Hollywood’s beauty queen Nicole Kidman has been thoroughly successful throughout her more than forty-year-old and counting career, scoring roles in nearly every genre there is, including the superhero ones as well. Decades before starring in DCEU’s Aquaman film series, she also scored the role of Dr. Chase Meridian alongside Val Kilmer’s Caped Crusader in 1995’s Batman Forever.
But, surprisingly enough, she was never supposed to get cast in that movie because the role was written for someone else. However, she eventually ended up making her way into the movie and it was all because of the film’s director, Joel Schumacher, who was so obsessed with working with her that he cast her in the role despite claiming she was not fit to play the seductive doctor!
Nicole Kidman was in Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever Because of Joel Schumacher
Back in the early 1990s, when the casting process for Batman Forever was still in the works, veteran actress Rene Russo was supposed to get on board to play the criminal psychologist, Dr. Chase Meridian, in the movie.
However, as Schumacher, the director of the film, insistently claimed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, that couldn’t happen due to “scheduling conflict.” Thus, Kidman stepped forward to replace her in that role.
But even though Kidman wasn’t perfect for the role, as Joel Schumacher claimed during the same interview, she was still cast in the role. Why? Because the filmmaker was pretty much obsessed with her and wanted to snatch any chance to work with her.
According to what Schumacher himself conceded in the interview:
I know, I know, she doesn’t look anything like a criminal psychiatrist. But it’s my Gotham City and I can do what I want.
That said, it didn’t take long for Nicole Kidman to make her way into the movie and plunge right into the part of whom she describes as a doctor who is “constantly trying to seduce” the Dark Knight with her black slinky dresses, perfect hair, perfect red lips, and deep, husky voice.
But what’s even more surprising is that Schumacher’s obsession didn’t start with Kidman from Val Kilmer‘s superhero movie, but he had actually had his eyes on her for a long, long time, ever since her 1989 horror-action movie, Dead Calm.
Joel Schumacher Wanted to Work with Her Since Dead Calm
As it turns out, Schumacher had actually wanted to work with the Hollywood heartthrob Kidman for quite some time, considering how he himself admitted during the interview that he had his eye on her ever since he watched her in Dead Calm.
Revealing this fact and continuing to share his admiration for her, he told EW:
I’ve had my eye on her since Dead Calm. You meet a lot of beautiful people in this business, but there’s something almost luminous about her.
In fact, he was so taken aback by Kidman’s undeniable charms and exceptionally skilled acting chops that he even wished to work with her in every single one of his movies!
As Schumacher said:
I wish I had a clause in my contract that said Kidman had to be in every one of my movies.
For one thing, this doesn’t quite come as a surprise, because Kidman most certainly has the charm to allure just anyone and leave them baffled (even to this date, yes).
And for another, we’re glad Schumacher brought her on board instead of Russo, because none could have given as killer of a performance as Dr. Meridian in Kilmer’s critically bashed campy film on the Dark Knight as Kidman.
That said, you can watch Batman Forever on Prime Video.
