Pattinson Is Reportedly Running Into Some Big Trouble Filming The Batman
Robert Pattinson might be running into a big issue while preparing for The Batman.
In a recent YouTube stream, Beyond the Trailer's Grace Randolph disclosed that sources close to the film's production are reporting that the actor is having trouble packing on the necessary pounds for the role.
"I've... heard that Robert Pattinson is having a little bit of trouble bulking up," Randolph said. "I think it's probably impossible for him to fully bulk up because he just has a slight build, but I think it's hilarious they are like, 'Maybe if we gave him a few more weeks, he might bulk up'. If he hasn't bulked up by now, he's not going to bulk up. Just accept you have skinny Batman and deal with it."
Okay, that's pretty funny, but we feel the need to point out a couple of things here. First, Randolph's sources are anonymous, meaning that their degree of involvement in The Batman might be "intimately involved," or "not involved at all," or anything in between. Pattinson hasn't popped up in public at any point super-recently, so we have no idea if he's gotten crazy jacked for The Batman, which is in pre-production and is thought to be going before the cameras early next year.
Second, do you happen to recall the role that Christian Bale played immediately prior to his debut as Bats in Batman Begins? He appeared as the extremely troubled, physically and psychologically fragile title character in The Machinist, a role for which he lost enough weight to pose an actual danger to his health. Bale looked like a damn skeleton in that movie, and just a year later, we was convincingly kicking ass as the big, buff Dark Knight.
Now, Bale and Pattinson are obviously different people (we're pretty sure they are, anyway), so it's entirely possible that the latter could be having some difficulty packing on the muscle while the former did not. All we're saying is that the fact Pattinson has a "slight build" doesn't mean anything at all, and there's a strong possibility that his reported struggle with bulking up is baloney (which the star would do well to eat a lot of).
Is Robert Pattinson cut out to play Batman?
In fact, if you ask us, this report has the suspicious ring of a rumor floated by parties who don't think that Pattinson has what it takes to fill out Batman's cape and cowl in any event. We'll concede that there isn't a heck of a lot in his previous filmography to suggest that he has the type of physical presence required to portray the Caped Crusader — but if you're mostly familiar with the actor from his work as sparkly vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, then you should know that his casting was no left-field choice. Pattinson is an Actor with a capital A, as he's demonstrated in critically acclaimed indie films like Good Time and High Life since his brush with franchise fame — and if you need a higher-profile, extremely recent example of his formidable chops, look no further than The Lighthouse.
The psychological thriller from director Robert Eggers (The Witch) is currently drawing critical raves across the board, and the stark, black-and white period tale of two lighthouse keepers slowly driving each other mad is largely a two-man show. Those two men are Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, and if the general critical consensus is to be believed, the younger actor more than holds his own opposite a man known far and wide for giving intense, committed performances.
We'd even go so far as to say that the off-kilter darkness inherent to Pattinson's persona makes him an even better fit for the role of Bruce Wayne than the brooding Bale — who was just fine in the role, but was bolstered mightily by the titans of acting who served as the villains in the Dark Knight trilogy. Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul, Heath Ledger as the Joker, and Tom Hardy as Bane would have forced any actor to bring their A-game — so we submit that while the Christopher Nolan-directed flicks are pretty much the definitive Batman movies, that doesn't mean they'll continue to be for time immemorial.
Since we've gone this far, let's edge all the way out onto our limb here in suggesting that the most prominent actors to portray Bats in the modern era — Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's films, Bale, and Ben Affleck in the early DC Movie Universe efforts — were a bit hamstrung by not even being the most important characters in their own movies. The Batman, as its title indicates, is shaping up to be Pattinson's show — and even if the flick's director Matt Reeves builds a scintillating rogues' gallery around him (which it certainly seems like he is), we believe that when it comes to onscreen portrayals of the Caped Crusader, Pattinson has the opportunity (and the talent) to give us a version that will resonate in the public imagination like no prior version quite has.
Call us crazy, but we have the courage of our convictions — we've been of the opinion that Pattinson will make a perfect Batman from the very beginning, and we will bet you (yes, you personally) a crisp twenty dollar bill that we'll be utterly vindicated when The Batman hits screens on June 25, 2021.