Zoe Kravitz Opens Up About Being Told She Was 'Too Urban' To Audition For 'The Dark Knight' And Being Biracial in Hollywood
We could have had Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman 14 years ago.
No hate to Anne Hathaway, of course - she did a phenomenal job as Catwoman in The Dark Knight opposite Christian Bale in 2008, but when you find out the reason Zoe Kravitz didn't get a shot, you'll be a little mad about it too. The multi-talented actress, daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, was told she couldn't audition for the part of Catwoman because she was "too urban."
Kravitz was quick to clarify:
"I don't know if it came directly from Chris Nolan. I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director's assistant... Being a woman of colour and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn't able to read because of the colour of my skin, and the word urban being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment."
(Also, can we just point out: We don't know how you can be "too urban" for GOTHAM CITY.)
Kravitz was used to being pidgeonholed by her race, despite the fact that her race can't really be boiled into one label: The actress is biracial, a legacy that fans of her family members are no doubt aware of.
She said there was a significant moment in her life where she realized "what it meant for my grandmother to get a job on The Jeffersons, and be a Black woman on TV, and what it meant for her to be in a biracial relationship on television. And to hear stuff that my mother tells me about being a biracial girl in the 1970s, and being abused or being spit on, and what that felt like."
Even still, she said, she wanted to move beyond that - as an actress, only being thought of for parts vaguely related to her skin color, even if they were good parts, began to get old.
"At one point, all the scripts that were being sent were about the first Black woman to make a muffin or something. Even though those stories are important to tell, I also want to open things up for myself as an artist."
So, when Kravitz got the call for Catwoman, that was an immediate yes - and, she said, it goes to show that what her mother always told her, 'rejection is protection,' turned out to be incredibly true:
"Even though it's sometimes hard to see that in the moment. Usually a few years later, you're like, 'OK, this is why this didn't happen.'"
If she hadn't been denied access to the audition for The Dark Knight, she might never have gotten the part of Selina Kyle in Matt Reeves' The Batman, opposite Robert Pattinson - and the chemistry between the two is undeniable, and a delight to watch. You can see it in theaters now.
Read the rest of Kravitz' interview with The Guardian here.
