Why Zoe Kravitz was 'snubbed' for Batman role

Actress Zoe Kravitz was 'snubbed' from a role in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. Photo / Getty Images

Zoe Kravitz claims she lost out on a small role in the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises because producers didn't want to cast anyone "urban" for the part.

The actress, daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, hasn't revealed which role she was interested in but she alleges she wasn't even given the chance to prove her talents to casting bosses.

She tells Nylon magazine: "In the last Batman movie they told me that I couldn't get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren't 'going urban' ..."

Kravitz says in the past her talents won filmmakers over and prompted them to rework certain characters, like her part in 2007's The Brave One, opposite Jodie Foster.

"That part was written for a white Russian girl. I auditioned, and they changed the role for me," Kravitz told the magazine.

The 26-year-old, whose parents are both half African-American and half Ashkenazi Jewish, admits she never identified with her African roots as a child and when she attended a predominantly white school, she would tell her classmates, "I'm just as white as y'all."

"I identified with white culture, and I wanted to fit in. I didn't identify with black culture, like, I didn't like Tyler Perry movies, and I wasn't into hip-hop music," Kravitz explained.

Kravitz says she later learned "black culture is so much deeper than that".

"Then I got older and listed to A Tribe Called Quest and watched films with Sidney Poitier, and heard Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. I had to un-brainwash myself. It's my mission, especially as an actress."

- WENN