'The Batman' director explains why Robert Pattinson wears smudged eyeliner in the upcoming movie

• "The Batman" hits theaters on Friday, March 4, and stars Robert Pattinson as the titular character.
• The director Matt Reeves spoke to Esquire UK about why the actor wears smudged black eye makeup.

"The Batman" director Matt Reeves revealed why he decided to have Robert Pattinson's version of the Caped Crusader wear smudged black eyeliner.

"You can't wear a cowl and not wear that," he said in a new interview with Esquire UK. "All of the Batmen wear that."

"I just loved the idea of taking off [the mask] and under that there's the sweating and the dripping and the whole theatricality of becoming this character," he added.

Fans initially caught a glimpse of Pattinson's eye makeup in August 2020, when the first teaser trailer for "The Batman" was released as part of DC Fandome, a virtual festival for DC Comics projects.

Set to Nirvana's "Something in the Way," the footage was equally as moody in tone as it showed Pattinson's Batman delivering his own brand of justice in Gotham City, Paul Dano's Riddler dropping sinister clues for the Caped Crusader, and Zoë Kravitz's Catwoman/Selina Kyle burglarizing a building.

The trailer also showed Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon and Colin Farrell as Batman adversary Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot, though he's referred to as Oz in this film.

The trailer included various scenes of Pattinson as Bruce Wayne and in his head-to-toe Batman costume, but there were also some moments that showed him sans mask, with his heavy eye makeup on display.

Pattinson's smudged makeup combined with his floppy, parted hairstyle resulted in people referring to him as "emo Batman" and likening his look to the emo-punk band My Chemical Romance.

Even "Arrow" star Stephen Amell, who wore smudged dark green eye makeup for years before getting an actual mask on the CW series, applauded the look.

In interviews, Reeves has said that the film will draw from writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli's "Batman: Year One" comic, which centers on the character's early days as a vigilante.

Reeves described his spin on the iconic superhero to The Hollywood Reporter as "a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale" that focuses on the Caped Crusader "in his detective mode."

The director told Esquire UK that films like "The French Connection" and "Taxi Driver" served as influences for "The Batman," in addition to the grunge band Nirvana that was led by frontman Kurt Cobain.

Reeves said that when considering Bruce Wayne's origin story of witnessing his parents' murder as a child, he saw the character as becoming "reclusive."

"The truth is that he is a kind of drug addict," he said. "His drug is his addiction to this drive for revenge. He's like a Batman Kurt Cobain."

"The Batman" hits theaters on Friday, March 4.