Robert Pattinson explains why Bruce Wayne 'made more sense' without a playboy persona in The Batman

Bruce Wayne attends some kind of ball, charity event, or party in almost every Batman movie. That's definitely not the case in The Batman because we're dealing with a different kind of Bruce Wayne.

In previous films, Bruce typically maintained a playboy persona in public to make sure no one ever suspected he prowled the rooftops at night dressed as a bat; however, Robert Pattinson's emo Dark Knight doesn't juggle two identities in Matt Reeves' dark and box office smashing franchise reboot. In The Batman, Bruce is bruised, sulking, isolated, and devoid of public life because he's fully committed to being a force of vengeance in Gotham City. According to Pattinson, this actually made getting into character easier.

"When you think about Bruce Wayne, you kind of think he's a playboy, and then that's how he disguises himself, so no one knows he's Batman. As soon as you take that away, it made the character almost make more sense," Pattinson told EW in the latest installment of our Around the Table series. "There's something about a person who would be able to delineate three incredibly distinct personalities, and then just being able to switch them as an outfit at will. That's really way more sociopathic than someone who doesn't really have much more control over it and is compelled to put this suit on. It's kind of out of his control a little bit."

He continued: "Also, it made more sense with the grieving process as well if he hasn't gotten over being the 10-year-old boy who, in his mind, let his parents die. What he feels is himself, he thinks is an incredibly weak and vulnerable child, and he needs to have an entirely different alter ego to survive himself, let alone fight all the criminals of Gotham."

Watch the Around the Table excerpt above.

In The Batman, the Caped Crusader is in his second year of vigilanteism and hunts down a new serial killer called the Riddler (Paul Dano), who is targeting Gotham's corrupt political figures. This investigation sends Batman down a journey of discovery that reveals a dark secret at the heart of the city he's fighting for and is shockingly connected to his dearly departed parents. Along the way, he encounters several familiar faces from the pages of DC Comics: Zoë Kravitz's Selina Kyle, Jeffrey Wright's Lieutenant Jim Gordon, Colin Farrell's Penguin, and John Turturro's Carmine Falcone (If you've seen the movie already, check out our spoiler-filled piece with Reeves about the movie's ending.)

The Batman is in theaters now.

Pick up a copy of Entertainment Weekly's Ultimate Guide to Batman on newsstands now wherever magazines are sold, or buy it online.

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