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The Batman Director Matt Reeves Says Clearly None of You Understand How Cowls Work

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Published on January 25, 2022

Credit: Warner Bros. / DC Comics
Credit: Warner Bros. / DC Comics

BREAKING NEWS! Matt Reeves, the director of The Batman, the upcoming Warner Bros. film with Robert Pattinson as the aforementioned Bat, answers the question that no one was thinking—why is Pattinson shown wearing so much dark eye makeup in the press photo displayed above?

In an interview with Esquire, Reeves shares how he approached his interpretation of Batman for The Batman and also answered silly questions like, “Why is Pattison wearing so much eye makeup?”

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Sisters of the Forsaken Stars

Sisters of the Forsaken Stars

“You can’t wear a cowl and not wear that. All of the Batmen wear that,” Reeves answered. “I just loved the idea of taking off [the mask] and under that there’s the sweating and the dripping and the whole theatricality of becoming this character.”

Reeves is pointing out the obvious here—if you don’t smear black stuff around your eyes, your eyes will be very noticeable when you don the bat mask. This is cowl fashion 101, folks.

The Esquire interview had other interesting details from Reeves. When Pattinson auditioned for the part, for example, he wore Val Kilmer’s old costume, because why not?

“You go there [into Warner Bros.] and they’ve got all the suits, going back to Michael Keaton,” Reeves explained. “I’m not going to say it fitted well, but it fitted the best. It was sort of old, and as he started acting, he started heating up the cowl and the cowl started to sag on his face. You could see him thinking, ‘How am I going to act in this suit?’ But putting on a Batman suit is also transformative. You start to feel the power of having that armor on.”

Check out the full interview here for more details, including that Reeves was inspired by Nirvana and says his version of the caped crusader is “a Batman Kurt Cobain.”

The Batman premieres in theaters on March 4, 2022.

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Vanessa Armstrong

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Vanessa Armstrong is a writer with bylines at The LA Times, SYFY WIRE, StarTrek.com and other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her dog Penny and her husband Jon, and she loves books more than most things. You can find more of her work on her website or follow her on Twitter @vfarmstrong.
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