George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell Say They Never Filmed a Single Scene With Arnold Schwarzenegger in BATMAN & ROBIN

The 1997 movie Batman & Robin from director Joel Schumacher was a mess. The movie was not memorable, not for anything good anyway, and despite its star-studded ensemble, it fell flat for audiences and critics alike.

The film starred Oscar-winner George Clooney in its lead role, which turned out to be his only outing as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He was joined by Chris O’Donnell as Robin; Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy; Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl; Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze; as well as Elle Macpherson and Vivica A. Fox.

But while it looked like Schwarzenegger’s insane villain Dr. Victor Fries was in the film alongside its heroes, he actually filmed all of his scenes alone.

/Film reports that in the documentary "Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight," which was shot for the four-film "Motion Picture Anthology" DVD set, Chris O'Donnell recalled the shoot:

"[I]'m in a lot of scenes with Mr. Freeze, I never worked a single day with Arnold. Not a single day. I was on the set with him a lot. I'd hang out and talk to him, I did a lot of publicity with him, but literally, they had a double for him that was so good, and that suit was so complicated and involved to get on, that unless Arnold was talking in a scene, he wasn't in that costume."

During a 2020 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Clooney expressed amusement at the whole situation, saying:

"[T]hey paid Arnold $25 million to be in it. They paid me, like, one. And we never even worked together, we never even saw each other. It was ... a big monster machine, and I just sort of jumped in and did what they said."

It’s too bad that with a cast like that, they weren’t able to make a better film. We are pretty lucky to have the caliber of superhero films we have today.