One of the most important parts of any Batman performance is the Bat-voice. Keaton set the stage with a slightly lower tenor that established much of what we know today. Kevin Conroy voiced most of our childhood with his gruff take in Batman: The Animated Series. Christian Bale went for the aggressively throaty take in Nolan’s trilogy. At a special The Batman Q&A on the Warner Bros. lot, Robert Pattinson revealed that getting Batman’s voice right was his in to the mindset of the iconic hero.
In response to a question by our own Dan Casey, Pattinson shared his vocal process. “It was a lot of trial and error,” Pattinson revealed.
“I had a lot of time to think about it, I think I was cast about seven or eight months before we started shooting. So I was experimenting with a lot of different things. The first two or three weeks, we were kind of doing a variety of different voices because there’s only a couple of lines in the first few scenes we shot. I think me and Matt just sort of settled on something, it just started to sit in a very particular place. It kind of felt like a little bit of progression from other Bat-voices.”
He continued. “It also felt somewhat comfortable to do as well. It’s weird, it just suddenly starts to feel right. It seems to be that the more you embody the suit and the more you embody the kind of character, it just started to come out quite organically. I think that’s kind of what I was trying to do with the character as well. I was trying to think, ‘He’s not putting on a voice, he puts on the suit and then the voice just starts happening for him.'”
For his onscreen partner in crime, Zoë Kravitz, it was all about understanding Selina first. “I was really excited to explore her backstory and where she comes from, the process that she goes through in terms of kind of becoming closer to what will be Catwoman,” Kravitz explained. “But it was really lovely to be able to play Selina and not have to jump straight to Catwoman. I think with these iconic characters that we all love so much, it can be overwhelming in terms of, ‘Okay, now here’s Catwoman!’ And I have this wonderful opportunity to kind of slowly develop her and the audience gets to come on that journey with me.”
Kravitz was also quick to share how jumping into the more physical aspects of the role was another highlight. “Obviously learning all the combat and the way she moves and finding ways to kind of hint at who she will become was a really fun process,” Kravitz said.
It’s clear how passionate both Kravitz and Pattinson are about bringing these heroes to life. We’ll get to see exactly how they embody the famed DC characters when The Batman hits screens on March 4.
Featured Image: Warner Bros.
