A lot of well-established actors have taken up the iconic role of Batman in the past and most of them have never failed to amaze the fans with their portrayal of the billionaire, Bruce Wayne. More than a dozen famous actors have played the iconic role of the Gotham Billionaire. However, not everyone’s portrayal of the role received the same praise from the fans. A prime example of this case is George Clooney’s portrayal of Batman in Batman & Robin back in 1997, the movie turned out to be a massive failure at the box office.
George Clooney has always been vocal about his failure in the portrayal of Bruce Wayne and has always taken the failure of the movie as a great lesson.
Geroge Clooney knew that Batman & Robin was going to fail even before filming
From Michael Keaton to Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson, a lot of great actors have played the role of Batman over the decades. However, not every portrayal of Batman was loved by the fans. Actors like Val Kilmer and George Clooney also played the role of Bruce Wayne movies. However, Clooney’s portrayal of Batman in Batman & Robin was met with widespread discontent from the fans and the movie turned out to be a box office bomb.
George Clooney once opened up about playing the role of Batman in Batman & Robin and revealed that he knew that the movie was not going to be ‘great‘. He said,
“I never thought Batman & Robin (1997) was going to be a great film. I thought it was a great opportunity for me. And suddenly we’re filming. The script isn’t together. I’m just miserable in the suit, trying to make scenes work. That’s not the way to make a movie. The thing is, it took Batman & Robin to get to the point where I am now. When I got in a position to greenlight a picture and get the picture made, I really had to adjust my thinking.”
The Gravity actor talked about the lesson he learned from Batman & Robin
Although Batman & Robin was neither a financial nor a critical success, George Clooney once revealed in an interview that he still learned a lot from the movie. According to Variety, Clooney once talked about how the success of a movie depends on the whole script of the movie rather than just the storyline of the main character. He said,
“After Batman & Robin came out, and it was a big bomb — you learn from your failures; you don’t learn from successes. So then I thought, I have to focus really on the script. It’s not just about my part; it’s about the whole movie. The next three films I did were Out of Sight, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Three Kings, which were really great screenplays. They didn’t all do very well financially, but they were all critically well received.”
George Clooney decided to follow this mentality after the failure of Batman & Robin and the American actor even went on to reach even greater achievements in his career. He also won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Bob Barnes in the movie Syriana back in 2009.
