Zoe Kravitz says she faced rejection while auditioning for The Dark Knight Rises due to the color of her skin.
Her experience echoes the limited diversity and racism often seen in the Hollywood film industry.
The actress now has a part in the new Batman movie, The Batman, starring alongside Robert Pattinson.
Zoe Kravitz was denied role due to color of her skin
Zoe says she was once called too “urban” to audition for a small role in the 2012 movie, The Dark Knight Rises.
The movie was directed by Christopher Nolan and starred Christian Bale, with Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.
“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 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,” said Zoe to The Guardian.
She added that she sees the positive in rejections: “Even though it’s sometimes hard to see that in the moment, usually a few years later, you’re like, ‘Okay, this is why this didn’t happen.’ “
She also expressed that she wasn’t interested in doing parts that were exclusively about race: “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.”
She added that her parents, Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, “broke down boundaries in a lot of ways” as they “both dealt with being artists who didn’t act or dress or look or sound the way a Black person was supposed to act in terms of what white people specifically were comfortable with.”
Zoe says that she was “uncomfortable” with her “Blackness” for a long time, but eventually came to accept it. She credits her parents for instilling in her that she can do whatever she wants to do despite the color of her skin.
Zoe plays Catwoman/Selina Kyle in The Batman
Zoe plays Catwoman/Selina Kyle in the new movie, The Batman.
The film has been a hit so far, pulling in an estimated 128.5 million dollars at the North American box office this past weekend.
It surpassed expectations that it would pull in 100 million dollars.
Zoe has received positive reviews for her role as Catwoman/Selina Kyle.
Even singer Taylor Swift sang her praises to Zoe.
She took to Instagram to post a message about Zoe’s performance.
“@zoeisabellakravitz IS THE CATWOMAN OF DREAMS,” wrote the singer. “The Batman was PHENOMENAL!!!”