Charlie and Max Carver Make a Blockbuster Move with ‘The Batman’

The brothers, familiar from years on 'Desperate Housewives,' bring a dark shard of comic relief to 'The Batman,' now out on Blu-Ray.

By Randy Shulman on June 25, 2022 @RandyShulman

“Charlie and I are very different in all kinds of ways,” says Max Carver of his brother.

“Starting off, we’re mirror twins. I’m left-handed. He’s right-handed. We went to different high schools. We’ve had different interests our whole lives. That being said, when we do get to work together…you can’t really touch the closeness of a twin relationship.”

The Carvers most recently worked together on Matt Reeves’ magnificent, gritty superhero noir The Batman, in which they played “The Twins,” semi-brainless henchmen to underworld boss, Penguin, played in a bravura turn (and a ton of makeup) by Colin Farrell.

The 33-year-olds — Charlie was born on July 31, 1988, and Max a few minutes later as the clock ticked over to August 1 — got their professional starts as Porter and Preston Scavo on the 2008 ABC hit Desperate Housewives.

Charlie, an out gay actor, is familiar as a solo act to LGBTQ audiences for his turn as Cowboy in the 2018 Broadway revival of Boys in the Band, later filmed for Netflix, and as the facially-scarred nurse Huck in Ryan Murphy’s Ratched. But the brothers often get cast as twins, as they were in HBO’s The Leftovers and MTV’s Teen Wolf.

“The part that’s exciting about working together is we don’t have the same interpretations of everything,” says Max. “We don’t work the same way necessarily, but…there’s this collaborative element where it’s really fun. It feels like we’re a unit.”

“We’re incredibly supportive of one another,” adds Charlie of their projects apart. “A win for the other is a win for each other. That rhymed!”

“I like that,” chimes in Max.

Though the brothers are only in a few scenes in The Batman, they leave an impression, bringing a much-needed bit of levity to the otherwise grim proceedings.

“It was such a special experience for us getting to be a part of this movie,” says Charlie. “I’ll speak for myself. Growing up as a little gay kid who wanted to be an actor, I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get to be a part of an action franchise like this. I thought I would be excluded from this kind of project.

“But to get to go to London to film this giant scale production with a wonderful cast and an incredible director at the helm, it was great — even if it just meant getting punched in the face a couple of times by Rob Pattinson. Which a lot of people would pay good money for.”

The Batman is now out in a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack. Currently listed on Amazon at $14.99. Visit www.amazon.com.