Many women have donned the sleeky catsuit of Catwoman in live-action versions of the character from Eartha Kitt, Julie Newmar, Michelle Pfeiffer, and most recently Anne Hathaway and Camren Bicondova. Out of all of these women, Anne pictured herself playing an entirely different character for the final film in Nolan’s trilogy.
Hathway recently told BBC Radio 1 that she assumed she was auditioning not for Catwoman, but for the Clown Princess of crime Harley Quinn. Does this mean we were going to get an entirely different film? Was she even in contention? After Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar-winning performance in The Dark Knight as The Joker, there were rumors abound that somehow the character was going to make his return in the third film. Even after Ledger’s death, there was still talk of a Joker cameo. It would make sense that Harley appears to avenge the death of her Mistah J, but we all know an entirely different film came to fruition.
“I came in and I had this lovely Vivienne Westwood kind of beautiful-but-mad tailoring top with stripes going everywhere. And I wore these flat Joker-ey looking shoes. And I was trying to give Chris [Nolan] these crazy little smiles,” Hathaway explained. “About an hour into the meeting he said ‘Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but it’s Catwoman.’ And I was shifting into a different gear. ‘Now ok, we’re slinky. We’re slinky. And I hate my shirt. I love my shirt, but I hate it right now. We’re slinky.'”
Hathaway’s reign as the jewel thief was short-lived with only one film since it marked the end of Nolan’s run. Currently, Zoe Kravitz is gearing up to portray Selina Kyle in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. It seems Hathaway was four years too early to play the iconic girlfriend of The Joker.
What do you think? Was it obvious the role was for Catwoman? Was there any indication the audition could have been for Harley? Let us know in the comment below and on social media!
