Zoe Kravitz was told she was too “urban” for The Dark Knight Rises

Amid the strong reviews and box office turnout for Matt Reeves’s The Batman, one consistent point of praise has been Zoe Kravtiz’s turn as Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, in the new caped crusader blockbuster. But apparently, it’s been a long time coming for Kravitz to step into the Batman universe. The actress recently spoke about being turned down to audition for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, apparently on account of her race.

“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” Kravitz said in an interview with The Observer. “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.”

Kravitz did not say whether or not the role in question was for the Catwoman, which ultimately went to Anne Hathaway in the 2012 film, but the actress had spoken previously about it as a small part: “They told me that I couldn’t get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren’t ‘going urban,’” she said in an interview in 2015 with Nylon. “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?’”

A decade later, Kravtiz’s take on Selina Kyle may be the turning point that establishes her as a bonafide blockbuster A-lister. Although, it may still be up for debate whether or not her part in The Batman beats out her first turn as the Catwoman.