Zoë Kravitz has said she was blocked from auditioning for a small role in the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises because the film-makers said they “weren’t going urban”.
“It was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ I have to play the role like, ‘Yo, what’s up, Batman? What’s going on wit chu?!’” Kravitz told Nylon magazine.
The third in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, took $448m at the US box office. It faced criticism from some fans in the weeks before its release for its portrayal of Bane, a supervillain who hails from the fictional Caribbean republic of Santa Prisca, who was played by British actor Tom Hardy.
Kravitz, who recently appeared in Mad Max: Fury Road alongside Hardy, spoke to the Guardian earlier this year about the difficulty black actors had in auditioning for roles that didn’t play up to stereotypes.
“There are certain roles where I know what they are asking for,” she said. “They want me to talk like I’m not an educated person.”
“I think actors could say no. Or say the joke differently. Or say this joke doesn’t make any sense. If my character’s not educated, tell me why. It can’t just be because I’m black.”
