Nicholas Hoult on Losing Batman Role To Robert Pattinson; Says It Was an "Emotional Blow"

Robert Pattinson plays a perfect Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but it’s always interesting to hear what other actors were in the running for parts after all is said and done.

In this case, Nicholas Hoult had thrown his hat in the ring, and he had a lot stacked against him, as he didn’t even get to read for the part until after Pattinson was already on Reeves’s shortlist.

Hoult revealed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he was driving in Los Angeles when he heard on the radio that Pattinson was the top casting choice for the title role in the film.

It came as a shock to the actor, considering he was set to audition for Batman the next weekend. As we all know, Hoult ultimately lost the role to Pattinson.

Hoult said of the loss: “I remember a week before we did the Batman test, I was driving in my car and I had the radio on and they were talking on the radio how Rob was going to be the new Batman. And I was like, ‘It’s not confirmed yet! I’m auditioning next weekend. Give me a chance.’

“Yeah of course it’s an emotional blow. Your imagination does not know…you are aware on a practical level: ‘I know I am auditioning against Rob.’ And Rob is fantastic in that movie. That was the right decision. But you get excited by the prospect.

“Matt [Reeves] is a fantastic director and the script. It’s a cool movie and I want to be a part of it. It’s a brilliant character. There’s a weird period before you can get to the acceptance and see the movie and be like that was the right choice, you go through the period of ‘what could I have done different? Why not me?’ You run through all those things.”

Hoult said auditioning for a big comic book role is “a lot to put yourself through emotionally,” especially because now casting rumors and contenders get reported on in the trades in real time.

Hoult may have lost out on Batman, but he is getting the chance to act in a major comic book tentpole thanks to his role as Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s upcoming “Superman.”

The actor originally auditioned for Superman before he and Gunn realized a better fit might be the iconic villain. Hoult credited Gunn for making the “Superman” audition process a smooth one. Hoult said:

“James Gunn is such a fantastic director and I was so excited by what he was building at DC. When we spoke…because they knew I had been through [the Batman] process, they didn’t want me to necessarily have to go through that again.

“That was very kind of them. There was an element of them being like, ‘We like you as an actor. We want you to be in this world.'”

I am a fan of Nicholas Hoult. He was so good in About a Boy, Warm Bodies, and Renfield, among so many other roles. I think he will kill it in Superman, and I can’t wait to see what else he does in his career.

via: Variety