It's much more fun when you're an underdog: Pattinson on playing Batman

From playing a vampire in "Twilight" to fitting into the Batsuit as Bruce Wayne, it has been a strange journey for Robert Pattinson, who as an "underdog", isn't worried too much about backlash.

The British actor, 33, in an interview with Variety, said he had been chasing the part from the moment he got to know that Matt Reeves was working on a script that reimagines a younger version of the Caped Crusader.

"I'd had Batman in my mind for a while. It's such an absurd thing to say. I sort of had an idea to do it, and I'd been prodding Matt. He didn't accept any prods. I kept asking to meet him," Pattinson told the movie magazine.

But things almost blew up at the last moment as the news leaked even before he had auditioned for the part.

Pattinson says he kept Googling himself on a flight from Los Angeles to Cannes, orried that it would spook Warner Bros executives.

"When that thing leaked, I was f***ing furious. Everyone was so upset. Everyone was panicking from my team. I sort of thought that had blown up the whole thing," he says recalling how his panic was witnessed by his neighbour on the flight, "Mission Impossible" director Christopher McQuarrie.

The backlash on social media was intense as soon as his name emerged as the front-runner with fans asking Warner Bros to reconsider the casting. Something similar had happened to Ben Affleck as well, who let go of the role after the films didn't work.

But Pattinson is calm about the social media storm over his casting.

"To be honest, it was less vitriolic than I was expecting. It's much more fun when you're an underdog. There's no expectation of you, he says.

The actor's indie project film "Lighthouse" has garnered positive reviews and he is also collaborating with Christopher Nolan, the man credited with reinventing Batman with his Christian Bale-led trilogy, on action-triller "Tenet".