Zoë Kravitz Reveals She Was Blocked From Prior Batman Franchise Over Her Race

essence.com:

The Batman, Zoë Kravitz was actually once rejected from being a part of the beloved action universe. Even more shocking is the reason why.

While chatting about breaking into the industry as the child of two famous parents with The Observer, the actress revealed that, sadly, like many young Black actresses, the color of her skin has held her back when auditioning for roles in major films.

Somewhat ironically, such was the case when she set her sights on a role in a previous Batman franchise.Discussing the role her Black heritage has played in her search for and approach to some of the roles she’s snagged, Kravitz opened up about her 2012 attempt to audition for a role in The Dark Knight Rises, the third installment in famed writer/director Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy.

The actress was blatantly told that the film wasn’t going “urban” for the role, and thus blocked from reading for it. “I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” Kravitz explained, careful not to point a finger directly at Nolan for something that happened in the casting room. “I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant.” Kravitz admitted that this discrimination was a very tough pill to swallow at the time. “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.”This racial judgment was particularly hard for Kravitz who admits that, as a biracial woman, she has struggled with seeing the beauty in her own Blackness in the past. “I felt really insecure about my hair,” she revealed.