Robert Pattinson has admitted that he did in fact work out to play Batman – despite saying six years ago that he wasn’t going to.
The British actor, who was last seen in the dark comedy The Drama and is currently promoting Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster The Odyssey, said in a new interview that he has installed a gym in his home in preparation for the Batman sequel… because one of his lies got out of hand.
Back in 2020, Pattinson told GQ that he had no intention of working out to play the Dark Knight, in the first of a new franchise of films by director Matt Reeves. He even said that he’s been ignoring calls put to him by a personal trainer hired by film studio Warner Bros.
“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.”
open image in galleryBut he later admitted this was a joke.
“That really came back to haunt me,” Pattinson said. “I just always think it’s really embarrassing to talk about how you’re working out. I think it’s like an English thing … [But] you’re playing Batman. You have to work out.”
Now, speaking to GQ once again, he revealed that the joke gained so much traction that many people believed he just strolled onto the set of 2022’s The Batman without lifting a single weight.
“Everyone was like: ‘You didn’t work out at all.’ I worked out every f***ing day,” Pattinson complained, before adding that his body doesn’t naturally bulk up very much.
“Even after that, I still look like I didn’t work out,” he continued. “I worked out twice a day at, like, three o’clock in the morning.”
open image in galleryHe also admitted that he was merely “trying to sound cool” by badmouthing working out.
Pattinson has a history of teasing journalists in interviews with outlandish stories, such as claiming that he never washes his hair, and once telling a journalist that he witnessed a clown perishing in a car explosion as a child.
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Pattinson is one of a number of stars appearing in Nolan’s The Odyssey next month, which is led by Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway. Zendaya, his co-star in The Drama, also appears in the film, and will reunite with Pattinson once again this December in Dune: Part Three.
The actor is in pre-production for Matt Reeves’s sequel to The Batman, which will star franchise newcomers Scarlett Johansson and Sebastian Stan.