The nerd world has been inundated with the news that Robert Pattinson is ‘refusing’ to work out for his role in 2021’s upcoming The Batman. A lot of fans have been rising to the internet to complain about this, now this in itself is irritating for many reasons but one of the main ones being that the world has had this conversation already. For when Gal Gadot was cast as Wonder Woman, there was a large uprising of people saying she was too thin to be Wonder Woman which in turn caused a large uprising in people saying how an actor’s physical size doesn’t mean they’ll be good or bad in a role.
Since then the world has come to love Gal’s performance, even with people trying to get Wonder Woman nominated for best picture at the Oscars. But it means we’ve already been through this whole argument about an actor’s size, and with the official photos that have been released of Pattinson in the suit confirms that he does in fact look like Batman. It’s quite clear that he is in fact in good physical shape and yet because he isn’t stood there topless doing his best impression of a Greek god then people are still complaining.
Even in the interview itself Pattinson says how he’s not working out everyday during Covid-19 in a way of trying to promote realistic body standards for men. Something that has been addressed in the last few decades and especially when it came to Superhero roles. You just need to look at the reaction of ‘Bro Thor’ in Avengers Endgame, I have had countless conversations with women where they told me how the film was ‘ruined’ because of it. Plus, look back at the classics, the original Superman wasn’t as ripped as Henry Cavil, the Batman’s of the cinematic world before Christian Bale were all of varying levels of fitness and yet there were fewer complaints about their size.
During his interview with GQ, which was the source of this news he said, “If you’re working out all the time, you’re part of the problem. You set a precedent. No one was doing this in the ‘70s. Even James Dean – he wasn’t exactly ripped.” And he’s exactly right, why is there a need for every male superhero to be this super-masculine representations that when interviewed in the run up to the films release they say how they not only no longer look as they do in the film but they are happy to not having to spend most of the day in the gym to maintain that shape, especially for the countless topless scenes present in their films. Including one for Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming where he is supposed to be playing a 15 year-old. Anyone who doesn’t see why this is relevant then imagine the next female superhero to be a 15 year-old who proceeds to strip down to underwear and imagine the world’s reaction.
Look, the reason I’m writing this isn’t to stop people from having a preference of how a certain character should look, people have their preferences and personal ideals. But to at least wait until the film is released and have an open mind for the story their going to be telling. Pattinson has done a long line of Indie films since his performance in the Twilight series, boasting a large resume of character pieces. I for one am excited for his take on the Caped Crusader, with news from the tone of the film to be something they haven’t explored cinematically before. Even in the hope that this could be the Batman who goes two to two with Joaquin Phoenix’s masterful take of the Joker. So let’s stop the hate, the world has had enough bad things going around at the moment, could we just wait to see how the film turns out before saying he’s not the right fit. People didn’t think Heath Ledger was the right pick for Joker when he was cast in The Dark Knight, and we know how well that turned out.
The Nerdy Bartender 