Robert Pattinson Reveals His Worst Day Filming The Batman

With Robert Pattinson being the third actor to take a turn as Batman in the past decade, there's a lot of pressure on him to deliver something original while remaining true to the beloved character when "The Batman," directed by Matt Reeves, releases in early March. The "Tenet" star left the world of franchise blockbusters behind after finishing the massively successful "Twilight" trilogy a decade ago and has spent that time working on a series of passion projects. "The Batman" is projected to be a massive box office earner and will likely be his largest movie by sheer numbers since the vampire-themed teen romance.

Over the years, Pattinson has garnered a reputation as an emotional and experimental performer, a reputation that helped him secure the role of Bruce Wayne. Before cameras rolled on the set of "The Lighthouse," the London-bred actor would gag and hit himself with the goal of shocking his body into "a reactive state" (via Backstage). And yet, even for someone as committed to his roles as Pattinson, filming "The Batman" proved difficult because of the challenges inherent to acting while in costume.

Many superhero movies choose to add CGI to characters' faces when they're in the suit, so great is the challenge of displaying emotion in costume. Tom Holland recently recalled using "crazy arms" to solve the problem, and VFX are added to the eyes of the Spider-suit to make it more emotive. By contrast, "The Batman" is going for a more realistic look, and that means the emotion needs to come from Pattinson himself. In a recent Q&A session, Pattinson described his worst day on set with Reeves, during which he pushed himself to the limit and nearly had a self-described embolism.

During a recent Q&A with Robert Pattinson and director Matt Reeves for "The Batman," the pair discussed the unique challenges of filming with the Batsuit, which Reeves called "a terrible mistake" that led to Pattinson's most difficult day on set (via ScreenRant). According to Pattinson, the cowl of the Batsuit is a difficult hurdle to clear when trying to give an emotional acting performance, since it obscures most of the wearer's facial features. Reeves continually wanted "more" out of Pattinson, confusing the actor who was already hamming it up more than he thought necessary.

On one day, this resulted in Reeves shooting 40 takes of a scene, only to realize none of them were usable. The director explained, "One of the things I love to do when I'm working with actors is say, 'Well, come take a look.'" Reeves clarified that Pattinson thought he was already doing too much with the scene, elaborating, "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 admitted he was frustrated and was on the verge of having "an embolism" after so many takes, and that he began to doubt Reeves as a director. "That was the worst day of the whole shoot because I really, genuinely thought it was you that was wrong," Pattinson said "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.'"

"The Batman" will arrive in theaters on March 4, and according to recent sneak peeks, it will be like nothing before it.