And how are you?
Good. Well, how are you?
I'm very well, thank you.
Congratulations on the film.
Oh, man. It's so, so good. It's so, so good.
I'm a bit of a fan. Batman, as you can say.
Yeah. Paul, I wanted to start with you.
I know.
Obviously, you've spoken about the Riddler and,
you know, the lure of the character and lure of Matt [Reeves] and everything else.
But obviously,
there's been a lot of villains in the Batman world and the films before.
So were you trepidatious at all and stepping into that arena, given
there's so many big names that have taken on these iconic
cavalcade of villains over the years?
No, I.
I think I was excited.
I think there's a really healthy
dose of fear that comes along with, with, frankly, any really good, good part.
But but especially when you're talking about there's such a rich history here
and not just to the films and the actors before, but just the fans
and how passionate they are that the comics and that art form.
And so But I think
Matt's script was so strong and it was also so singular
in its point of view that I think you sort of have to
take that and run with it and go,
Okay, we're definitely going to make our Batman film.
And and that's exactly what we should do and why it's here to be reinterpreted
for the times that we're in.
And I did think about, well,
what makes this different what makes this villain different?
Right.
And I think for me, maybe the more real,
the more personal, the more contact with reality that it might be able to have,
then potentially the more the more scary it could be.
So I think I think that that for me was was part of the path.
Yeah.
And Jeffrey, for you, obviously, you're playing you're playing
Jim Gordon, who is, you know, the one, you know, good cop, been in Gotham City.
And you're primarily dealing with Batman.
So what's that
what's that like for you when you step onto the set and you've got
all these other actors around you and then Rob[ert Pattinson] comes on eight foot tall.
The point is or the costume and you have to kind of interact with him.
How did you to kind of work on that dynamic
It was all pretty organic.
The the first scene that we shot
once, principal photography again, was the scene
that we've seen in the trailers of Batman and Gordon walking into a crime scene.
And the cops, they're kind of peering at the best
that the strangeness of the two of them together.
And I, I loved that we began there and their relationship begins
there in the film
because it, it doesn't presuppose as
much it doesn't presuppose
that, you know, it makes sense
and that the bat suit is heroic and that it represents,
you know, all of the great things that we've come to know it to represent.
But rather, it's odd.
It's strange, and it's something human about that
and something grounding about that in that we we don't make those assumptions,
but rather we look at it through the lens of the of the cop's eyes to some extent.
And so what what the hell's going on here?
And I think it was just a wonderful place to start.
And so by starting with those types of questions, for me, it
it just kind of flowed from there.
But yeah, this is odd, but this is necessary.
And so it was just kind of an organic thing.
It wasn't you know, it just flowed.
Yeah.
And you can feel Matt's love of the character and the stories
emanating from literally every single frame.
I mean, it's one of the most beautiful kind of Big-budget movies that you'll ever
you're never going to see.
Did he did he give you guys any read list or watch list or something
that he wanted you guys to, to kind of do a bit of homework shall we say?
Before you took these roles on
I think there were references.
I mean, for me, there were two things that were
particularly potent.
One was that the music
like something in the way the Nirvana song was written into the script.
And I think that there is a lot there just from that alone.
And he also had some Michael Giacchino music already written before we started.
So I find that to be really helpful in terms of
just all walking towards the same film tonally, emotionally.
And then actually something I really loved and relied on
was some of the production design images
you know, the concept artwork before we got to be on the backlot,
which was so incredible, this huge backlot.
And but just to look at like early in the film, there's the image
with this city hall and the words broke spray painted on it.
Like that image was in the production, you know, office
and I got a copy of it and I'm just even looking at that
what they were creating, as you say, was so fully realized.
Gotham, the architecture the light, you know, so
I think things like that were actually really important fuel until we got to set
and there were of course, you know, the comics that Matt had referenced,
like the long Halloween and year
one and you know, so we went back and dug into those and dug
into more earlier stuff as well and also films that he spoke of.
But those films that he spoke of were films that I was always
at, have already been a massive fan of, you know, films from, you know,
the American
films from the seventies which was, you know,
when he and I being similar age were introduced to the cinema.
So the, the, the,
the thing that was really kind of magic about it
all, though, is when I read the script, when we talked,
it really was what I had hoped for
in a Batman film.
And what I you know, if I was going to be a part of what I would
you know, most appreciate
being within and that it was this kind of authentic,
grounded, tangible, you know, kind of realizable place.
And the people that inhabited world were not just heroic or not just villains,
but we're human.
And that's what Matt designed in the script.
And that's what he ultimately what he ultimately realized through this film.
It's it's
in some ways, it was a dream in that way because it was like if I want to
if I'm going to be a part of it, I'd love to imagine it in this way.
And, you know, he had he had the encyclopedic
vision for that inside of his head already. So.
Excellent. Well, guys, I wish you all the best for the film.
Thank you so, so much for your time. Thank you.