Matt Reeves Reveals The Real Reason Pattinson Didn't Conceal Batman's Voice

In the last 20 years, numerous people have donned the cape and cowl to portray the legendary comic book character, Batman. From Christian Bale to Ben Affleck to the newest version to hit the big screen this year, Robert Pattinson, each one brought a different feel for the character.

One of the more difficult parts of portraying the character has been successfully pulling off the duality of Batman and his true identity, Bruce Wayne. Being one of the wealthiest and most famous people on the planet, the idea that people wouldn't pick up on his voice under the cowl became a point of realism for Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale's version of the Dark Knight (imagine if Elon Musk was under the mask — pretty sure we could figure out who Batman was).

Nolan and Bale decided to have the actor adopt a deep, guttural growl as he spoke, something that, while new and different, was jarring for the viewer. So much so that legendary voice actor Keven Conroy, who voiced the character through many DC animated projects, made fun of Bale's bat voice, saying, "Somebody should have told him, you sound ridiculous." Affleck elected to go the tech way, having his character employ the use of a voice modulator. However, director Matt Reeves and Pattinson decided to go a different route and keep his natural voice, much like the Bat-men before Bale. But what was the motivation? Here is the real reason Pattinson didn't disguise his voice in "The Batman."

The core of Matt Reeves's "The Batman" centers around a detective story. While most "Batman" stories in the past have gone for the more high-tech, non-stop action that superhero films are known for, Reeves opted to spotlight Batman's intellect. He showcased how he gained the nickname "World's Greatest Detective."

That approach contains the reasoning behind Pattinson's voice in the film. In the director's commentary for the film (via The Wrap), the director said, "I knew that in this version, if you're gonna do a detective story, Batman is gonna have a lot of dialogue scenes. Which, when you actually look at all the movies, Bruce may have a lot of long dialogue scenes, but Batman's dialogue scenes, he has dialogue but it's controlled. This, by literally the necessity of solving this crime, was going to require him to have to have long dialogue scenes in that suit and some of them are very emotional. If he was growling, we wouldn't be able to connect to him emotionally. So there was a real exploration to figure out how to make that work."

One thing that makes Pattinson's Batman stand apart from the others is his real-life relatability. He is imperfect; he is angry, bitter, and flawed. We watch him make mistake after mistake as he tries to find The Riddler. This version of Bruce Wayne is also a recluse, not a celebrity playboy, so there's a little more room for believability that his voice wouldn't be immediately recognized. No matter which voice you liked better, one thing Reeves was correct on is three hours of a Bale-style growl would be a lot to handle.