I thought I should put together a master post for the interviews eventuating from the Warner Bros Press Screening Q&A on 10/11 February 2022. I will update this post as and when they surface.

17 February 2022

Geek of Steel: Talking with Matt Reeves about The Batman

The Batman is one of the most anticipated films of 2022 and recently I was invited to a virtual roundtable event where I was able to speak with the movies director/writer, Matt Reeves.

I was joined by journalists from all over the world and was enjoying listening to the in-depth answers about his directing methods, the cast and why The Batman is such a unique superhero film. I could have listened to his passionate words all day but before long it was my turn to speak with him about his creation.

I had a notebook filled with questions for this interview but I knew that time was limited so many got scrapped, changed and trimmed. Below is the audio transcription of my time with Matt Reeves and I hope you get to know a bit more about the director of this film and know that this film, and this beloved character, has been left in very safe hands.

Luke Bugg: Hello Mr Reeves, I’m Luke Bugg The Geek Of Steel from the UK.

Matt Reeves: Hi, oh cool.

L.B: I can’t wait to see this film and watch the audiences react to it.

M.R: That, by the way, is really fun. When we did our testing, it was the first time we put it in front of an audience and it was such a thrill to see people, you know.  We haven’t been to the movies in such a long time. To get people back to see this thing; it’s such a big screen experience and people’s reactions, like, seeing them cheer and react and scream – it’s why we go to the movies.

L.B: I would love to know what Batman means to you. He means something different to everybody, but what does he mean to you?

M.R Well. I think for me in this story, I think what I was looking toward was trying to find the personal way in. The character has meant something to me, like literally. Batman ’66, you know their Adam West series, it came out the year I was born, so as a kid I was obsessed with Batman and I didn’t see any of the campiness in that, I just thought he was super cool. There he was, he had the car – I loved the car, I loved the cowl, I loved all that stuff and of course I still love all those things. I love the outward shell of coolness that he has, but I think as a filmmaker what drew me in to the character was his human qualities. The fact that he really is doing what he’s doing, not in some kind of purely altruistic way.

I mean obviously you are meant to admire him in some degree, to put himself at risk but you realise that ultimately the real reason he is doing that is to make sense of his life. It’s kind of like he is still coping with what happened to him when he was ten and is still in many ways stuck in that and will never get over it and so I think that aspect of his character, watching someone who is dealing with their brokenness to try and find meaning and then finding these ways to transcend all of that. I think that is what the character means to me and I think it’s what people get excited about. 

This idea of seeing someone who you can relate to and goes through a struggle that you can connect to and yet somehow he has marshalled all of these resources to become this great mythic figure; that’s a pretty special character and I’d say really that it’s that aspect that mattered to me the most in the making of this and a big part of why I wanted Rob to play the character, because in looking at all the movies when I was writing, I was trying to find somebody in the age range.

I was like “okay, who is somebody in their early thirties?” because I wanted this to be a year two Batman and I had followed Rob’s work for a long time. When I saw the Safdie brothers’ movie “Good Time”, in the movie Rob has a kind of forceful, kinetic desperate drive, like he’s like a force of nature. I saw that and I loved that but the other thing that I felt from him was that his vulnerability was really present at the same time. You could see that under there, this guy was vulnerable and that was part of what was pushing him and driving him. Something about that just said to me well that’s the version of this character that I want to see, and I just became obsessed with the idea of him being him, he had no idea! In my mind I was writing the character for him and it turned out I was really lucky because it turned out that he happened to love Batman and wanted to play him. 

L.B: A perfect answer. Thank you.

Moment of truth – I don’t know who Alt-J are, but their story about meeting Rob sounds like something all of us would do – not delete his number I mean. From Rolling Stone:

Come on then, let’s hear their best tale.

“We had a very mad one on the first album,” recollects Unger-Hamilton, “where we ended up at Robert Pattinson’s house with Rami Malek and and Emile Hirsch.” 

“Emile Hirsch was tiny,” interjects Newman. 

“It was mental,” continues Unger-Hamilton. “At about 9am, I was, like, ‘I need to go, we’ve got a radio session!’ and Pattinson went, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll call you an Uber.’ I was, like, ‘You’ll call me a what?’ It was the first time I’d ever heard of Uber.”

Unger-Hamilton thinks he learned a valuable lesson from hanging with the new Batman. “I’d exchanged numbers with Rob — Rob! — Pattinson and then I started texting him when we were in LA, like, ‘Come out, we’re going out!’ and he’d always be, like, ‘Can’t make it.’ I realised he doesn’t want me texting him. Stop texting Rob Pattinson! Don’t try and be mates with people just because they’re famous actors. That was back in spring 2013.”

Have you still got his number?

“Yeah… Who deletes a phone number?!”

Newman opines, “I think there’s a rich history of musicians being good friends with actors throughout the years, or so you’re led to believe from Getty Images. I think we thought it was par for the course.”

“Yeah, like, ‘Oh this is the bit where the Hollywood A-Listers come to our gigs!’” laughs Unger-Hamilton.

Thanks @Monsieur_HJ for heads up.

There’s been some speculation on whether Rob’s The Batman will follow other releases that are currently being pushed back due to the latest Omicron Covid variant. Variety is reporting the following today:

Guess we will have to watch WarnerMedia day by day …

Zoe Kravitz teased about Rob’s transformation as Batman when she spoke to Marc Malkin from Just for Variety:

Zoë Kravitz says she has “seen a little” of “The Batman.” Of course, she’s not allowed to say too much, but Kravitz, who stars as Catwoman in the upcoming DC film, says of Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, “Rob is perfect for this role. He was incredible. His transformation was out of this world.” She added, “[Director] Matt Reeves has a lot of heart, and he cares so much for these characters. I’m just very excited for him to be able to go on vacation because he deserves it. I hope the fans love it because we put a lot of work into this.”

During promo for his movie Belfast, Jamie Dornan had this to say to the New York Times about Rob:

On that front, Dornan is trying and has been for a while (even before “The Fall,” he auditioned for Superman, a role he lost to Henry Cavill). To nab a superhero role now would offer him the chance to return to franchise films not as a newcomer desperate for a foothold but as an established actor who’s proved what he can do. And he knows that narrow path exists because Robert Pattinson has managed to walk it, seguing from “Twilight” heartthrob to indie-film star with such panache that he looped back around and used his newfound credibility to win the title role in next year’s “The Batman.”

“I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I feel like him and his people have played it really cleverly,” Dornan said of Pattinson, who is a friend. “Everything he’s done since ‘Twilight’ has been really smart and beautifully crafted, and those films aren’t financed on his name had he not been in these movies that made billions of dollars.”

Adam Rymer who was an executive producer on The Rover shares his story and photo about working with Rob. Everybody loves Rob and why wouldn’t they.

From D-Magazine:

But for the filming of The Rover, a 2014 movie depicting an adventure succeeding the global economic collapse, Rymer had a chance to work on-set. The movie was filmed in the Australian Outback, where Rymer forged friendships with the actors Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson.

“We shot in a very remote [area], so the cast and crew developed close relationships,” Rymer said. “I remember one night we were at a local bar and Rob bought drinks for everybody. We just exchanged pleasantries and shared stories all evening. It was one of those nights where I just realized that no matter how much of a superstar someone is, we’re all just people.”