Several actors have their greatest desire to play DC’s iconic character, Batman, and many have played the character in the past. George Clooney was one of them, but he deeply regrets playing the Caped Crusader on many occasions.
George Clooney as Batman. Source: Warner Brothers.
There is no doubt that Clooney is done with it. Unlike Michael Keaton’s candid return after years in The Flash Clooney is very unlikely to play the character again. He apologized for the movie and never wanted his kids to watch it.
Also read: “I don’t HAVE to act”: Batman Star George Clooney Doesn’t Regret Being Absent From Films, Claimed “There just aren’t that many great parts”
George Clooney Won’t Let His Kids Watch Batman & Robin
George Clooney as Batman in Batman & Robin 1997. Source: Warner Brothers.
Playing Batman is almost every actor’s utopian dream. George Clooney believed his Batman in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin would be another great push for his career. However, it turned out to be the opposite.
The movie was bad, even Clooney is apologetic enough for making such a disastrous portrayal of Batman. And of course, he doesn’t want his wife and kids to watch it. “He won’t let me watch it,” Clooney’s wife Amal told Variety.
“There are certain films I just go, ‘I want my wife to have some respect for me,’” Clooney candidly added to his wife’s comment on his Batman. Amal further said that their twins Alexander and Ella, like any kids, would want to see superhero movies, especially when their dad is in it playing the lead.
But the 62-year-old had a different take when it came to letting their kids watch his 1997 DC movie, “It’s bad when your four-year-old kid goes, ‘This sucks.’ That could be painful,” he added.
Clooney further revealed that he was not asked by the makers of The Flash for his return as they desperately wanted Michael Keaton’s Batman. But we all know that was just a ruse, as Clooney ended up returning for the Ezra Miller solo.
Also read: “You know, I was Batman”: George Clooney Instantly Regretted Showing Off His Superhero Movie Infront of His Most Brutal Critic
George Clooney Thought He Destroyed Batman
George Clooney as Batman in 1997’s Batman and Robin. Source: Warner Brothers.
For Clooney, his version of Batman is nothing but a nightmare. “I always apologize” for Batman & Robin, Clooney said appearing in an episode of The Graham Norton Show. “I actually thought I destroyed the franchise until they brought it back,” he continued. But “I thought at the time this was gonna be a very good career move, it wasn’t.”
Further, the Ocean’s Eleven star revealed that his Batman suit was the enemy.
“Well the suits brutal, you know? At the time particularly, it weighed like I don’t know, 60 pounds and it takes, you know, you have to. There was a director, Joel Schumacher. Very funny man, very tall, very sort of eccentric and he would direct with a speaker and with a microphone, and a speaker usually directors will come up and say, hey yeah, yeah. Okay, and you’d hear this from you know booming voice and I bolted into this suit I can’t move.”
Be it the suit, his performance, or the entire narrative, it did not go well with critics and fans. The movie, however, did fairly at the box office grossing over $238 million against the production budget of around $125–160 million.
Batman & Robin is available for rent on Apple TV and Prime Videos.