Keaton Opens Up About His First Stint as Batman: Nicholson Didn't Get Him, 'Baffling' Reactions
As crazy as it is to think about in 2024, there was a period of time where superhero movies weren’t a dime a dozen.
And while superhero movies are becoming increasingly risky ventures these days, it still clearly doesn’t take much to get any comic book movie greenlit these days.
That wasn’t really the case in 1989, when popular actor Michael Keaton first donned Batman’s cape and cowl.
In fact, there was all sorts of uncertainty surrounding the whole project: Would a darker (compared to the Christoper Reeve “Superman” movies that preceded it) superhero movie succeed? Could Keaton’s comedic leanings translate to a brawny superhero? Would the zanier trappings of director Tim Burton fit in a more serious comic book world?
(The answers for all three questions were eventually answered with a resounding “yes.”)
In an interview with GQ that was posted on March 28, Keaton spoke about a number of the beloved characters he’s portrayed over the years, and that included some fascinating tidbits about that first stab at Batman.
“When they said we’re thinking of doing Batman, I said, ‘Wait, you’re going to make a movie of Batman?'” Keaton said, recounting his original, doubtful response.
The 72-year-old actor continued: “Yeah there was ‘Superman,’ but that’s Superman, which [director] Dick Donner did, which was really, really good. Very charming actually.
“And Chris Reeve was great and it had humor.”
When Burton set his sights on Keaton to portray his take on the Caped Crusader, there was quite the outcry from fans who were paralyzed by all of that aforementioned uncertainty.
“Like why people even cared, one way or another, that much is still baffling,” Keaton said. “But still, that was a ballsy move on [Burton’s] part.”
After acknowledging that both he and Burton had worked together on the horror/comedy cult classic “Beetlejuice,” Keaton would eventually share an anecdote about a chance encounter with an incredulous Jack Nicholson.
“I was training one day, Jack Nicholson walked by me,” Keaton said. “We were just starting to shoot and I was kind of working on this bag. And I had been training, you know, to get fit.
“And he walks by me and he goes, ‘What are you doing?’
“I said, ‘You know, just working out.’
“And he goes, ‘What are you doing that for?’
“I didn’t have an answer for him. He just walked off and went into his other trailer.”
Fast forward all of these years later, and Keaton admits that Nicholson may have had a point.
“I approached it totally wrong,” Keaton said. “It’s better to be real small and little and thin inside the [Batman costume]. You can move, you can breathe, there’s room inside.”
Keaton would go on to discuss a number of his other characters, including the aforementioned Beetlejuice, as well as his turn as a comic book villain in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
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