Anne Hathaway's bizarre Batman audition story

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. Photo / Supplied

Actress Anne Hathaway has offered up a story about her original audition for the role of Catwoman in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises – and it's a weird one.

Hathaway told the BBC in an interview republished this week that she met with director Christopher Nolan to audition for the iconic role in the Batman universe, the final instalment in the director's Dark Knight trilogy.

Somehow, though, Hathaway got her wires very crossed – and thought she was auditioning for the role of Harley Quinn, an accomplice of the Joker.

Hathaway made sure she dressed the part for the audition, channelling the Joker's menacing clown energy.

"I came in and I had this lovely Vivienne Westwood kind of beautiful-but-mad tailoring top with stripes going everywhere. And I wore these flat Joker-y looking shoes. And I was trying to give Chris (Nolan) these crazy little smiles," Hathaway explained.

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman: "We're slinky." Photo / Supplied

"About an hour into the meeting he said 'Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but it's Catwoman.' And I was shifting into a different gear. 'Now OK, we're slinky. We're slinky. And I hate my shirt. I love my shirt, but I hate it right now. We're slinky'," she recalled with a laugh.

Hathaway doesn't elaborate further on how she made the mix-up, but Harley Quinn didn't appear in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy at all.

It would be another four years until fans saw Quinn brought to life on the big screen by Aussie actress Margot Robbie in 2016's Suicide Squad. Robbie revisited the character this year for the spin-off Birds of Prey.

As for Catwoman? She'll next be played by Zoe Kravitz in The Batman, due for release next year.