Zoe Kravitz was told she was "too urban" for Dark Knight Rises

[The Laughing Fish]

Zoe Kravitz may be rising Hollywood's ranks after roles in blockbusters X-Men: First Class and Mad Max: Fury Road, but the US actress recently revealed the disturbing reason why fans do not see her in The Dark Knight Rises.

The 26-year-old daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet was blocked from  Christopher Nolan's box office hit because filmmakers were not wanting to "go urban" with their casting.

"In the last Batman movie [The Dark Knight Rises], they told me that I couldn't get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren't 'going urban'," she told 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?'"

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/zoe-kravitz-rejected-from-the-dark-knight-rises-because-the-film-was-not-going-urban-10391227.html

Assuming that she's not lying because she's bitter she didn't get the part, that's pretty messed up.

[johnnygobbs]

What role would she have played Laughing Fish?  Apart from Catwoman and Talia there aren't that many (any?) female parts in TDKR.

But you're right; if it's true that's pretty repugnant, although let's face it, none of the Batman movies so far have featured many black faces (the 1989 Batman was a positive exception with Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent, but sadly we never got to see him as Two-Face or Marlon Wayans as Robin for that matter  ).

[BatmAngelus]

Pretty sure this would've been for the part of Jen (aka the Holly Robinson substitute), whose role went to the very white and British Juno Temple.

[johnnygobbs]

Pretty sure this would've been for the part of Jen (aka the Holly Robinson substitute), whose role went to the very white and British Juno Temple.

I agree, and I as soon as I posted I actually thought that was probably that part that Kravitz was looking at.

Personally, I think Kravitz would have been a better fit for the role than Juno Temple.  Temple, an English public-school educated daughter of a film director, was arguably not 'urban' enough for an impoverished street-wise waif.  Then again, I always thought Anne Hathaway was far too white-bread and middle-class for the version of Catwoman she was supposed to be playing.  For what ever reason, Nolan has a very strange understanding of working class/poor people.