Zoë Kravitz Says She “Interpreted” Catwoman to Be Bisexual in The Batman

In case you’ve missed out on her current streak of impeccably chic-yet-on-theme ensembles, Zoë Kravitz is on a press tour promoting The Batman. And while the 33-year-old has mainly made headlines for turning heads on the red carpet, she’s also been giving interviews, the latest of which appeared in the Australian publication Pedestrian. From the sound of it, there’s one scene in particular that fans of her character, Catwoman (née Selina Kyle), would do well to keep an eye out for when the film hits theaters on March 4.

There’s no mistaking that Catwoman’s love interest in The Batman is the titular superhero (played by Robert Pattinson). But according to Kravitz, the film also briefly touches on her character’s previous relationship with a woman. It’s no accident that she calls Anika, who’s otherwise referred to as her “friend” throughout the film, “baby” when searching for her in her apartment. It turns out Kravitz considered the line as a reference to the fact that her character is bisexual in DC’s Catwoman comics—a detail that Hollywood has previously glossed over.

“That’s definitely the way I interpreted that, that they had some kind of romantic relationship,” Kravitz said. When the interviewer expressed their joy at the bisexual representation, Kravitz apparently nodded emphatically and replied, “I agree!”

Pedestrian also previously addressed the topic of Catwoman’s sexuality in an interview with the film’s director, Matt Reeves. “[The Batman] is very true to the character of Selina Kyle,” he said. “She’s not yet Catwoman, but all the elements of how she’s going to become Catwoman are there.” Reeves went on to say that he spoke to Kravitz about her character’s relationship with Anika “very early on” in production. “One of the things she said which I loved was that: ‘She’s drawn to strays because she was a stray and so she really wants to care for these strays because she doesn’t want to be that way anymore. And Anika is like a stray and she loves her.”

Per Reeves, Kravitz considers Anika to represent her character’s connection to her late mother. “I don’t think we meant to go directly in that way, but you can interpret it that way for sure,” he said of the romantic nature of the characters’ relationship. “[Catwoman] has an intimacy with that character and it’s a tremendous and deep caring for that character, more so than a sexual thing, but there was meant to be quite an intimate relationship between them.”

The use of a single word, “baby,” isn’t much at all in the way of representation. Then again, that isn’t so surprising from DC. Harley Quinn is also bisexual in the comics, though you’d only be able to tell from the brief flash of a woman when she runs through her exes in an animated sequence at the top of Birds of Prey (2020). If the actor behind her, Margot Robbie, has any say, the comics franchise will soon change its tune. “Trust me, I chew their ear off about it all the time,” she said last year. “I’m very keen to see a Harley-Poison Ivy relationship on screen. It’d be so fun. So I’ll keep pestering them. Don’t worry.”