The Batman is almost officially out in theaters, and stars Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, and Jeffrey Wright spent 10 minutes in a Vanity Fair video assessing online fan theories about what goes down in Matt Reeves’ upcoming movie.
The video is an enjoyable one, and may or may not include some theories that turn out to be true. Arguably the most delightful moment, however, is when Pattinson confesses to lurking online to see what the internet is saying about his performance.
“It’s actually very… I’m just reading these again and it’s extremely helpful to have these fan theories,” Pattinson said at about the halfway point of the video (via ScreenRant). “I used to look at a lot of the forum stuff and it actually really did inform my character a lot. Still look at it nowadays… I generally lurk. Sometimes I just get pushed a little far and I have to respond something. So, when sometimes you just see a quite abstract message going like, ‘Just please, just leave me alone,’ that’s me [laughs]. ‘Stop picking faults. I’m doing my best.’ [laughs].”
Poor Pattinson! The actor seems to take it all in stride, fortunately, and also sheds light on how he approached playing the Batman earlier in the clip, when a fan suggests Batman doesn’t kill is because he wants to keep putting them in jail.
“One of the things that I was really thinking, I think he keeps going after low level criminals every night is partially because he’s wanting to relive the trauma of his past and rewriting history … he’s not going after a corrupt president or something. He’s going after the same low-level thugs that killed his parents. He almost keeps his parents alive by fighting in these alleyways like Crime Alley.”
That tracks, and Pattinson’s co-stars agreed as well. You can check out how Pattinson’s Batman deals with his issues starting tomorrow, when The Batman will be most likely playing in a theater near you.