Catwoman was released in 2004 to overwhelmingly negative reviews and a disappointing $82.4 million box office haul. Widely considered one of the worst comic book movies ever made, it's now primarily remembered for Halle Berry's acceptance speech at the Razzies.
Entertainment Weekly recently caught up with Catwoman's cast and creative team to learn more about the movie and where it all went wrong.
We'd strongly recommend reading the piece as it goes into great detail about the ill-fated project. According to writer John Brancato, "The interesting thing was all the rules handed to us from the first phone call: 'You can’t mention Batman.' That was an absolute rule. [It was] a Warner Bros. corporate decision to keep this separate from the Batman universe."
While that was disappointing for DC fans, Berry welcomed the decision. "The beauty of doing it was because it wasn’t in the Batman universe. Men, historically, get to have big franchises that revolve around them," she says. "This was an opportunity to be forward-thinking, pushing that envelope for women. Why can’t we have our own superhero movie that revolves around us and our universe?"
As for Catwoman's undeniably bizarre story, that's something the actress wasn't quite so keen on.
"I always thought the idea of Catwoman saving women from a face cream felt a bit soft," Berry admits. "All the other superheroes save the world; they don’t just save women from cracked faces. I always knew that was a soft superhero plight, but at that time in my career, I didn’t have the agency I have today or belief that I could challenge that, so I went along with it."
Catwoman director Pitof says that the movie was constantly being rewritten as shooting continued and, when the finished product arrived in theaters, it seems no one was surprised by the bad reviews.
Among the biggest issues was the Patience Phillips' suit. "Her costume got a lot of criticism," Brancato recalls. "That was certainly beyond Halle’s control. They decided to put her in this ridiculous bikini-like thing, and people nailed the movie on that. It just sort of looks goofy."
Berry adds, "Fans were upset about the suit. It was something different, but in our minds, why keep remaking Catwoman if you’re not going to take risks and bring something different to it? The beauty was that it was better suited for my version of her, my body, who I was, and my sensibilities."
"I didn’t love [the backlash]. Being a Black woman, I’m used to carrying negativity on my back, fighting, being a fish swimming upstream by myself," the actress continued. "I’m used to defying stereotypes and making a way out of no way. I didn’t want to be casual about it, but I went and collected that Razzie, laughed at myself, and kept it moving."
As for Pitof, he remembers the bad reviews hurting. "[It] stabs. Sometimes, they’re unjustified; like, what did they see? This isn’t the movie I made! How can they see that? It makes you fragile. There’s nothing you can do. You feel no power and that you have no way to fight back. You have to take the punch and try to understand how you can make [the next thing] better."
Catwoman had been portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer over a decade earlier in Batman Returns and, after this 2004 effort, was shelved until returning in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises courtesy of Anne Hathaway. The anti-hero never showed up in the DCEU but was played by Zoë Kravitz in The Batman.
Are you a fan of 2004's Catwoman movie?