What good is the Bat without the Cat?
With The Batman finally hitting theaters on March 4, Zoë Kravitz will officially join the list of actresses who have played the iconic DC Comics character Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Not quite a hero, not quite a villain and sometimes a love interest, Catwoman always seems to be able to keep Bruce Wayne/Batman on his toes and fans are already swooning over the chemistry between Kravitz and Robert Pattinson, making his debut as the Dark Knight. And how fitting is it that the 33-year-old star is the ninth actress to don the iconic catsuit?
Ahead of The Batman's debut, we're looking back on the eight stars who previously played Catwoman, including the character's first live-action appearance in 1966, the iconic performance in Batman Returns that made Michelle Pfeiffer the cat's pajamas and Halle Berry's polarizing standalone film that put the ow in meow.
Check out all of the actresses who have sank their claws into the role...
The Broadway star became the first actress to play the iconic villain in a live-action project, starring as Catwoman in the first two seasons of ABCs Batman, opposite Adam West as the Caped Crusader.
Newmar actually made her own made costume, telling the Los Angeles Times in 2011 that she placed the belt at her hips instead of her waist to highlight her figure. That particular suit is now in the Smithsonian Institute.
For the series companion feature film that was released in 1966 between the first and second seasons, the model and winner of the Miss America 1955 pageant took over Catwoman's claws when Newmar landed another film role.
The movie was a major moment for Batman fans as four of his most infamous villains—The Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman—teamed up on-screen for the first time.
"I still laugh at it," Meriwether told the 13th Dimension in 2021 about her thoughts on the movie more than 50 years later. "I mean I still have great memories of it and thinking about Burgess [Meredith] and Cesar [Romero] and Frank [Gorshin] gone now, and it was a joy to see them yet again just really there and having fun and all those wonderful memories. I count myself as being very fortunate to have had that experience. I really do."
For the third and final season of Batman, the singer took over the role of Catwoman after Newmar signed on to star in the 1969 western McKenna's Gold.
"I was in dire need of tremendous help in 1967, and like a starving cat I had to find a way to survive," Kitt explained of joining the show in an interview with the Television Academy. "Being cast in Batman helped me now grow back into being a successful name again. People recognized my name, and still do, because of Catwoman."
In 1992, Pfieffer delivered the most purrrrrfect performance of Catwoman, stealing every scene in Tim Burton's Batman Returns, with audiences licking up her twisted take on Selina Kyle.
But another actress had initially landed the role, according to Pfeiffer, who was "completely obsessed" with the character when she was younger.
"When I heard that Tim was making the film and Catwoman had already been cast, I was devastated," Pfeiffer told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. "At the time, it was Annette Bening. Then she became pregnant. The rest is history. I remember telling Tim halfway through the script that I'd do the film, that's how excited I was."
To prepare, Pfeiffer mastered kickboxing and handling the whip, though she had a bit of an incident with her trainer. "On our first day together, I caught his face with the whip and it drew blood," she revealed. "It completely shattered me." Don't worry, she went on to perform all of her own whip stunts in the film.
Oh, and that scene where her Catwoman has a live bird in her mouth? Pfeiffer really did that, with Burton telling THR, "I don't think I've ever been so impressed. She had a live bird in her mouth while the camera was rolling. It was four or five seconds, and then she let it fly out. It was before CGI, it was before digital."
Looking back on the scene, Pfeiffer admitted, "What was I thinking? I could've gotten a disease or something from having a live bird in my mouth."
In development for years, several names were attached to star in 2004's Catwoman—including Ashley Judd and Nicole Kidman—before Berry decided to don the suit after winning the 2002 Best Actress Oscar for Monster's Ball.
With her character bearing little resemblance to the Catwoman from the Batman comics, the film was considered a failure, both commercially—grossing just $82 million on a $100 million budget—and critically, going on to win Worst Picture, Worst Actress and Worst Director at the Razzies.
But after Catwoman premiered on HBO Max last year, a cult following for the movie made its way online, showing more appreciation for her take on the villain this time around. "I'm seeing all the Catwoman love, everybody," Berry tweeted in October 2021. "Where were you guys 17 years ago?"
Berry later told Jimmy Kimmel that she felt all of the responsibility for its failure.
"You know I worked really hard to be a Catwoman," she explained. "I learned Capoeira, I did the work. The disheartening part was I didn't direct it, I didn't produce it, nor did I write it. I was just the actress in it. But for all these years, I have carried the weight of that film."
When asked if she would ever reprise the role, Berry had one condition: "If I can direct it."
The same year she won an Oscar for her performance in Les Misérables, Hathaway made her superhero debut as Selina Kyle in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Christopher Nolan's trilogy starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
In a 2019 interview with BBC Radio 1, Hathaway revealed she initially met with the director thinking it was for the role of Harley Quinn.
"I came in and I had this lovely Vivian Westwood kind of beautiful but mad-tailoring top with stripes going everywhere," Hathaway explained. "And I wore these flat Joker-y looking shoes. And I was trying to give Chris these crazy little smiles. About an hour into the meeting he said, 'Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but it's Catwoman.'"
Three months and a lengthy audition process later, Hathaway finally landed the part, telling Fandom Entertainment in 2012 she was not expecting to play Catwoman.
"I've loved the character since I was a little girl and it just didn't seem possible it would be a reality in my life," she said. "So then when I did get it and I went to set and it was one of the best experiences I ever had working on a movie, it's still very pinch-myself territory."
The film went on to gross more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office and Hathaway earned rave reviews for her take on the character, winning the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
For Gotham, Fox's Batman prequel series that premiered in 2014, the producers found their young Selina Kyle in the then 15-year-old newcomer, who portrayed the character's transformation from a street thief and skilled pickpocket into Catwoman.
Bicondova earned a Saturn Award nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series for her first year and continued playing the character for five seasons, though she did not appear in the series finale due to the show's 10-year time-jump.
For the Gotham series finale in 2019, the Ray Donovan actress was cast as an older version of Selina, with Bicondova giving her blessing.
"I firmly believe that part of leaving a legacy and being a part of a legacy means knowing when to pass the torch to someone else," Bicondova wrote in a lengthy statement on Twitter at the time. "I was blessed to be the vessel for Selina Kyle for her formative teen years, and it only felt right to give someone else the torch for her adult self."
Simmons posted about her short stint as Catwoman on Instagram, saying "it was an honor to portray the adult Selina Kyle." She also thanked her predecessor "for letting me take the reigns for just a second...Love you kitten."
The Big Little Lies star plays the Cat to Robert Pattinson's Bat in The Batman, which premieres March 4. But when she got the call from her agent about auditioning for director Matt Reeves, Kravitz tried no to get her hopes up.
"One thing I've had to learn from an early age is when you get attached, it's hard, and most of the time, you don't get the part," she told Elle. "So my instinct is always to say, 'It's not mine.'"
Of course, it was hers, with Reeves telling her so right after her audition. "Zoë had her game face on. But you can only prepare so much, and then you just have to go—and she had it," he told the magazine. "During filming, there was never a moment where she was guarded or insecure. She has good instincts. She's incredibly smart, very funny, honest, unpretentious, and she had great ideas about character evolution. She is a great creative partner."
She was also committed, working out for three hours after filming all day in order to prepare for the intense role.
"Obviously, you want to look good in a catsuit, but I wanted it to be realistic that I'm able to do anything in this film," Kravitz explained. "So I had to be strong. I got stronger than I've ever been. That felt good, to see what I was capable of. I felt confident—and I could kick some ass."
The Batman hits theaters on March 4.