Zoe Kravitz Watched Actual Cat Fights To Prepare For Her Role As Catwoman In The Batman
At this point, no "Batman" film takes place in a vacuum. Fans need no reminder of the many iterations of the superhero and his supporting cast of characters that have taken place over the decades, both live-action and otherwise. Any actor who attempts to step into the shoes of such famous comic book heroes, villains, and those in between is doing so with the knowledge that audiences will inevitably be comparing their take to those who've come before. None of this deterred director Matt Reeves from making "The Batman" and immediately putting his stamp on all sorts of recognizable figures, from Robert Pattinson's Batman himself to those in his orbit like Alfred (Andy Serkis), the Penguin (an unrecognizable Colin Farrell), Riddler (Paul Dano), and Zöe Kravitz's Catwoman. Though much of the burden falls on the filmmakers, Kravitz in particular had the unenviable task of further differentiating her performance from the incomparable Michelle Pfeiffer and even Anne Hathaway's excellent turn as the antihero in "The Dark Knight Rises."
So how did she manage to accomplish that? By studying the movements of the animals that the character derives her namesake from, of course!
'Fast and Tricky'
You just never know where inspiration might come from, or how it differs from actor to actor based on the character they're playing. For instance, we're not terribly convinced that Colin Farrell took his cues for playing the Oswald Cobblepot/the Penguin in "The Batman" by poring over footage of how real-life penguins move around. (Though we'd be thrilled to be proven wrong!) But when it came time to prepare for Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Zöe Kravitz and stunt coordinator Rob Alonzo had a plan for figuring out exactly how she ought to move and fight throughout this particular story. The answer, according to Empire, involved looking at her character's feline counterparts. As Kravitz explained:
"We watched cats and lions and how they fight and talked about what is actually possible when you're my size, and Batman's so much stronger than me. What is my skill? It's being fast and tricky. So we did some really interesting floor work that incorporated different kinds of martial arts and capoeira and a kind of feline, dance-like movement."
Based on these comments and much of the footage we've already seen, Reeves clearly intends on keeping one foot firmly in the realm of realism despite the heightened comic book characters he's dealing with. According to Kravitz, that emphasis extends to the emotional state of these larger-than-life individuals as well. "[Rob]'s not just trying to do a bunch of impressive backflips that wouldn't be possible for that person to do, and he takes into account where we are in the story and where the characters are emotionally. So it was really fun to work from that place."
Kravitz has previously spoken out about her commitment to revealing new layers through her take on Catwoman and these latest comments only make us even more interested in how she'll embody the character. We'll find out how much all this work paid off when "The Batman" comes to theaters on March 4, 2022.