Zoë Kravitz Recalls Being Told She Was Too "Urban" to Audition for 'Dark Knight Rises'
“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” she said in a recent interview.
Zoë Kravitz, who is currently receiving widely positive reviews for her portrayal of Selina Kyle, or Catwoman, in Matt Reeves‘ The Batman, recently spoke out about being called too “urban” to audition for a role in Christopher Nolan’s 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises.
“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” the actress said in an interview with The Guardian. “I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant.”
Kravitz, who is of Black and Jewish descent, continued, “Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word ‘urban’ being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment.”
It is unkown which role Kravitz wanted to audition for, though it is believed to be one of Catwoman’s roomates Jen, who was portrayed by Juno Temple.
The High Fidelity actress previously spoke about the casting experience during an interview with Nylon in 2015, stating, “They told me that I couldn’t get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren’t ‘going urban.’ It was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ I have to play the role like, ‘Yo, what’s up, Batman? What’s going on wit chu?’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kravitz stated that she lacked interest in pursuing roles that centered exclusively on race. “At one point, all the scripts that were being sent were about the first Black woman to make a muffin or something,” she said. “Even though those stories are important to tell, I also want to open things up for myself as an artist.”
Kravitz endured four months of training to prepare for her role as Catwoman in The Batman, after studying videos of big cats to perfectly emulate her character’s movements throughout the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film, which stars Robert Pattinson in the titular role, easily scored the largest opening of 2022 with $128.5 million USD at the domestic box office. The Batman, which also earned the second-largest pandemic era opening, following Spider-Man: No Way Home, raked in an additional $120 million USD from 75 markets overseas, moving the worldwide total to roughly $248.5 million USD.
In other entertainment news, Netflix has unveiled a Russian Doll season two teaser and release date.
