Robert Pattinson clarifies his joke about working out for Batman: ‘That really came back to haunt me’

Robert Pattinson has clarified a joke he made about his Batman role that “really came back to haunt me”.

The Twilight star will play the caped crusader in Matt Reeves’s forthcoming film – titled The Batman – which also stars Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano, and Zoe Kravitz.

In a new interview with MovieMaker, Pattinson addressed a joke that he made about working out for the part in a 2020 interview with GQ magazine.

“I think if you’re working out all the time, you’re part of the problem,” he said. “You set a precedent. No one was doing this in the Seventies. Even James Dean, he wasn’t exactly ripped.”

Pattinson went on to joke that – unlike the actors who portrayed Batman before him, including Christian Bale and Ben Affleck – he was “barely doing anything” to physically prepare for the part.

The joke, however, was misinterpreted, with many people believing that the actor was not working out for the role, which typically requires a high level of physical fitness.

The 35-year-old told the publication that his joke “really came back to haunt me”.

“I just always think it’s really embarrassing to talk about how you’re working out,” he said. “I think it’s an English thing. Unless you are in the most unbelievable shape where people are just genuinely curious, going, ‘How have you achieved, like, physical perfection?’ or whatever.”

“You’re playing Batman. You have to work out,” he said. “I think I was doing the interview when I was in lockdown as well, in England [so] I was in a lower gear of working out.”

The Lighthouse star compared the misinterpretation of his joke to another earlier moment from his career.

“It’s the same thing as saying in an interview when I was like 21 that I didn’t wash my hair. It just sticks for 15 years,” said the actor.

In a 2009 interview, Pattinson said he didn’t “see the point in washing your hair”.

The Batman will be released in cinemas on 4 March 2022.