Zoe Kravitz Says She Was Denied Audition For The Dark Knight Because She Was "Too Urban" [UPDATED]

Updated March 8, 2022 at 2:11 p.m.

Zoe Kravitz responded to the recent coverage of this story on Instagram. Here is a portion of her statement:

“i wanted to AUDITION for a small part in the film and was told (i do not know who said this but this is how it was worded to me) that they were not going ‘urban’ on the part. this is something i heard a lot 10 years ago — it was a very different time.”

Batman fans had to wait an extra nine months to get a glimpse of Zoe Kravitz playing Selina Kyle, AKA Catwoman, on the big screen in the new DC film, The Batman. In the film, Kravitz stars as the sexy supervillain alongside Robert Pattinson, who plays a grungy version of Bruce Wayne. And she’s getting rave reviews from fans and critics alike for her gritty interpretation of the role. “This is no flirty, purring Catwoman: She’s a fighter and a survivor with a loyal heart and a strong sense of what’s right,” according to a review of the film on RogerEbert.com.

As the only daughter of actress Lisa Bonet and actor/rocker Lenny Kravitz, Zoe Kravitz literally has stardom in her blood. She’s already earned critical acclaim for her roles in small screen hits, High Fidelity and Big Little Lies. So it’s no wonder she’s killing it in her latest movie role. But in a recent interview with The Observer, the actress reveals that this wasn’t her first time going after a part in a movie about The Dark Knight.

In the interview, Kravitz says she was turned down for a role in Christopher Nolan’s 2012 action film, The Dark Knight Rises, after being told that she was “too urban” for the part. In case you were wondering, that’s Hollywood speak for being “too black.” Kravitz didn’t reveal exactly which role she was interested in, only saying it was a “small one.” But she says she was denied the opportunity to even read for the part. The role of Catwoman was played by Anne Hathaway in the film.

Kravitz has experienced her fair share of rejection for various roles in her career. But she says being denied an opportunity to audition for a part because of her race was an especially tough pill to swallow. “Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word urban being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment,” Kravitz said.

The actress went on to say that she doesn’t blame director Nolan and instead thinks it was actually a casting director or a casting director’s assistant who made the final call. But considering that both Eartha Kitt and Halle Berry have donned the latex catsuit in the role of Catwoman before Kravitz, I don’t follow the logic. When it was finally announced that she had won the part of Catwoman in the latest Batman film, Kravitz says her village was rooting for her. “My phone was blowing up more than any birthday I’ve ever had,” she said.

Now Kravitz is laughing all the way to the bank. The Batman had a record-setting opening weekend earning $134 million at the box office. That makes it the second film in the COVID era behind Spider-Man: No Way Home to earn over $100 million at the box office its opening weekend.