As far back as the world of entertainment goes, you’ll be able to find traces of comic book characters, specifically superheroes being brought into the forefront of it since it captured the imagination of the audience. And among many superheroes, the name Batman will forever remain the biggest and most recognizable in the world.
And while the character may have had several amazing iterations adapted into the live-action world of cinema from the comics, not all of them were impressive in the grand scheme. In fact, when George Clooney donned the cowl for Batman & Robin, the end result was disastrous, so much so that it almost ended the career of his co-actress.
Alicia Silverstone Was Ruthlessly Fat-Shamed For Her Role In Batman & Robin
While superheroes in general are all the rage in the film industry with multi-billion dollar franchises being constructed around them, there are some that just stand out from the rest, one of whom is Batman. And when taking a look in retrospect, people will find films like The Dark Knight trilogy and the more recent The Batman as amazing adaptations of the superhero from the pages of DC Comics. But there are also films that completely tarnished the image of the hero, as well as the actors that worked on them, more specifically, George Clooney‘s 1997 film Batman & Robin.
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While it was a huge blemish on the Ocean’s Eleven star’s career, it was nearly fatal to his co-star Alicia Silverstone, who played the role of Batgirl alongside him. Since the suit was skintight, it showed all of her curves, which evidently made her look like she had put on a lot of weight. Therefore, she was scrutinized for this particular reason relentlessly by the media, who even went so far as to nickname her ‘Fat Girl.’ This pressure was too much for her to handle, which made her take a break from big-budget films like these. In a past interview, she said:
“If you told me that acting meant I was going to be called fat and have to do things a certain way, then I was like, ‘F off.'”
While this may have seen bad during those times, a stunt like this by the media would surely have brought the wrath of the public today.
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Why Is Batman & Robin Hated By Everyone?
Even after the film boasted a star cast with names like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman, and George Clooney, the film still tanked hard on expectations as well as the box office. One of the main reasons for the failure stemmed from the fact that the production set was just too cliche even for the late 90s standard of such a hyped-up movie, along with the fact that the movie was curated too much to the mainstream moviegoing audience, something that the pop culture audience didn’t like.
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Batman & Robin, streaming on Max.
Source: Vanity Fair
