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“IT’S a relief,” Robert Pattinson said with a sigh as he appeared on the red carpet with co-star Zoe Kravitz for the premiere of The Batman.

For while superhero fans can now enjoy the long-awaited three-hour movie, R-Patz had to endure three YEARS of chaotic filming to make it.

R-Patz had to endure three YEARS of chaotic filming to make The Batman

At the London screening at Waterloo’s BFI IMAX cinema on Wednesday, he explained: “For (director) Matt Reeves, this is five years. I’ve been kind of working on this for three years.”

Made in Britain, the £100million production has been beset by delays — from its original star Ben Affleck going into rehab, his replacement Robert breaking his wrist, a six-month Covid shutdown and the “perfectionist” director pushing his cast to the brink.

Trouble started early on. From the moment Christian Bale finished his stint as the caped crusader in 2012, a new stand-alone Batman movie was in the pipeline.

Ben Affleck pulled on the famous black cape for Batman v Superman and Justice League.

But plans for him to direct and star in a solo Batman movie were shelved as the American actor’s personal life spiralled out of control.

In 2017 he announced he was divorcing actress Jennifer Garner and had “completed treatment for alcohol addiction”.

Sweating so badly

The Batman — a reboot of the original DC Comics character which starts during his second year of crime fighting — was scheduled to come out the following year.

So up stepped Twilight heart-throb Robert and Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes director Matt Reeves, with Zoe, 33, hired to play Catwoman.

The plan was to make the crime fighter more of a detective than a superhero in his eighth big movie outing — yet a series of disasters left Batman dangling by a thread.

Robert, 35, said: “I broke my wrist at the beginning of it all doing a stunt, before Covid. I remember when that seemed like the worst thing that could go wrong.”

How wrong he was. When the global pandemic reached Britain’s shores in March 2020, filming had to close down for six months.

Robert found himself holed up alone in a London hotel, cooking pasta in a microwave.

He was supposed to keep himself in shape during lockdown, but he refused to follow a regime set out by his personal trainer.

During one interview given during his imposed isolation, he complained: “If you’re working out all the time, you’re part of the problem. No one was doing this in the ’70s.”

As soon as he was allowed to get in front of the cameras again in September 2020, the star of the show tested positive for the virus.

That left the cast and crew paranoid about catching it.

Zoe stopped going out for fear of getting the virus and the actors had to wear masks or visors when the camera stopped rolling.

There have also been rumours of a fallout between the British actor and the exacting US director Matt.

Crew members told The Sun that Robert was forced to do 50 takes for just one scene in the tight-fitting and heavy costume.

Our source said: “Matt will insist on doing scenes over and over again and get bogged down in the tiny details.

“Sometimes it’s like he doesn’t know when to stop.”

During one scene, Robert was sweating so badly that beads of perspiration fell on Zoe while he was on top of her.

Zoe revealed: “I remember every take I would see this one very thick bead of sweat that would drip down.

“I would just hope that Matt would call ‘cut’ before it fell into my mouth.”

There was also a disagreement about how Batman’s voice should sound.

In previous incarnations it has always had a deep tone, to the extent it was parodied in The Lego Movie.

Explaining why he wanted to try something different, Robert said:

“Everyone does this kind of gruff, gravelly thing, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to do the opposite. I’m going to go really whispery’.”

But after two weeks he was overruled.

Robert said: “They told me to stop doing it.”

During the 18-month shoot in Liverpool, London and Glasgow, the actor said he felt “alone” — and in between shooting scenes he stayed in a tent on his own making music.

He said: “You’re not really allowed out of the studio with the suit on, so I barely knew what was going on at all outside.”

By the conclusion of the process Robert no longer recognised himself.
He explained: “When I look at photos of myself from the make-up test on the last day, I don’t even look human by the end of it.”

The lead actor was not the only performer on the film to encounter dark emotions.

Paul Dano, who plays supervillain the Riddler, was wrapped in cling-film which left him troubled at night as he relived the claustrophobic experience.

The 37-year-old revealed: “My head was throbbing with heat.

“I went home after the first full day in that, and I almost couldn’t sleep because I was scared of what was happening to my head.”

Zoe wasn’t a fan of prizing herself into Catwoman’s outfit, either. She said: “The suits are so tight and so restrictive. After the first day I was feeling all confident and then they put the suit on me and I think I started to cry.”

The Batman’s romantic leads have given the impression that they enjoyed getting very close.

Robert, who has known Zoe for over a decade, showed a real tenderness towards his co-star.

He draped his camel coat over her shivering shoulders during one photoshoot, and director Matt said the pair “really connected”.

‘Punch the mirror’

Tongues were bound to wag as Zoe filed for divorce from actor husband Karl Glusman in December 2020, during The Batman shoot.

The truth is, though, that Lenny Kravitz’s daughter had fallen for Magic Mike actor Channing Tatum — and Robert has been attached to British model Suki Waterhouse.

The Batman, which is the longest-ever caped crusader movie, features an unrecognisable Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Casino Royale’s Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon and Planet Of The Apes’ Andy Serkis as Alfred — butler to the superhero’s millionaire alter ego Bruce Wayne.

Robert says of Wayne: “He’s not a playboy in it — he’s much more tormented.”

In the movie, Batman is trying to solve the Riddler’s clues and realises that Catwoman shares an interest in unmasking the villain.

Studio bosses plan to have a trilogy, like the previous Christopher Nolan series that starred Bale.

But with so much aggro on and off set, a sequel may not seem like a certainty.

Rob should be keen to return as he wanted to be the comic book character since he was little. He said: “I was dressed up as Batman my entire childhood. I’d be so curious what my childhood self would think of this.”

And he admitted that putting on the hero’s heavy suit made him feel like a hardman.

He said: “You want to start punching the mirror you’re looking at. You feel one hundred times tougher.”

But given the ordeal of making this epic he might decide to join George Clooney and Val Kilmer in the ranks of actors who only sped out of the Batcave once.

Confusingly for fans, Ben Affleck will return in the batsuit later this year in The Flash, alongside the original movie Batman Michael Keaton — who plays the same character but from another dimension.

While making The Batman, Robert admitted he is the kind of person who is “looking for the exit strategy before you’ve even started” something.

And he said of the film: “It was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life.” With two other actors already playing Batman, could Robert step aside from the role?