Michael Keaton is regarded as one of the finest actors in the entertainment industry who gained early recognition for his comic roles in movies, including Night Shift, Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice, and more. He received wider recognition after he was cast as Batman in Tim Burton’s franchise. Keaton appeared as Bruce Wayne in 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns.
Batman opened to a positive response from the audience as well as critics despite being criticized for being ‘too dark’. Keaton being appreciated for his portrayal of Batman on-screen is considered a significant milestone because casting him as the titular character had caused a furor among comic book fans. A vintage footage has resurfaced online showcasing how viewers disapproved of him as their fan favorite character.
Michael Keaton was deemed detrimental to Tim Burton’s Batman’s core objective
Michael Keaton, who worked with Tim Burton on Beetlejuice, was cast as Bruce Wayne a.k.a., Batman in 1989. The reaction of the audience and ardent fans of comic books to the actor being cast as one of the main characters in DC was not how Burton or Keaton expected.
According to reports by Screen Rant, about 50,000 letters from moviegoers were sent to Warner Bros.’ asking the studios to change the casting for Batman. A vintage footage recently went viral, showcasing a news channel covering the segment of audience members sharing their opinion on Michael Keaton being cast as Batman.
One of the viewers said, ‘I think he’s kind of a whim’, with another one noting that they would prefer someone sexier and macho than Keaton as Batman. A third viewer named Dave Hutzley also shared his view on Michael Keaton being cast as the comic book character and said,
“He’s balding, he’s short, he’s not broad,…he’s not Batman.”
Beau Smith went ahead to say that if he’s wrong and Michael Keaton blows him away, he’ll be the first person to come back and say that he was wrong. The simple reason why the actor faced challenges with his casting was because the audience believed that the character of Batman was very different from what Keaton had been portraying for a while. Another reason was his lack of superhero physique.
But after the movie was released, it was very well justified that the casting of the actor was perfect for the part. Over the years, it has been observed that Keaton’s casting as Batman was apt, and he became one of the favorite actors to have portrayed Batman on-screen.
Michael Keaton talks about his approach to playing Batman
Michael Keaton, during an interview with Backstage Podcast (Via The Playlist), revealed that he walked away from the opportunity to reprise his character for Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever. He mentioned,
“It was always Bruce Wayne. It was never Batman. To me, I know the name of the movie is Batman, and it’s hugely iconic and very cool and cultural iconic and because of Tim Burton, artistically iconic, but I knew from the get-go it was Bruce Wayne.”
The actor further noted that it was a secret, and he never spoke about it, adding that everyone would say that Batman does this, but he only kept thinking that it’s all about Bruce Wayne. Upon his refusal to reprise the character in 1995’s Batman Forever, he said,
“And one of the reasons I couldn’t do it was –and you know, he’s nice enugh man, he passed away so, I wouldn’t speak ill of him even if he were alive. He at one point, after more than a couple of meetings where I kept trying to rationalize doing it and hopefully talking him into saying, ‘I think we don’t want to go in this direction, I think we should go in this direction’ And he wasn’t going to budge.”
Keaton said the director asked him why everything had to be sad and dark, to which the actor asked him if he had ever read about Bruce Wayne becoming Batman. The actor in 2023, however, did reprise his character for Ezra Miller’s The Flash, and the audience was excited to see him on-screen once again.
