Robert Pattinson ‘f***ing furious’ with premature reports about Batman casting

British actor worried attention would steer studio bosses away from picking him

Robert Pattinson has said he was “furious” with the early reports he’d been cast as Batman because he was devastated it would scupper his chances of playing the character.

The British actor was prematurely announced as the next Batman in the middle of May, two weeks before the official confirmation.

The truth was that Pattinson hadn’t even auditioned for the role yet. He read the reports, while on his way to the Cannes Film Festival, at the same time as the rest of the world and was “terrified” the attention would steer Warner Bros away from considering him.

“When that thing leaked, I was f***ing furious,” Pattinson told Variety in his first interview since being cast as the character. “Everyone was so upset. Everyone was panicking from my team. I sort of thought that had blown up the whole thing.”

He continued: “It was terrifying. I was like, ‘Oh f***. Does that screw me because they are so intent on secrecy?’”

Still, director Matt Reeves sent Pattinson pages from the script and, after rehearsing them in Cannes, he flew to LA to try on the Batsuit.

“It might be craziest thing I’ve ever done in terms of movie stuff,” he said.

He officially found out he had been cast as the next Bruce Wayne on his first day on the set of Tenet, the spy thriller from The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan.