As is usual in the fanboy world, there´s rampant debate, in this case as to whether Anne Hathaway was the right choice to play the iconic character of Catwoman in Chris Nolan´s upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. Truth is, there´s rampant debate about Catwoman, period. More than almost any other bat-rogue, she has had a number of different versions, in and out of comics, over the years. From shy secretary turned criminal, or feminism terrorist, to streetwise orphan, from animal rights defender to even having a kid with Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle has had almost as many histories as a cat has lives. But for this particular version, for Chris Nolan´s gritty and grounded take on the bat-universe, what are the qualities necessary for an actress to properly play comic books´ ultimate femme fatale?
LOOKS
Some things are true about Catwoman, regardless of what your own favorite version is. One of them is she´s a beautiful woman. But not just any kind of beautiful, for female gorgeousness comes in many shapes and forms. There´s Jennifer Aniston beautiful, for instance, and there´s Angelina Jolie beautiful – no intention here to instigate arguments about their personal lives, they´re just two good examples of different types of female beauty. One is the nice, sweet, girl-next-door type. The other is the sex goddess, the dangerous, “bad girl” type.
Selina´s beauty has a tendency to lean towards the second one, which makes it unsurprising that Jolie was often mentioned as a “no-brainer” choice for the role. Of course a character named Catwoman has to have those expressive, sexy eyes that evoke those of a feline. They give the character not only sexiness, but that sense of danger and malice that makes the best femme fatales.
Some may object to Hathaway for seeing too much of the Aniston type and not enough of the Jolie one. After all, till this day her most popular leading role still is Andy Sachs from The Devil Wears Prada, where she´s basically the nice girl-next-door, although one that has the wits to survive boss from hell Miranda Priestley.
But look for the right pictures of her, not the “red carpet smile” ones. Also, in movies like Havoc, even Love And Other Drugs, she has a couple of saucy scenes that are likely to spend a good amount of your month´s supply of lotion… When she WANTS to be sexy, she can totally deliver the kitten, with expressive, feline “bad girl” eyes. Although her “front line” may be a little modest compared to a Scarlett Johansson, she fills up a cleavage quite nicely. And if breasts were the measure of a great Catwoman, Halle Berry would have been a classic…
PHYSIQUE
The other more universal element of Catwoman is, she´s a physically fit chick who can give Batman himself a run for his money, both in acrobatic and fighting skills. And go toe-to-toe with Indiana Jones – although they never met – when it comes to cracking a whip. Some may find Hathaway slightly short at 5' 8", but that´s nothing heels or boots can´t compensate for, plus in DC´s Database Catwoman is 5´9”, so it´s nothing to scream bloody murder about. Hathaway is no stranger to action either, having played Agent 99 in Get Smart – her presence a highlight of an otherwise quite forgettable adaptation. As we speak, she´s certainly preparing for the physical demands of the role. If we can buy the petite Johansson can kick big men´s ass and look hot in tights doing it, why not her?
ACTING
Here´s the deal-breaker. Much like Heath Ledger when he played The Joker, she has to live up to a role that´s not only iconic, but has been memorably performed in the past. Just like many fanboys claimed Jack Nicholson was irreplaceable, others are likely to have the same attitude towards Michelle Pfeiffer´s portrayal. The secret, much like it was in Ledger´s performance, was to do it nothing like in the past, to play a very different version of the character, but one that feels true to the source material in its own right.
There´s a lot to be played for this role that we haven´t seen in movies before – well, not in good ones anyway. In Returns, we got a nerdy secretary who suffered a complete meltdown and became a feminist terrorist, with an implied supernatural element.
The least be said about a certain 2004 train wreck hit by an airplane that then crashed into a crowded mall, the better.
The character we haven´t got is the streetwise Catwoman, the orphan who toughened herself to deal with a tough upbringing, someone who can understand Bruce´s loss, but sees it from a very different perspective. One that may have crime in her very DNA, and struggles with that. The master thief who can get past the most sophisticated security systems like they were a house key in a fake stone.
One crucial element that can get highlighted, particularly in the tough circumstances Batman will be dealing with, as a result of the Dark Knight ending, Selina´s been often a morally dubious character. That´s part of what Batman finds appealing in her, she´s not an unredeemable sadistic killer like The Joker. She has even managed to sustain her own title as a heroic character for years, something no other “rogues gallery” character has achieved. Just as she´s Batman´s “bandit love”, she also instigates the rescuer eomplex in him, which is part of what makes their confrontation/foreplay encounters so memorable.
And this, I believe, is the core element that makes Hathaway an inspired choice for the role. She can totally inhabit that ambiguity, she can be the sweetest girl-next-door you´ve ever seen, but when you least expect, she can be the sexy, dangerous femme fatale. As she has proven in a number of movies, and several award nominations and wins, she totally has the acting chops to pull off a challenge such as this.
It´s never an easy task to cast an iconic, beloved character, one that so many people have diverging, yet passionate opinions about. But as Chris Nolan has proven in the past, he´s up to the task, and more than likely to once again reward his believers and make his fewer and fewer naysayers to eat industrial amounts of crow in the end.