Actress Jayme Lawson only graduated from Juilliard in 2019 and already she's landed roles in some significant movies, including Matt Reeves' The Batman.
As revealed back in January when Warner Bros. announced that filming on the blockbuster had begun, Lawson plays a character by the name Bella Reál. The character was described only as "mayoral candidate" and there was no reference to her in any established DC Comics lore, suggesting she's either a new character created specifically for the film or being used as a red herring to disguise a potentially bigger reveal.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lawson briefly talked about her experience on the set of The Batman and offered some light details about her character, which she essentially confirmed "is not a part of Batman's storied history."
Lawson revealed that her casting in the upcoming superhero blockbuster didn't even sink in until her first day on set. With so many notable actors in the cast, including Robert Pattinson, Lawson explained how nervous she was during filming and likened her "bluffing" about not being intimidated to the behavior of her character.
And I think that ties in with my character. She’s gotta fake it till she makes it. She’s running up against the big dogs. And so there’s not much transformation that’s happening when I show up on set. I am surrounded by a lot of great talent and I’ve just gotta fake it. So I will be as nervous as can be, but I can’t let it be known. (Laughs.) So I just do what I’ve gotta do. It’s working out so far, so that’s good.
Unfortunately, that's all the actress offered on her character, other than the fact that she didn't do a deep dive into the relevant Batman comics (probably because the character doesn't actually exist in the comic lore). Beyond her role, Lawson described what it was like to film The Batman and how it differed from her first movie, Farewell Amor.
On Farewell Amor, we’re working with one camera, a small crew and a tiny cast. And then my first day showing up for Batman, we’re running four cameras simultaneously and I’ve never experienced that. Farewell Amor was my first time on a film set, so to jump into that... The crew is huge, and the production is huge. (Laughs.) So in that way, it was as jarring as I expected. But I still felt welcomed and like I belonged, which I wasn’t expecting. As a newbie, as a freshman in this industry, I was really scared that when I got there, Matt (Reeves) was going to look at me and be like, “Well, why did we hire her? What is going on? Get somebody else in the room.” (Laughs.) But it wasn’t that at all. I felt and still feel like I belong in those rooms. And the crew is amazing on Batman. Everybody is just so warm and lovely. You hear horror stories about your first set experience with a big cast, and it just wasn’t that and it hasn’t been that. So that was a beautiful surprise. That was a real, real nice surprise to have.
Filming for The Batman has been disrupted multiple times now due to COVID-19 and Lawson detailed how the pandemic has affected the intimacy on set. "When I went back out in October and I saw the crew, I almost cried because I hadn’t seen these faces in so long," she said. "Everybody wants to hug and touch and talk, but we’re on a tight schedule and we can’t because of protocols. But the feeling is still there and the desire is still there."
The Batman is now slated to hit theaters on March 4, 2022 after being pushed back from its October 1, 2021 release.