TV-MOVIES

The Catwoman Line In The Batman That Has Some Fans Seeing Red

By MAX MILLER

Matt Reeves' "The Batman" has finally arrived in theaters, and fans are already voicing their thoughts, both negative and positive. One moment that occurs during a conversation between Catwoman and Batman has become the subject of heated discussion, with some praising it and others expressing outrage.

Selina Kyle confronts Batman in a pivotal scene, after he shows a lack of interest in tracking down her missing friend Annika. An enraged Selina identifies him as being raised rich and says, "All anyone cares about in this place are these white privileged a**holes [...] I mean, as far as I'm concerned, [The Riddler] is right to go after these creeps."

For a certain subset of fans, that admonition brushed them the wrong way, as one Twitter user recounted, "someone says 'white privilege' at some point in The Batman, and some nerd behind us scoffed and walked out while repeating the line to himself." Apparently, any construction of the two-word phrase was enough to make some people write off "The Batman" entirely.

Others loved to see a Batman story finally address one of Bruce Wayne's biggest weaknesses. @KittyStudio tweeted, "If you are mad that the #Batman movie had diverse actors and/or said ONE line about white privilege, then you're really letting your racism show. Representation is really important, and hello, white privilege is a thing. It all fit with the movie and made sense."

Zoe Kravitz has revealed in several interviews that she lost an audition for "The Dark Knight Rises" because she was deemed too "urban" for the part — she did not specify whether or not she was auditioning for Catwoman. In response to that piece of news, @thecharlottekid tweeted, "this is why her line about white privilege is so relevant to her character's story + a necessary piece of the script."