Earlier this year saw it announced that Robert Pattinson will be playing the titular character for director Matt Reeves in The Batman.

The 33-year old actor is known for the popular Twilight vampire movies, but following those flicks, he stayed out of the limelight.

As part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" interview series, Jennifer Lopez questions Robert Pattinson, "Why Batman?"

Pattinson starts off by saying that he never thought Twilight was going to be a huge thing and compared it to indie movies and says he just kept doing movies he wanted to do. He also says that his approach to acting is taking on projects that he likes and that since he assumes every project could be his last, he wants the movies to be the best that they can be.

Regarding playing Batman, Pattinson offers: "With Batman, there was something — I was very focused on it. It kept coming back into my head. It was probably like two years ago, and my agent was like, 'Really?'"

Pattinson reveals that he wanted to do the Batman and sort of sought out the part, and also that he knew they were going to do another Batman.

"Well, not sought it out directly. But I was interested in it," Pattinson reveals. "It just really appealed to me. I don’t know what it is, which happened inside of me, but I was like, 'I kind of want to do it.' I like doing something which an audience doesn’t know that it wants, and try to get it out of them, and that is a whole different thing, there is a competitive side as well where everyone is like, 'Oh yeah, you want to play Batman.' And it's kind of fun. The challenge of it is kind of interesting."

Robert Pattinson is The Batman

Lopez points out, "You’re going to be Batman. It's so fun."

"And that’s crazy!" Pattinson reacts. "Let me tell you something. Whenever I see that little action figure or something, I still haven’t really got my head around it yet [laughs]."

Lopez remarks, "I think you’d be a great Batman. An awesome Batman."

Robert Pattinson explains why he likes Batman

Pattinson continues with mention he has no interest in playing someone who is heroic.

"I have no interest whatsoever in playing someone who's heroic. The only time I want to play someone who an audience knows that they're supposed to like is when they really shouldn't like them. That's the only time [laughs]," offers Pattinson.

Lopez remarks it would be fun to play Batman because the character has a certain drive.

"Yeah. Definitely," agrees Pattinson. "Very, very troubled person. There's very few regarded by everyone as a heroic character. Most of them know they need to save the day, and the saving the world, and they know they're good. I always found it interesting with Batman he's always struggling a little bit, especially in some iterations of the story anyway, he doesn't know if he's that great or not. That's kind of interesting, walking the line."

Watch the full interview on YouTube.

The Batman gets released in 2021

The Batman has a June 25, 2021 release directed by Matt Reeves, co-written by Reeves and Mattson Tomlin, with Michael Giacchino composing the music, and the flick also stars Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, Paul Dano as Riddler, Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, Jayme Lawson as Bella, with Andy Serkis as Alfred, Colin Farrell is said to be up for the role of Penguin, Matthew McConaughey is rumored as Two-Face, with rumors also offering additional villains, such as Firefly and Poison Ivy, are yet to be cast.

It's been said Matt Reeves is in part adapting the DC Comics "The Long Halloween" storyline, with rumors for plot for the film offering that The Batman will explore a detective case where people start dying in strange ways so the Batman must go deep into the dark world of Gotham to find clues and solve the conspiracy and mystery connected to Gotham City's history and criminals. It's said that in the movie all of Batman Rogues Gallery are already out there and active, similar to the DC comic book stories and animated movies.