all of them.
When it came time to actually wear his own suit, Pattinson was astonished at how well it fit him; they didn't use Kilmer's or Clooney's proportions. He said that:
"It really flowed. It was so well-designed, so articulated on all the joints. [...] It was kind of shocking."
Pattinson will have a chance to wear the suit again. As of this writing, "The Batman: Part II" is currently in production and is slated for release on October 3, 2025.