Zoe Kravitz joins a prestigious list of feline femme fatales in Matt Reeves’s The Batman, which is no small feat.
Lenny Kravitz’s daughter is no stranger to superhero films after having starred as Angel in X-Men: First Class. However, the role of Selina Kyle had two points of stress: physical conditioning, and the pre-vaccine days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zoe Kravitz As Catwoman – Preparation and Characterization
She explains, “I had to be in a very specific shape, and there’s a pandemic going [on. I’m] being zipped into a catsuit every day at 7am, working 12-hour days, and then coming home and working out. It was [intense. I’ve watched the films and] read some of the comics, but I wasn’t a comic head [or anything. I] also tried to think about it not as Catwoman, but as a woman, how does this make me feel? How are we approaching this and how are we making sure we’re not fetishizing or creating a stereotype? I knew it needed to be a real person.”
With regards to Matt Reeves, Kravitz credits the collaborative approach he took to principal photography as much as the set’s groundedness. “Sometimes with really big movies, it can feel like you’re a puppet and part of this big [machine. This] felt like an independent movie in the way there was real heart and soul and thought being put into the process and into every scene. It was incredibly collaborative. Matt’s very specific. It took him a year to make this because of Covid. We were in this bubble, really in this world, and it is an incredible experience.”
Kravitz is the seventh actress in a live-action medium to put on the mask of Catwoman. She is also the third woman of color to covet the role after Eartha Kitt and Halle Berry. However, beyond the costumed identity, she is the first woman of color to portray her civilian identity, Selina Kyle; Kitt’s version never had a real name and Berry’s alter-ego’s name was Patience Phillips for her solo outing. Zoe’s other previous credits include Fantastic Beasts, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Divergent.
Starring Robert Pattinson, Kravitz, Andy Serkis, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, John Turturro, and Paul Dano, The Batman is expected to hit theaters March 4, 2022.
Official Source: The Batman: Zoë Kravitz Discusses Her Intense Catwoman Transformation (cbr.com)
