Zoe Kravitz talks about not being able to audition for 'The Dark Knight Rises' for being "urban"
Zoë Kravitz was rejected from auditioning for "The Dark Knight Rises" because she was too "urban" for the role: “I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan. I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant." https://t.co/QHFEx4GuRs
- Variety (@Variety) March 7, 2022
• This past weekend The Batman had a stellar $134 million opening, and garnered rave reviews. Zoe Kravtiz's performance as Selina Kyle/Catwoman has been celebrated by many online (including by former Catwoman actresses, Halle Berry and Michelle Pfeiffer). But there was a time when Kravitz wasn't even allowed to audition for a Batman movie.
• Kravitz first shared the story in an interview with Nylon Magazine in 2015. She says she wanted to audition for a small role in The Dark Knight Rises, the conclusion to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. But she soon found she couldn't even get into the room and was informed that the film wasn't "going urban" for the role. The role she was presumably auditioning for, "Jen" - Selina Kyle's neighbor and sometimes mentee - ended up going to Juno Temple.
• In a new interview to promote The Batman she says, “I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan. I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant… 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.”
• Christopher Nolan has frequently been criticized for the lack of representation in his films. They tend to skew very white and very male, with many pointing out the scores of "dead wives" throughout his filmography. Tenet (released in 2020) is the first Nolan movie to be led by a black actor. John David Washington's character, referred to as "the Protagonist" throughout the film, is never given a real name despite the fact that every other major character has one.
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