Zoe Kravitz talks being rejected from The Dark Knight Rises for being ‘too urban’

Zoe Kravitz might be turning heads now as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in The Batman but the actress originally flirted with the franchise in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. The actress is now opening up about being blocked from appearing in the film because, as she puts it, “they weren’t going urban.”

Back in 2015, Kravitz revealed that she was unable to “get an audition for a small role they were casting” and at the time she told Nylon, “It was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?”, in regards to her being ‘too urban.’ Now, with the release of The Batman, Kravitz brought the experience up again during an interview with The Observer. The actress is of Dominican and Jewish-American ethnicity and she addressed the rejection again by saying that she doesn’t know “if it came directly from [the film’s director] Chris Nolan.” Here is what Kravitz had to say about the matter today:

“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.”

It’s not completely known what role Kravitz hoped to audition for but some believe that it was for Catwoman’s (Anne Hathaway) roommate Jen, who was played by Juno Temple. Kravitz has now gone on to claim the Catwoman role for herself in this latest film and she completely owns the role. I’m sure landing this part doesn’t feel like validation because that moment is something you don’t really forget but it does show whoever made the comment that they were wrong to make that assertion.

Kravitz may not have been in The Dark Knight Rises, but she’s doing great work now as Catwoman in The Batman, which is crushing it in theaters now.