Robert Pattinson has been applauded for his portrayal as the Batman in the new DC superhero film, and now the actor is sharing what — or who — inspired his dark, tormented take on the character.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Pattinson explained that he and director Matt Reeves turned to Al Pacino's character, Michael Corleone, in "The Godfather" and rocker Kurt Cobain for inspiration.
"In our first meeting, Matt mentioned Kurt Cobain was one of the linchpins of the character. Just that put something in my head," Pattinson said. "There’s something about this kind of self-imposed torment that I always found really interesting and also inheriting a life that you’re not entirely sure you want but also feel like you cannot give up at all. I remember we also talked a lot about Michael Corleone."
Last year Reeves spoke about how Cobain inspired his take on Bruce Wayne in "The Batman" during an interview with Empire.
"When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s 'Something In The Way,' " Reeves told Empire magazine. Nirvana fans will recognize a reimagined version of "Something in the Way" playing in one of the earlier trailers for the film. It was this song that formed the basis of Reeves' creation.
"That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse," he said. "So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s 'Last Days,' and the idea of this fictionalized version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor."
The haunting 2005 film "Last Days" was loosely based on Cobain and focused on his last few days before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. What audiences witnessed was a character in turmoil who sunk into the depths of a heightened sense of paranoia and addiction. With Cobain in mind, it only galvanized Reeves' decision to cast Pattinson in the role as Batman.
"One of the great things about Batman is, because he doesn’t have any superpowers, it’s extremely psychological," Reeves told the Los Angeles Times. "He’s really doing this as a way of coping, because something happened to him [in his childhood] that he’s never gotten over. He’s exorcising these demons night after night after night."
Reeves added that Batman was essential a character who was stunted because of the past trauma of his parents being killed.
"He’s sort of stuck emotionally at being 10 years old, and that’s exacerbated by the fact that he has this safety net of being incredibly rich," he said. "But he chooses to do this very brave, daring, reckless, almost suicidal thing, trying make meaning out of his life by going out and taking the law into his own hands."