Hans Zimmer Quit Scoring ‘Batman’ Movies Because Ben Affleck Lacked Christian Bale’s ‘Pain’

When you’re as successful as Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer, you can afford to be picky about your projects — right down to the lead actor.

In an interview with Inverse to promote his new online Masterclass, Zimmer expanded on a statement he made last year that he would no longer score superhero movies. Zimmer composed the music for Christopher Nolan‘s “Dark Knight” trilogy, but when he thought about scoring “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Zimmer said it “did [his] brain in.” to switch from Christian Bale‘s broody Batman to Ben Affleck’s angrier take. “It felt like I was betraying everything Christian had done. So there’s a certain amount of loyalty attached to those movies, as well,” said the composer.

READ MORE: Hans Zimmer Plays Gorgeous ‘Planet Earth II’ Score On ‘The Late Show’ — Watch

Zimmer elaborates:

“I spent months trying to come up with something for Ben. The Batman that I know and the one I learned is the one that Christian did, and Ben plays it differently. And I can’t quite shake that off. For me, the Christian Bale character was always completely unresolved. It was always about that moment at the beginning of the first movie, where he sees his parents getting killed. It was basically arrested development. The Ben character is more middle-aged, he seems to be grumpy as hell but I didn’t feel the pain that I felt in Christian’s performance. And it was that pain that made be interested.”

Bale is not the only “Dark Knight” talent to gain Zimmer’s loyalty; the prolific composer is scoring Nolan’s PG-13 rated war drama, “Dunkirk.”

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