Robert Pattinson, who plays Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman and is a key supporting character in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, recently shared an audition story that put a smile on my face. In a recent interview with Irish Times, Pattinson recalled his audition process for The Batman. The underrated actor had booked an audition slot for the Batman reboot and did not want to miss it. The only problem was, he had to inform Christopher Nolan about it, as production for Tenet was still ongoing. He didn’t know how to bring it up to the director, who previously helmed the critically acclaimed The Dark Knght trilogy. Pattinson’s method was to come up with a lie befitting a high school student. Pattinson said:
“It’s funny because Chris is so secretive about everything to do with his movies. And then I had to be really secretive about Batman stuff. So I had to lie to Chris about having to go for a screen test — I said I had a family emergency. And as soon as I said ‘It’s a family emergency,’ he said: ‘You’re doing the Batman audition, aren’t you?’”
It’s no surprise that Christopher Nolan would know what’s up. Nolan has been directing films for Warner Bros for ages — Tenet is a WB film too — and probably has established a rapport with some of the higher-ups at the studio. Of course, he would know if there’s a Batman audition taking place.
In the same interview, Pattinson also talked about his poor fitness level compared to his Tenet co-star, John David Washington.
“When I’m running on screen I’m generally paired with John David [Washington] who is an ex-NFL player so it was the most unfair thing in the world. The maximum workout I do most of the time is a casual stroll. John David can run all day long. It was good that I ended up being pretty fit. But definitely, at the beginning, there were days I just could not walk afterwards.”
