The Batman Star Robert Pattinson Talks About His Worst Day On The Set

With anticipation for the release of "The Batman" growing with each day, it is only a matter of time before fans are allowed a glimpse into the anarchy-tinted streets of Gotham City, with Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) and his allies struggling to keep up with the games put forth by The Riddler (Paul Dano).

Pattinson has obviously put in a lot of thought into playing Bruce Wayne/Batman, given his in-depth rumination about the caped crusader's no-kill rule and frankly refreshing take of how he enjoyed every Batman film. Now here's something Pattinson is irked about when it comes to donning his cowl, as he recently talked to Screen Rant during a Q&A event about his worst day on "The Batman" set. 

Emoting through a cowl ain't easy

The role of Batman comes with its set of expectations and responsibilities, and the added pressure of emoting effectively while having a cowl on can drive anyone off the edge. This is exactly what happened to Pattinson, who had to shoot some of the most emotion-driven scenes while keeping the cowl on, leading to some frustrating moments on set. Reeves and Pattinson discussed the challenges inherent within this creative choice at length, wherein the director joked that the cowl was "a terrible mistake," as they had no idea how difficult it was going to be to pull off certain scenes. Such sequences demanded intense theatricality from Pattinson's end, which lead to an especially frustrating moment between the director and the lead star:

Reeves: "One of the things I love to do when I'm working with actors is say, 'Well come take a look'. And [Rob would] be like, 'How can that not be enough? I'm overacting. It's ridiculous.' And I'd say, 'Come take a look, Rob.' He'd go, 'Oh, you can't see my eyes.'"

Pattinson: "That was maybe the worst day of the whole shoot, because I really, genuinely thought it was you that was wrong. And then I was like, 'How can we be doing 40 takes?' And then you're like, 'Just come and look at it.' And I was looking at it and I go, 'Wow, I just look like — there's nothing.'"

Although these challenges pushed Pattinson to the verge of having "an embolism," Reeves has nothing but praise for him, given that he was ready to push himself to work through the obstacles that came with filming. A similar issue was faced by Tom Hardy while portraying Bane in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises," as it was pretty challenging to emote with the bottom half of his face covered.

"The Batman" also stars Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, and Andy Serkis. While we do not know how effective/intense Bruce's emotionality is beneath that cowl (as of yet), we sure do hope for a Bat-whisper cut of the film (one can dream).

"The Batman" is scheduled for release in theaters on March 4, 2022.